A Cyclical Way to Work With Your Ideas: My Toy Box Process // Ep 003

What if you didn’t have to act on every idea the moment it arrived - and could still trust that none of your creative sparks were being wasted?

In this episode, I’m sharing one of my most-used personal processes for working with ideas, intuitive hits, and creative sparks in a way that honours energy, timing, and natural cycles rather than urgency or pressure.

I introduce you to my Toy Box Process - a simple, playful system for catching ideas when they land, without forcing them into action before they’re ready. We talk about why ideas often arrive at the worst possible time, how human design and energy cycles influence when we’re actually meant to act, and why not every spark is meant to bloom straight away.

This is about working with your rhythms, not against them.

WE COVER:

• Why ideas so often arrive when you’re tired, overstimulated, or busy
• How the Toy Box Process helps you honour inspiration without pressure
• The role of cycles (moon phases, energy, life seasons) in creative timing
• How human design can support more aligned decision-making in business and creation
• A simple way to start working with your ideas more gently and sustainably

SHOW NOTES:

// Explore more soul-aligned guidance at clairesolomon.com

// Curious about your soul purpose and bigger life themes? Book a Soul Purpose Akashic Records Reading

// Want to work with the moon as part of your creative rhythm? Explore Moon Phase Magic

// Want to understand your human design and run your business in alignment with your energy? Explore SoulCodes®

// Looking for clarity on your current energy season? Order Your Solar Year Report

Disclaimer: This podcast shares spiritual insight for personal reflection and entertainment purposes. It is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. Please use your own discernment when interpreting and applying the information shared.

Transcript

Hey, I'm Claire Solomon, Akashic Records Practitioner, business strategist and astrology and human design nerd. And this is the Kinda Cosmic Podcast. Down to Earth chats about out-of-this-world stuff. We'll talk akashic insight, astrology, starseeds, cosmic intel, soul purpose, and all the strange, beautiful ways the universe shows up in everyday life. No fluff, just real talk about being a soul in a human body.

Hey. Hey. Today I want to share with you one of my greatest hacks and a process I have been personally using for years. Because, let's be honest, ideas and creative sparks have incredibly terrible timing. They usually don't drop in when we're rested or spacious or sipping tea, staring out a window, feeling like a creative goddess. No, they arrive when we are tired, cranky, overstimulated. 

And if you're into human design as a modality, or if you've ever pulled up your human design chart, if you are a generator or a manifesting generator, which make up a huge chunk of the population, I am a generator. For us folk, ideas can also feel really confusing because we aren't designed to move through the world initiating things. This is a whole other episode one day. But generator and manifesting generators are designed to respond to the external world around us and create from that place, right? So when we get an idea or an intuitive creative spark, that can be tricky to discern if we are meant to act on it or not, right? 

But regardless of human design, human design types, all of that, in general, every human has experienced this dance, this thing where a spark, an idea, a business offering, a creative, fun idea thing lands. And maybe our body goes 'yes!' or 'no way!', or 'maybe, ask me later'. And meanwhile you are thinking or your mind is thinking, do I need to act on this right now? Is this a sign? Is this the universe? Is this a distraction from the other thing I'm doing? Is this a future thing? Am I meant to do something with this right now? It's like spiral mode activated. 

And that is where the Toy Box Process comes in. It's my way of honouring these ideas and creative sparks and intuitive hits and in a way that honours the cycles and seasons we may find ourselves in on any given day. Because in nature, not every idea is meant to sprout the moment it lands, right? Like some arrive in winter and they're not meant to bloom until spring. So the Toy Box Process is essentially creating one single place for all your ideas so that inspiration is honoured and not pressured, and that things are birthed and created at the right time.

So here's the simplest way to understand this playful process. I have a Google Doc that I've literally called "My Toy Box". And every single spark, idea, vibe or hit that I get goes straight into it. Everything. I access it on my phone or on my laptop and every little thing goes in there. Some of my clients use asana or notion. Some have literal paper and pen. Some use the notes app, the free thing on their phone. Whatever works for you is the right one. 

Now, there are a few rules in the Toy Box. Firstly, there is zero hierarchy to the ideas. There's no ranking between one over the other. There's no labelling 'oh, this is a serious one'. Or this one 'might be a success' or 'might work'. And this one's 'a silly one'. You're not allowed to do that. You can't label them, you can't rank them. 

You also can't apply any guilt to yourself for not acting on one, some, all of them. And you also can't apply pressure to make it mean something. It's literally just a home, a little toy box to put your ideas in. 

Now, some of those ideas arrive fully formed, like you've just gone for a lovely disconnected nature walk somewhere and a whole thing just came to you fully mapped out. Chuck it in the Toy Box. Some ideas arrive as, like one sentence or one little fleeting mini thought, like, oh, I should study this modality.

Or I wonder what working with pastels is like when, you know, I normally only use acrylics. Little spark like that goes in the Toy Box. Some ideas make absolutely no sense at all. They're ideas that are, like, totally off-brand for you or the current direction of your life. And I love these ones. These ones usually bloom beautifully. And some ideas are clearly meant for future you. Like, they feel important, but way too big right now.

