I would imagine most of us think of inspiration as a sudden flash of insight that hits us out of nowhere and compels us create. It’s not something we control. The wind blows where it wishes and we don’t know where it comes from or where it goes.

But what if inspiration were a discipline?

Brooklyn-based author and artist Carey Wallace has written an incredible book titled, The Discipline of Inspiration. Here, she addresses this question and shines a new light on how we think about our relationship to the things that move us.

Poet and songwriter Patti Smith writes that "This book articulates... the beautiful compexity of what drives us to create and what we encounter when we do."

In keeping with our season theme of finding flow, consider how nurturing our inspirations prepare us for those beautiful moments of creative transport. We’ll be talking more about this in the Makers and Mystics creative collective.

Music by: Some Were At Sea

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Leah Song is a storyteller, song-catcher, musician, poet, and community builder. She’s best known as the front-woman of the beloved band Rising Appalachia, which she leads alongside her sister Chloe.

As a solo artist, Leah draws from the rich traditions of Southern soul, the diasporic sounds of the Celtic Isles, and her deep studies of folk music from across the Americas.

In this episode, Leah talks with Stephen Roach about her journey through music, exploring the intersections of various cultural traditions and how the pace of our lives impacts creative flow.

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Flow begins with attentiveness. In this episode, Stephen Roach shares how tuning the room became a creative and spiritual practice.

Welcome to Season 15 of Makers & Mystics. In this opening episode, host Stephen Roach invites listeners into the unfolding journey of Finding Flow—not just as a creative high, but as a sacred rhythm and intentional spiritual practice.

Anchored in a story from his experience as a touring musician, Stephen shares how he developed a pre-show ritual: using a sustained drone and improvised melody to “tune the room”—to draw the audience (and himself) into a space of collective attentiveness. It became more than a musical practice; it became a way of entering flow, of opening space for something beyond performance to emerge.

In this episode, Stephen explores:

• What it means to prepare a space for creativity
• How flow requires attentiveness and surrender
• The parallels between creative flow and spiritual presence
• Why the environment we create—internally and externally—matters to our art

Whether you’re a musician, painter, poet, or simply someone longing to move through the world with greater presence, this episode will help you begin to tune your own room—and step into your creative flow.

Featured Music: Songs of Water

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Five Creativity Killers Book: Get the book mentioned in this episode.

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