Finding the Spark in Silence: Marneta Viegas’s Journey from Stage Anxiety to Creative Liberation
Marneta Viegas, founder of Relax Kids, shares a story that traverses the worlds of performing arts, accidental entrepreneurship, and fierce creative protection.
Marneta’s creative roots were strong but complicated. Despite having supportive parents and receiving abundant opportunities, including attending tap school, ballet school (where she felt like the “fattest child”), and joining the CBSO choir, she struggled with self-esteem. After attending a “fame school” for her A-levels, she pursued a degree in performing arts.
The Pivot to the “Silent Way”
Facing constant rejection in the 1990s children’s TV industry, Marneta realized she was going against the prevalent “thin, blonde, and beautiful” standard. She pivoted to the “silent way,” studying mime and entertaining children as a clown.
This non-verbal focus led to her breakthrough: noticing a critical decline in children’s concentration around 1999–2000, particularly at after-school parties. After spontaneously performing a visualization at a difficult party, she recognized the need for children’s meditation. Marneta created her seven-step system, pulling together skills from breathing, drama, mime, and silence. She made relaxation “acceptable” by turning traditional fairy stories into guided meditations, drafting her first book in just three days.
The Business Battle and Creative Loss
Relax Kids exploded, eventually training 6,000 coaches. However, Marneta describes her entry into the business world as fraught with struggle. She was famously “laughed out of the den” on Dragon’s Den because the investors did not grasp the concept of social entrepreneurship. When asked if she would do the work for free, Marneta admitted, “I didn’t set Relax Kids up to make lots of money,” immediately ending the investment possibility.
The administrative burden brought “many, many dark days” as the business grew. She won an office prize from Boris Johnson, which forced her into an office every day – something she “hated”. Marneta confessed that she would start to feel physically sick in accountant meetings and found that the “headache of accounts and marketing” caused her to lose her creative spark.
The Determined Return to Creativity
Amidst the business pressure in 2007, a personal fairy tale unfolded: Marneta put a “Cinderella’s looking for a prince” advert on Gum Tree, which led to meeting her future husband, a computer programmer who assisted in building the business. Following the end of that marriage, Marneta channeled her heartbreak into a creative boom, writing five books in a single year.
Today, Marneta is fiercely protective of her creative flow, ensuring she relies on staff for administration so that the loss of herself “would never happen again”. She finds her creative outlet in unique standup comedy, mindful movement, and forest bathing. Marneta emphasizes that the true creativity comes from finding your own unique path and stresses the vital importance of silence, stillness, and childlikeness to feed the soul in our information-saturated world.
Listen to Marneta’s story on this episode of the Creativity Found podcast.
