ELENA'S CREATIVE UPRISING - 2025 No. 05

A Bold Blend of Creativity, Wellness, and Activism

Elena Greco

Jun 04, 2025

image by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

In this issue:

Introduction: Just Let Me Be

UNITY and COMMUNITY
* Elena's Creative Community
* Substack Made Easy - Tip #03

CREATIVE CORNER
* Stay tuned!

WELLNESS
* Life in Balance: #03 Taking Stock: Your Environment

CREATIVE ACTIVISM
* In Music

RECOMMENDATIONS
Shows about musicians who use their music for activism and inspiration

QUOTE
Aristotle

May 31, 2025

The authentic self is soul made visible.
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

It seems that every time I look at social media, every time I open an email, every time I attempt to read a news article online, every time I watch a streaming television show on a non-subscription channel, I am blasted with advertising. Social media is one huge commercial for everyone and everything, pop-ups seem to be plastered on every website, television drug commercials give me images of beautiful smiling humans doing charmingly ordinary, pleasurable things while a voiceover warns you in rapid cadence that you might get diarrhea, vomiting or cancer if you take the drug, but not to worry, you'll be smiling and look wonderful.

Every time I open an email and it's "buy this thing I'm hawking" or "subscribe to my thing," I feel aversion. Enough! I've reached my limit. I refuse to be manipulated for one more second. And advertising is manipulation, in the form of coercion (see the distinction between persuasion and coercion here: Manipulating Minds: The Use of Persuasion and Coercion in Cults, Authoritarianism, and Trumpism). I hereby rebel against any and all coercion! My energy is already severely taxed as I'm busy fighting an authoritarian takeover, and I refuse to be further depleted by absorbing this garbage. No more!

There's a saying in writing: show, don't tell. It means show through the scene, dialogue, and action what has happened; don't describe it. Allow the reader to "see" it for themselves, to imagine it; don't tell them what they should see. I want to learn the value of your product from my use of it, or through my friend's recommendation of it to me, or through my research which leads me to your product, not through your telling me why I need it and blasting it in my face. Show me what it is, and let me decide. Better still, just leave me alone.

How many!, how many!, how many! seems to be the constant refrain online from a multitude of people publishing articles, websites and books on how to manipulate (sell to) your customer. How many followers, how many sales, how many conversions, how many Likes. Focusing on the numbers seems to correlate with, or at least coincide with, the lack of consideration many have for others now, the lack of manners and civility, both of which require a benevolent focus on the other rather than a continuous focus on ourselves.

We're being subtly—and really not so subtly at all—trained to look at metrics, numbers, followers, subscribers, and test scores, and no longer trained to notice and encourage excellence, authenticity, brilliance, conscience, quality, depth, and integrity. (You can read more about these virtues here: The IDEA™.) There is no point to any of this, to any of our lives, without these virtues.

I'm put off by the huckster vibe I get from so many now. What is the obsession with selling? Can they not be content? Making money or having followers is not success. Well, I guess it is: if you make money or gain followers, you're a successful marketer. But if you're intending to be anything other than a marketer, why focus so intensely on marketing?

Even if you can afford to pay someone to do your marketing so that you can spend all your time doing your work, you really must make certain that that person understands who you are and how you want to be presented. Otherwise, your authenticity goes down the drain and your brand, that thing that is really just the reflection of who you truly are and what your work represents to you, is destroyed.

I refuse to go along with this dangerous and damaging trend. I appreciate every follower and subscriber as a kindred spirit and for their interest in my work, not as an acquisition, or something (or someone) to add to my numbers. I will not do them the disservice of marketing at them.

Thinking only about how much money you'll make or how many followers you'll gain has a name: unscrupulous. Do we only care how many or how much? Can we just let the work speak for itself? I think we can.

I want to engage, not sell. I'm not a carnival barker or a snake oil salesman. I want most of all to be authentic in my public creative expression and useful to those who might need my services. Mostly I just want to be, and allows others to be.

