You used to make things.

You used to start projects and finish them. You used to have ideas - actual, interesting ideas - and they used to feel like yours, not like someone else’s leftover thoughts you were rearranging.

Now? You sit down to create and it feels like pushing a car uphill. The ideas don’t come. The ones that do come don’t feel alive. You scroll. You wait. You promise yourself tomorrow will be different.

This isn’t a willpower problem. And there’s some really interesting reasons it happens - and some really interesting ways microdosing can help.

Why Creativity Stops Flowing

Creativity isn’t a single skill. It’s the product of several brain systems working together - and any one of them can get blocked.

The most common creative blockers:

• An overactive inner critic - the part of your brain that judges every idea before it can fully form

• Default mode network rigidity - your brain stuck in familiar patterns, unable to make novel connections

• Chronic stress keeping you in survival mode, where creativity isn’t a priority

• Burnout - emotional, physical, or both

• Fear of judgment that closes the channel before anything can come through

• Disconnection from your body and your senses - creativity requires presence, and presence requires a nervous system that isn’t on high alert

Microdosing can help with all of these - but it doesn’t do the creative work for you. It removes some of the obstacles. You still have to show up.

How Microdosing Affects Creativity

The neuroscience of creativity is wild, but here’s the short version:

• Creativity is associated with flexibility between brain networks - moving fluidly between focused thinking and free-association mode

• It requires the default mode network (free-form, mind-wandering thinking) to work in dynamic conversation with the executive control network (focused, deliberate thinking)

• It depends on divergent thinking (generating many ideas) AND convergent thinking (choosing the best one) - both have to be available

What microdosing appears to do:

• Quiets the inner critic so ideas can form before being shut down

• Increases neuroplasticity - new connections, new combinations, new associations

• Loosens default mode network rigidity - the same patterns aren’t on auto-repeat

• Enhances sensory presence - you notice more, which feeds creativity at its source

• Lifts the emotional baseline so you have the bandwidth to make things again

A lot of the people quietly microdosing in Silicon Valley, in design studios, in writers’ rooms, and at art studios are doing it for exactly this reason. It's been an open secret for years.

Which Medicine Is Best for Creativity?

For creativity specifically, LSD is the most popular tool - but mushrooms have their own strengths.

LSD the classic creative microdose

LSD has the longest reputation for creative enhancement. Many of the people who shaped modern computing, design, and music in the 1960s and 70s were experimenting with LSD specifically for creative breakthroughs. (Steve Jobs famously credited it as one of the most important experiences of his life.)

At microdose levels, LSD tends to:

• Sharpen mental focus while loosening rigid patterns

• Boost daytime energy and motivation

• Increase pattern recognition and problem-solving

• Support sustained creative work over hours (with the 8–12 hour active window)

Mushrooms for emotional and intuitive creative work

If your creativity is emotional - writing memoir, painting, music, anything that requires access to feeling - mushrooms are often the better fit. They work in a body-centered way that opens emotional access without overwhelm. The CREATIVE protocol, often with a Lion’s Mane stack, is built for exactly this kind of work.

DMT — for the breakthrough moment

DMT’s window is short (10–15 minutes), but it can be a beautiful tool for breaking creative blocks. Some people use it as a “reset” between sessions when they’re stuck. It’s not typically the daily creative tool, but it can be a powerful supplement.

What Creatives Actually Report

After working with a lot of creative clients, here’s what I hear most often:

• “The ideas are coming back.” The dry spell breaks.

• “I’m not editing myself in real time anymore.” The inner critic is quieter, so the channel stays open longer.

• “I’m enjoying the work again.” This is huge. Many creatives lose the joy long before they lose the skill.

• “I’m able to finish.” The follow-through gap closes.

• “My work feels more like mine.” A return to authentic voice.

This isn’t a personality transplant. It’s the version of you that was making things before getting back online.

Stacking for Creativity

This is where the CREATIVE protocol gets interesting. Microdoses can be paired with supportive, non-psychoactive mushrooms and nutrients that amplify the creative benefits:

• Lion’s Mane supports nerve growth factor (NGF), which is associated with neuroplasticity and clearer thinking

• Cordyceps for sustained energy without the crash

• Niacin (B3) included in some classic protocols for circulation and absorption support

The right stack depends on you, your goals, and what you’re trying to create. This is what we figure out together on the consultation.

What Microdosing Isn't

• Not a shortcut. It removes obstacles. You still have to do the work.

• Not a guarantee of “good” work. It can help ideas flow. Whether they’re brilliant or terrible is between you and the universe.

• Not a substitute for practice, study, or skill development. No amount of microdosing will make you a writer if you don’t write.

• Not a replacement for rest. Creativity needs both flow and recovery.

Who This Probably Isn't For

We’d have a different conversation if you:

• Have a personal or family history of psychosis, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder

• Are on MAOIs or lithium

• Are in active substance use recovery

• Have specific health conditions we’d need to screen for

Microdosing and the Creative Life

For a lot of my clients, microdosing isn’t just about making more or making better. It’s about reconnecting to a part of themselves that got lost somewhere along the way. The part that made things for the joy of making them. The part that didn’t need permission. The part that knew their work mattered, even when the world hadn’t caught up yet.

I write about that part - the creative life, the inner critic - in my book Bitches Be Trippin’.

Let's Get You Making Things Again

The free 20-minute consultation is where we figure out what you’re making (or trying to make), what’s been blocking you, and which protocol might help. We’ll talk about whether LSD or mushrooms fits your creative life, and how to set up a schedule that actually works around your projects.

No pressure. No judgment. No one telling you to just “be more disciplined.”

You are creative. You Are Magic. Let’s help you remember that.