Make Space for Your Creativity: Turning Life into Art and Letting Go of the Hustle

Through the Creative Door with Uma Dobia

What if taking a break from your creativity is actually part of being creative?

For singer, songwriter and performer Uma, some of her biggest artistic breakthroughs have happened not when she's been pushing harder, but when she's allowed herself the space to pause, process and live.

Uma's creative journey spans opera, songwriting, cabaret and theatre. Her work brings together music, comedy, storytelling and a desire to connect with audiences in meaningful ways. But behind the performances is a deeply personal creative practice, one shaped by lived experience, a willingness to explore difficult emotions and a growing understanding of the importance of self-compassion.

In this conversation, Uma reflects on creating work that connects with her values, navigating the shame that can accompany vulnerability, and learning to step away from the pressure to be productive every minute of the day.

Her story is a reminder that creativity isn't simply about making things. It's also about making room for the experiences, relationships and moments of rest that help us discover what we want to say.

1. Creativity Can Find You Anywhere

When Alexis asks Uma what a creative space means to her, Uma's answer isn't tied to one particular room or studio. Often, it's in her head or at the piano. Sometimes, it's at a café.

Since moving to the Dandenongs, she's found a local café where she can sit down and write. In previous homes, she had other favourite places where she would spend time developing ideas.

But Uma's creative process doesn't necessarily begin in any of these places.

Some of her songs have arrived in unexpected flashes of inspiration. One idea came to her while she was travelling on a train to university. As the music formed in her head, she began singing to herself and trying to capture it in a voice message before it disappeared.

Another favourite song came to her as she woke up.

These moments don't always arrive when they're convenient. An idea might appear while she's working or doing something completely unrelated to music, leaving her scrambling to write it down before it slips away.

Once the initial inspiration arrives, though, Uma has learned that there isn't one correct way to develop it.

Sometimes she sits at the piano and experiments with chords. Other times, she finds that walking or dancing helps her move through an idea without getting caught in the anxiety of wondering whether it's any good.

That physical movement can interrupt the familiar internal commentary that tells us our ideas aren't good enough before we've had a chance to explore them.

For Uma, creativity involves learning to recognise those moments of inspiration and finding ways to follow them, wherever they lead.

You don't always have to force a creative moment into existence. Sometimes, you need to notice it, capture it and give it room to grow.

2. Making Art That Comes from Your Core

When asked what she's most proud of creating, Uma identifies three projects that have a particularly strong connection to her values and experiences.

The first is Intolerant, her cabaret show, which explores her experiences of lifelong food allergies and living with Crohn's disease.

The show emerged after an incredibly difficult period in which Uma spent years being unwell before receiving her Crohn's diagnosis. After beginning treatment, she also experienced COVID and long COVID.

As she navigated that time, she began to feel a powerful need to make something from what she'd been through.

She didn't want the experience to remain simply a period of pain and illness. She wanted to create something that acknowledged it — something that allowed her to explore those experiences through her art.

That impulse became the driving force behind Intolerant.

The show brings together many of the things Uma loves: original songwriting, opera, theatre, comedy and play. It also allows her to connect with an audience in a way that feels more conversational and immediate.

Her journey through different musical worlds helped her discover that cabaret offered a space where she could combine the precision and musicality of opera with the informality, humour and audience connection she enjoyed in other performance settings.

For Uma, this combination creates room for both laughter and emotional intensity.

The other two projects she's especially proud of are songs that also reflect her values. Houses on Fire, released in 2020, is about climate action. I Will Stand, from her first release under her stage name, explores standing up against hate and is rooted in social justice.

Although these works differ in form and subject, Uma sees a common thread connecting them: each comes from something deeply felt.

She also recognises that not everything an artist creates needs to carry a serious message. There's room for fun, playfulness and art for art's sake.

But when a project connects with something fundamental to who you are, it can take on another level of meaning.

Uma's experience is a powerful reminder that some of our most meaningful creative work begins when we pay attention to what matters most to us. Our values, experiences and questions can become the foundations of work that feels both personal and resonant.

3. The Challenge of Creating Through Shame

Creating from personal experience can be powerful, but it isn't always easy.

For Uma, one of the biggest challenges to her creativity is internal shame.

She describes how this feeling can make it difficult to begin, even when she knows what she needs to do. It can arise when she's trying to practise, enter a creative space or work through an idea.

While writing Intolerant, she found herself confronting particularly difficult emotions.

The show draws on experiences that had caused her pain over many years, including not being taken seriously when she was growing up with food allergies and the long process of trying to understand what was making her unwell before her Crohn's diagnosis.

Even seemingly ordinary experiences, such as navigating dating with food allergies, could carry additional layers of complexity.

These weren't simply memories she could sit down and write about without difficulty. They were experiences wrapped up in old feelings, and trying to put them on the page sometimes left her feeling blocked.

Initially, she put pressure on herself to finish the work and meet her deadlines. But the more she tried to push through, the harder the process became.

Eventually, she found another way forward: talking.

Instead of trying to write everything immediately, Uma spoke about her experiences with her mum and other people she trusted to listen. She could then return to what she'd expressed and begin shaping it into words for the show.

It was a shift away from her usual approach, but it helped her work through material that was difficult to access on her own.

This is an important distinction for anyone creating from personal experience. Sometimes, the obstacle isn't a lack of ideas or discipline. It may be that the material itself is emotionally demanding, and we need a different way to approach it.

We might need to talk before we write, move before we create, or give ourselves time to understand what we're feeling.

Creativity doesn't always require us to push deeper into discomfort. Sometimes, it asks us to find a way of working that allows us to meet that discomfort with care.