I am unwilling to "market" my own work going forward. I'm starting to feel it's actually immoral to do that, and it's certainly soul killing and creativity deadening. Unless I come from the place of sharing my work, either because I genuinely believe it benefits others, or because I believe it's righteous to express myself creatively, I won't do it. I will not give in to the blatant encouragement by so many to manipulate people into being followers or subscribers or purchasers or any other metric. People are not metrics. You are not a metric. I am not a metric.

I'm certainly not saying that it's wrong to make money. We all need funds to keep going. And there should almost always be an exchange of value; if I offer you something, you offer something to me. For example, I offer you a book that you will enjoy or get value from, and you give me the monetary value of the book. The exception is offering service, when we give selflessly as an act of altruism. You might say that we also get something from that exchange: the feeling of giving, which benefits the giver.

Of course you have to let people know about a performance you're doing so that they can come and enjoy it. Of course you have to let people know about a book you've just published so that they can read and benefit from it. But, after careful reflection, I really believe that there is no need to "market" beyond that.

No, I don't need to promote my work. I give it a life, a chance to affect people, which is my intention, by putting it where it's likely to be seen. That's really all I have to do. Sometimes it does need to be seen by a specific person or organization in order for it to be seen by the people for whom it was intended. Beyond that, my time is best spent doing the work.

Instead of feverishly trying to crack the code of making people buy your product through the perfect pitch or sequence of actions or wording, how about putting your hard work and energy into making your product the absolute best it can be? If you paint the most authentic and best painting you possibly can, if you put it in places where people can see it, then first off, they will benefit from it, second, they'll become familiar with you as an artist, and third, someone will buy it. You really don't have to be super clever with your "marketing" if you have a great product. Just let it be seen, in whatever venue or manner is appropriate for your work. Let the work stand for itself and see what happens!

In case you missed it....
Here's a link to last month's Newsletter 2025 No. 04

UNITY and COMMUNITY

Strength in Unity, Support in Community

Elena's Creative Community

ELENA'S CREATIVE COMMUNITY fosters real community to help us stay strong and focused! Working alone but within the intentional group space is surprisingly supportive and highly productive!

There are two free one-hour online multi-genre Work-Together sessions each month on the first and third Saturdays at 2:00 pm US Eastern (New York).
For the month of June, they'll be on June 7 and June 21.

NOTE: Just for this month, we'll also have two more: one on the third Monday, June 16, and one on the fourth Friday, June 27, both at 2:00 pm US Eastern. This will let me know whether there's interest in a work-together on one of these weekdays going forward. Enjoy!

If you're interested in attending a work-together or have questions, drop me your name and email address at egreco@elenagreco.com. Creatives in any genre or medium are welcome!

Substack Made Easy

Substack is a wonderful place to create and enjoy community! Once you sign up, you'll soon find many like-minded souls around the country and beyond in a safe place for sharing.

SUBSTACK TIP #03: Subscribe or Follow?
As I mentioned in the last issue, there are two distinct segments to Substack: Newsletters (your creative home) and Notes (your social interaction home). In other words, your Substack Newsletter is a place for your self-expression. Substack Notes is a way to interact with others and to make sure your creative work is seen by others.

Even if you want to go straight to creating (and who could blame you?!), using Notes is beneficial to getting exposure for your creative work, and it also exposes you to other creatives you might enjoy having in your Substack community. And it does provide social interaction (think of it as your local coffee shop or pub), without all the advertising and self-promotion you find on social media.

Once you find someone on Substack you're interested in reading, you have a decision to make: Subscribe or Follow. Here's the difference: you Subscribe to Newsletters; you Follow individuals. As an example, if you Subscribe to my Newsletter, then you'll receive a copy by email whenever I post a Newsletter. If you don't want to receive my posts by email, you can still Follow me, the individual who owns the Newsletter's account. Then you'll see my Newsletter posts on Substack if I post a Note about that Newsletter or provide a link to it in Notes—which I really should do if I want anyone to read it! You'll also see my comments about others' posts, along with links and information I want to share with my Followers.

