Mom, remind me how to create art again

A love letter to slowing down and finding creativity in a fast world.

My mom never rushes her tasks.

She crochets, knits, bakes, cooks, sews dresses from scratch, does embroidery, grows her own lemons and chillies. She makes butter from scratch.

She enjoys every step of the creative process.

She’s my perfect definition of an artist - yet she never claimed to be one. She’s my role model for sustainable living - yet she doesn’t know what that term means. Growing up, that was just the default.

She raised her own chickens, ducks, cows and lived right beside a lake where she could fish. “Don’t buy shit you don’t need” - she’s strongly against overconsumption.

I used to be like her.

Growing up, I’d help her with everything. Tracing fabrics and cutting them for new dresses. Making batik with molten wax, watching it drip and harden into patterns. My hands knew how to create things.

Until my 12th birthday, most of my dresses were handmade from scratch by my mom. I used to wear bespoke pieces of art without ever really knowing or stopping to appreciate how truly special these were.

Then somewhere along the way, I lost that touch.

Art was removed from my life and replaced by math and science. Society told me which skills mattered. “Science was the only way for financial success and anything artistic is a risk,” they said. So I stopped creating art, thinking it was a waste of time.

Now I’m constantly impatient. My mind is overstimulated. My attention is fragmented across many tasks.

Can you blame me? We’re surrounded by distractions and sensory overstimulation. Everything in our lives - from the way we communicate, to booking appointments, to making payments - revolves around our phones.

Life is different and very fast now.

“Hey, the deadline is end of day!” So I rush myself and my team to just get it done.

“Sam, did you hear about this new AI tool?”

“No, but tell me about it.”

With 50 tabs open, I switch between topics trying to keep up with all that is new.

The slow process of baking, sewing, cooking a multi-step meal? That’s all too much of a hassle now. Everything’s reduced to 15-minute recipes. Just pour, heat and eat.

Spending the weekend with my mom put a lot into perspective and brought back good old memories. It also allowed me to sit down with my thoughts and write something different than my regular startup blogs.

Humans reap incredible benefits by doing tasks with their own hands. The gentle, therapeutic process of completing tasks step by step. The satisfaction of watching something take shape over hours, days, weeks.

My mom still has that.

Our hands literally evolved for this. For 2.6 million years, human hands developed their unique dexterity specifically to create, shape, and manipulate tools. Our brains are wired to perceive tools as extensions of our bodies. When my mom holds knitting needles or a crochet hook, her brain literally experiences them as part of her hands.

Studies show that 45 minutes of hands-on creation significantly reduces cortisol levels. It doesn’t matter if you’re particularly “good” at it. Your skill level doesn’t determine the benefit.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love being a tech entrepreneur and right now I have my absolute dream job of running my own product development studio. My artistic soul is still there, just translated to a digital plane. And it’s very much visible in the UI/UX workflows I design.

Clients who started working with my company from day 1 are still here with me on day 380. This journey is beautiful.

But here’s the paradox - I need the calm that comes from creating slowly to actually do my best work in tech. So how can I make space for slow creation while running a startup that demands constant growth and increasing MRR?

Honestly, I don’t know yet. But here are some things I’m trying:

1. I bought crayons to start creating art again

2. I started cooking more often

   Not the generic throw-everything-in-a-pot-and-forget-about-it kind. But the ones that require me to slow down, measure ingredients and have multiple steps.

3. I started this newsletter

   Starting this newsletter is in itself a creative pursuit.

4. I’m joining more art workshops

   Toronto offers incredible art, knitting and pottery workshops. I used to shy away from them. But I am making more effort to attend them.

5. I stopped juggling a million productivity apps

   I am simply sticking to Apple Notes, a physical daily planner and app blockers now! I only allow notifications from apps that are absolutely crucial to my business.

The same brain that learned to crave constant stimulation can be retrained to slow down. If you can learn bad habits and behaviours, you can unlearn them too.

So I’m asking myself, and maybe you’re asking too:

What would you make if you gave yourself permission to slow down and create something from scratch for just one day?