4. Rest Isn't the Enemy of Creativity

When a creative project becomes difficult, it's tempting to believe that the answer is to work harder.

We tell ourselves we should practise more, write more, push through the block or stay at our desks until the work is finished.

Uma knows that pressure well.

As an opera singer, she has experienced the expectations that come with a highly demanding discipline. Singers need to develop their technique, breathing, language skills and understanding of musical style. Maintaining those skills takes considerable dedication.

At the same time, the music industry often promotes another version of the same pressure: the idea that you must constantly hustle, promote yourself and make sure people are listening to your work.

There's always something else to do.

But Uma has learned that stepping away can be more helpful than continuing to push.

When she notices herself becoming wound up or blocked, she tries to give herself permission to do something else. That might mean going for a walk, moving her body or putting a project aside for half an hour.

Even when a deadline is approaching, she has found that a little space can make a difference.

Over time, she's noticed that when she allows herself time to process difficult feelings and recover her energy, she often returns to her work in a better place.

And some of her biggest artistic developments have followed short breaks — sometimes just a day or a few days away.

This doesn't mean the work doesn't matter or that creative careers don't require effort. Uma is clear that making a living from your art takes commitment.

The distinction is between working with dedication and expecting yourself to be productive every moment of every day.

As she and Alexis discuss, constant pressure can contribute to burnout, and the expectation to hustle endlessly can make it harder for artists to sustain their work over time.

There's also something important about the way we speak to ourselves. We might readily encourage a friend to rest, eat properly, sleep, move their body and spend time with people they love. Yet we often struggle to offer ourselves the same understanding.

Uma's experience invites us to question the belief that rest must be earned through exhaustion.

Taking a break doesn't mean you've abandoned your creativity. It can be part of how you sustain it.

5. You Need to Live to Have Something to Create

One of Uma's most valuable insights came from an interview she heard with comedian Trevor Noah.

In the interview, he described how a mentor had challenged him to think about the relationship between performing and creating new material.

If all you're doing is preparing for gigs, writing for gigs and performing those gigs, when do you actually have time to gather new experiences and ideas?

The question stayed with Uma because it applies far beyond stand-up comedy.

Musicians, writers, actors and other artists all need time to develop their craft. But they also need time to live beyond it.

Without that space, creative practice can become a cycle of constant output. We focus on producing the next piece of work without giving ourselves the opportunity to discover what we might want to make next.

Life itself is part of the creative process.

Conversations, relationships, new experiences, unexpected challenges and quiet moments can all influence what we create. Even time spent doing something unrelated to our art can give us fresh perspectives or help us understand an idea differently.

For Uma, this has been particularly evident in her own development. Some of her biggest steps forward have happened after she's taken a little time away from the work.

When she returns, ideas can begin to connect in ways they didn't before.

It's a reminder that creativity isn't only what happens when we're actively making something. It's also what happens while we're out in the world, gathering the experiences that will eventually find their way into our work.

If you're feeling creatively stuck, it might be worth asking whether you need to work harder — or whether you need to give yourself more opportunities to live.

Sometimes, the next idea isn't waiting at your desk. It might be waiting in the rest of your life.

6. Trust That Your Creativity Will Still Be There

When Alexis asks Uma what advice she'd offer another creative, Uma returns to the importance of taking pressure off yourself.

There's a tendency to believe that creativity must happen in a particular way. We develop expectations about how often we should practise, how much we should produce and what our creative process ought to look like.

When we don't meet those expectations, it's easy to feel as though we're falling behind or losing our connection to our work.

Uma encourages creatives to make space for a different possibility.

What if you trust that your creativity will still be there when you return to it?

Taking a day off doesn't mean you've lost your ability. Spending a week away from a project doesn't erase your identity as an artist. Even taking a longer break doesn't necessarily mean you've abandoned the thing you love.

For Uma, creativity is an innate part of who we are. It doesn't simply disappear because we stop actively working on something for a while.

In fact, giving ourselves room to step away can allow us to return with a stronger sense of connection to what we're making.

This is particularly important in creative industries where dedication is often measured by how much time you spend working. The pressure to be constantly practising, producing or promoting can make it difficult to recognise when you need a pause.

But sustainable creativity requires more than technical skill and discipline. It also needs space for curiosity, experience and change.

Uma's advice isn't to stop working towards your goals. It's to release the idea that there's only one acceptable way to get there.

You can be committed to your art without being hard on yourself every day.

You can take a break and still be a creative person.

And you can trust that sometimes, the most useful thing you can do for your work is give yourself the freedom to return to it in your own time.

Final Thoughts: Give Yourself Room to Create

Uma's conversation with Alexis explores creativity as something much bigger than the act of making art.

It's about noticing the ideas that arrive when we're least expecting them. It's about creating work that reflects our values and experiences, even when those experiences are difficult to revisit. And it's about recognising when we need support, movement, conversation or simply a little time away.

Through Intolerant, Houses on Fire and I Will Stand, Uma has created work that connects with deeply held beliefs and personal experiences. Her journey also shows that making meaningful art doesn't mean having everything figured out or following one fixed creative path.

Perhaps most importantly, her story challenges the idea that we must constantly hustle to prove our commitment.

Hard work matters. So does practice. But so do rest, relationships, curiosity and the ordinary experiences that give us something to say.

You don't have to turn every moment into something productive. You don't have to create on demand. And you don't have to punish yourself when the work becomes difficult.

Sometimes, you need to step away, let yourself live and trust that your creativity will be waiting when you're ready to return.

A x

Listen to the Full Conversation

Listen to the full conversation with Uma on Through the Creative Door S1. E15, to hear more about her creative journey across opera, songwriting and cabaret, the making of her show Intolerant, and what she's learned about working with vulnerability rather than against it.