And some ideas feel random until six months later when suddenly you're like, 'oh, hang on, hang on. I can see something going on here'. But the point is they all get a place to live. This is how I work with my energy rather than against it. I store the ideas when the spark hits and I revisit them when my energy is actually available. Because ideas are just ideas, right? Yes, they've come to you for a reason, but often you don't actually need to commit or do something at that time. All you need is somewhere to put them. 

Now, here's where it gets fun. Once a month, usually at the New Moon, I open up my Toy Box and I literally just play, not plan a whole thing out, not judge this one over that one. Not strategize anything, not try and force something into existence, force an outcome. Just explore and play. And the New Moon energy is perfect because it's a naturally introspective, intuitive kind of time. It's a seed-planting vibe and it feels like a clean slate. Like there's a softness to it, there's curiosity and possibility, but there's none of that, "Oh my Gosh, I have to like do this whole thing. I'm just gonna pick one and launch it tomorrow". It's not that energy. The New Moon gives a bit more of a introspective, intuitive lens. 

So I sit down, open up the doc, and as a generator in human design with a sacral response (which means my gut responds to things that are right for me in the moment), I tune in and I respond to each idea on the list as it stands today, not as it was the day it arrived, right? 

Sometimes something lights up that I had totally forgot about and I'll spend like 10, 20 minutes expanding on that one. Sometimes nothing lights me up and I close the doc. Little shrug. That's totally fine too, right? Because the point isn't to always produce. The point is to honour our individual rhythms. 

But the real magic and why the Toy Box works so well is actually this:

We all have weeks where our energy, our personal energy, is low. We are of course human. If you currently have a menstrual cycle, different phases are obviously attuned to rest versus creation. Like don't open your Toy Box in your late luteal phase because we can be harder on ourselves during that week. We can be lower energy the week before our period. So we may like rage delete our whole Toy Box, right? Delete document. So you can be aware of that as one way of exploring your own energetic cycle. 

The moon cycle itself, which affects us all whether we tune into it or not, has weeks for introspection, weeks for nutting out details and getting into the nitty gritty of things and completing things, and weeks for being brave and courageous and having the spotlight on us. And we also just have human life, right? Like some weeks we are just burnt out and overwhelmed from life admin or parenting or whatever it is that's going on in our lives.

So when ideas arrive during those times, they can get filtered through exhaustion or irritability, which means you will label them as stupid, unrealistic, boring, no one cares, that's too big, too messy, it's not the right time. Or like I literally can't deal right now. But that's not the truth of the idea or the creative spark or the divine nudge from the universe. That's the truth of your energy in that moment. 

So there's one big fat golden rule to the Toy Box and you have to promise me you'll follow this. And it is: current me isn't allowed to delete future me's magic. You are not allowed to delete anything out of your Toy Box list ever. Never ever. And yes, it's going to end up being a long list, but low energy Claire is not the CEO of my creativity. 

Yes, you'll get ideas in those low energy, lower vibe cycles and seasons of life. So open up your Toy Box, add that little spark or idea in there, and then get the hell out of that document. Because if late luteal phase you, or weird astrology transit phase you, or general overwhelmed with life you stays in there too long, you are going to get deleting things out and you are not allowed to do that. 

Your ideas and your intuitive nudges deserve the chance to be viewed through a clearer lens on a day when you are cosmically and energetically supported to respond properly. And honestly, some of the best things I've ever created lived in my Toy Box for months or even years in some cases before the timing clicked or before I had further insight to add to the thing. So this is to reiterate that golden rule. Don't delete anything. Not the weird ideas, not the tiny ideas, not the 'I don't even know what this is anymore but okay' ideas. Not the ideas that scare you. Not the ones that feel too wild or too impossible. 

Because the spark came to you for a reason. And maybe not for today or this season or even this year, but the frequency that brought it to you will circle back when the timing aligns. Everything in life is cyclical. Nature, Moon cycles, menstrual cycles, creative cycles, energetic cycles, astrological cycles, your personal Sun transits play a big part into our energy. Your own personal life seasons, and ideas have their own timing too, and so your only real job is to commit to catching them. 

So if you want a little action step after this episode, start your Toy Box today. Open a fresh note or a Google Doc, a Word Doc, whatever it is. You can set up a whole thing, whatever feels easy and make it your catch-all for ideas and sparks. And your only job this week is to catch one idea, one thought, one spark, big or tiny, and pop it in there. No pressure, no judgment, just a cool little place to store all of your future magic.

And if you want to start working with the toy box as a process, have a think about your own idea cycle. Maybe it's the New Moon, maybe it's the first Monday of every month. Whatever feels natural and rhythmic to you and make that your Toy Box play day. Set the rhythm now so future you has a place to meet her ideas at exactly the right time. 

Hope this helps. Chat soon.

And that's it for today's Kinda Cosmic chat. Find more soul-aligned guidance at https://clairesolomon.com/