To Follow a Substacker, go to the individual's profile, click on the ellipsis (3 dots) on the right side, and choose Follow (see below).

One other thing to know about Subscribing rather than Following is that Newsletters to which you Subscribe are listed on your profile under the Reads tab. That provides passive reciprocal promotion (my favorite kind!), because, for example, if I've subscribed to your Newsletter, so that it appears in my Reads tab, then anyone interested in me or my account can peruse that Reads list (I do it all the time when I encounter a new Substacker that interests me) and see and learn about you and your Newsletter that way. That's just one more easy way Substack provides for seamless, effortless exposure without any need for "marketing."

To see the Reads tab, go to the person's profile, look at the tabs below their name and description, and find the Reads tab on the far right (see below).

CREATIVE CORNER

All things related to creativity and the creative arts

I have many irons in the fire! Stay tuned....

WELLNESS

All things related to health, healing, and transformation

SOMETHING NEW!
Wellness Video Class Series

I'll be offering a series of monthly 30-minute video classes that support wellness and self-care beginning in July. I think you'll enjoy these monthly opportunities to focus on you and your vitality! I'll share all about it in the next Newsletter.

Life in Balance

A series exploring health: What it really is, how to get it and how to maintain it

I've studied nutrition, healing, and holistic medicine for 50 years. It's a passion of mine. I integrate the best of all worlds in the strategy for health I've developed in all those years, and I feel compelled to share it at this point, at a time when our country needs knowledgeable, forward-thinking people in the realm of health who are uninfluenced by Big Pharma, monetary gain or pressure. I'm happy to share it with you now. I believe you'll find this series useful!

Click to read Life in Balance: 03. Healthcare Paradigms.
Or read the series from the beginning: Life in Balance: 01. What Is Health?

CREATIVE ACTIVISM

Creative Activism in MUSIC

Yo-Yo Ma, cellist

Yo-Yo Ma is one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace
Yo-Yo Ma - Nature at Play: J.S. Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 (Live from the Great Smoky Mountains). Yo-Yo Ma will donate his earnings from this video to EarthPercent, a charity that helps artists and the music industry support the most impactful organizations currently addressing the global climate emergency.
UN Messenger of Peace Yo-Yo Ma adds his voice to TOGETHER. Yo-Yo Ma added his voice in support of refugees and migrants in a video for the TOGETHER Campaign. To find out more, visit together.un.org

Estonia's Non-Violent Singing Revolution defeated a violent occupation and led to Estonians gaining independence from the USSR in the 1980s (no small feat!).
This is the power of creative activism and music—combined with unity and community.

- The Singing Revolution - informative website
- The Singing Revolution - inspiring YouTube trailer (2.5 min)
- Watch the entire film FREE on Tubi - click HERE (1.5 hrs)

Bruce Springsteen

- Bruce Springsteen’s Message to America 2025: A Protest. A Prayer. A Wake-Up Call.
- Bruce Springsteen's Impact on Society Through the Decades – Victrola
- 15 Bruce Springsteen Protest Songs – The Ongoing History of Protest Music
- How Bruce Springsteen jumped into politics, thanks to Ronald Reagan

When you've lost enthusiasm, but need to finish your project, slay your dragon, or save democracy … this will get you moving!
(If you've played this before, have another listen; I've updated it.)
Enjoy my Playlist:

STAND UP AND FIGHT!

RECOMMENDATIONS

Enjoy a few shows about activism through music!
You might wonder why I didn't include the recent film A Complete Unknown about Bob Dylan. Regretfully, I cannot whole-heartedly recommend it (except for Timothée Chalamet's inspired performance). If you want to know more about Dylan's activism, I recommend you listen to his albums, especially the early ones. The activism is in his poetry.