It’s a new year! Huzzah! Fresh page! And we have just the kind of conversation for you. In an era where we are encouraged to see our productivity as a measure of our worth, Maria Bowler steps in and provides a welcome turn of the tables. Maria is an author, a creativity coach, and Ivy League alum/survivor, and she is our perfect guide for these first days of this new year. If you are going into 2025 with a lot of “I should” or “I must,” then this episode offers a fresh take on the way forward.

Maria Bowler is a writer, coach, and retreat leader. She holds a masters in religion and the arts from Yale University, is a former magazine editor, and has taught creative writing at the university level. Canadian by birth, she now lives in the Driftless region of the US with her family.

She's written a book called Making Time: A New Vision for Crafting a Life Beyond Productivity. Here's an intro: "If you long to leave the pressure to do enough behind in favor of a life full of meaning, creativity, and joy--a life where you don't feel rushed because you can't fall behind—Making Time is for you. You won't find any life hacks to control your schedule in order to cram in more work. It's about liberating yourself from the myth that humans are producers and discovering the freedom of being a maker who trusts life as a creative process."