We Need More Adult Show and Tell

Why the Future of Healing and Growth Is Hands-On, Beautiful, and Emotionally Real

When I was growing up, show and tell was one of my favorite parts of school. It's where most of us first learned about presenting ourselves to others. But we didn’t need a PowerPoint or a strategy. You just brought in something meaningful (your grandfather’s medal, your favorite toy, a rock you thought looked like a dinosaur) and you told a story. You watched people listen. You connected.

Now that I work with adults in both personal and professional transformation, I’ve realized something:

We still need show and tell. We just call it visioning, leadership development, or change management now.

But most change efforts? They forget the show. And most of the time, they forget the tell.

They focus on what people should be thinking or doing, but not how they’re feeling. Not what their nervous system needs. Not how they’re making meaning through their space, objects, or daily rituals. And certainly not how beauty, memory, or creativity could be used to support change rather than distract from it.

From Burnout to Beauty

A few years ago, I burned out hard. Like so many others, I thought I had done everything “right”: pushed through the grind, stayed too long, and ignored the emotional toll of my work in order to do the right thing. I didn’t realize how much un-metabolized pain I was holding until I stepped away.

During what I called my "Rhondaissance", I started intentionally experimenting and playing. Coloring, painting, rearranging. I went through heirlooms from my dad and grandmother, two people who shaped my creative spirit. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was starting to heal.

Through those objects, textures, colors, and memories, I began writing again. I began seeing myself differently. Not as someone who was directionless from burnout, but as someone uncovering what transformation could look like with creativity and compassion at the center.

That’s when I realized:

Change is more than just cognitive. It's more than strategies and habits. Change is emotional, sensory, and visual. And I realized that by reflecting on meaningful items, just as I had in show and tell, I was powerfully moving through my transformation in an authentic way.

A Different Approach to Change

Since then, I’ve founded Jolyean Creative, a company dedicated to helping people and organizations navigate change through aesthetics, emotional design, and hands-on visioning. Whether I’m guiding a leadership team through a LEGO® Serious Play® session or helping someone make meaning through a personal space transformation, I start with one belief:

Change can feel better—and beauty can accelerate it.

Change isn’t just mental; it’s emotional, sensory, and visual. Beauty isn’t a luxury during change; it’s the bridge to transformation.

That’s what I call tangible transformation. Not just theory, not just mindset shifts, but real-world objects, colors, images, and creative practices that help you move forward in a way that feels *true* to you.

The Tools We Actually Need

Think about the last time you faced change: a career shift, a loss, a transition you didn’t ask for.

What helped?

Probably not just a checklist.

More likely, it was a positive quote. Your favorite playlist. A walk. A motivating photo. A quiet space. A moment of beauty that helped you remember who you are and imagine who you’re becoming.

That’s what I want to build into how we support people through change. Whether you're a leader reimagining team culture, a therapist supporting clients in grief, or someone figuring out what’s next for your life, I believe there’s power in creative, aesthetic tools that don’t just help us understand change, but feel our way through it.

And yes, sometimes that means returning to play, metaphor, a story told through objects—even to a set of LEGO®. Because adults deserve show and tell too.

5 Tangible Tools to Navigate Change Today

Whatever change or transition you might be experiencing, a job change, burnout, grieving the loss of a relationship or a loved one, here are 5 simple, tangible tools you can use today to feel better:

1. Anchor Object

Choose one object that reminds you of your strength, goal, or purpose. Keep it somewhere visible—it becomes a physical cue that says: _I’m still becoming._

2. Color of the Week

Pick a color that represents how you want to feel this week—calm? bold? energetic?—and weave it into your clothes, workspace, or phone background. Let your nervous system catch up with your intention.

3. Mini Vision Board

Tear, save, or collage 5 images that evoke where you're headed—not where you’ve been. Bonus: Create it by hand, not digitally and let it live somewhere you'll see often.

4. Tangible Mood Board

Set up a *tangible mood board* where you place 1–3 objects that reflect your current emotional season. It could include a stone, photo, candle, trinket, or meaningful heirloom.

5. Name Your Season

Just like I named my personal renaissance, write down what this season feels like. Maybe it’s “Erin's Evolution,” or "Learning Management Team's Grand Return," or “The Nesting". Naming the chapter helps you claim the narrative and creates space for change to land.

What’s Next?

I’m writing more about this in my upcoming eBook and full-length book, both centered on the role of beauty and neuroaesthetics in transformation. And I’m creating new workshops that help leaders and teams not just talk about vision, but build it with their hands.

Because the future of change isn’t just strategic.

It’s sensory.

It’s creative.

It’s human.

And it starts when we remember that we’re allowed to make it beautiful.

If you’re navigating a personal or professional change or supporting others who are, don’t underestimate the power of beauty, memory, and hands-on creativity.

I believe you don't have to suffer through change. Change can be grounded. It can be beautiful. And it can be something you actually feel your way through.

I’d love to hear from you:

What’s one object, image, or memory that helped you through a big change?

Want to explore this in your space or team?

Check out jolyean.com for more information or email info@jolyean.com to set up a consultation today.

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