Color Outside the Lines…
Your creativity is a gift to the world and joy for you:
Do you have inner freedom to express your creative gifts? If not, do you know why not?
When we do not value all that we are, we do not value or allow our creativity to shine through. We judge, wonder, or belittle what we have to offer and hold back.
Are your core beliefs holding you back?
What core belief do you have regarding Creativity that sabotages you from taking a risk and moving forward? Are you putting a narrow frame around it, therefore limiting yourself and the joy that Creativity can and will bring to your life?
Your Gift is like nobody else’s.
Is there a belief that Creativity is the gift of those who write, paint, produce and exhibit??? No indeed: we have a gift that is special to us, that we give with love, devotion and often passion.
This gift is ours to share whether it be a nutritional casserole shared with a neighbor, gardening, playing the piano, or the way we decorate our homes. It is our way of being creative in the world.
Be willing to be a beginner…
One thing that tends to hamper Creativity is the fact that if we are accomplished in one area as in the practical area of career, often pride in that accomplishment gets in the way of being a beginner in a creative endeavor.
Or we might minimize the necessity of play or the play energy that accompanies our creative endeavors, whether accomplished or not. So, it’s important to be willing to be a beginner. It’s your heart energy increasing, it’s not for, or about others.
All Women are creative.
We come into this world as creative beings, willing to express whatever gift happens to be ours. It is very much the essence of us as little people.
However, sometimes life events, trauma or a serious setback happens, and the joy of our creativity gets diminished or gets covered up. I shared what happened to me in the last Blog.
It is profoundly important that you take time to honor your gift and nurture it.
The world is crying for our Feminine Power and Creativity. When you hold back you not only deprive the world, but you also diminish your love and joy. Not only is it encouraged that you creatively share with the world, but first you must honor it and share it with yourself. When we are creating, we are in the energy of love, joy, and devotion, thus we are healing ourselves.
Were you influenced by your family’s fears?
During the Women’s Creativity Groups mentioned earlier, several of the women were operating within their family belief systems which were faulty for them as individuals. Family beliefs were based on fear and often minimized the importance of living in a creative way.
Anxiety is part of the process!
Even though one may be passionate about a choice of creative expression, there is a certain level of anxiety peculiar to each phase in which one finds oneself, the beginning, the follow through, and the ending.
This happens especially if and when one decides to share with the public. After the wishing is over and the choices are made, the anxiety of starting begins. Committing over and over, each and every day, until one is able to pronounce a work finished, will be accompanied by anxiety.
“My God, these anxieties – Who can live in the modern world without catching his share of them?” – Vincent Van Gogh (Maurer, 1998)
Everybody who starts something without knowing how it will be received has anxiety. This is not a negative really, it tells us we are alive, that we feel. It tells us also that we are not staying safe with a formula, the familiar, or a robotic approach in our creative expression.
Risk begets risk…change begets change.
In any endeavor when we set an important goal and make a commitment to a change it is important that we keep our own counsel. Notice I did not say a serious change. All changes are important, as one change, no matter how small, begets other changes, not necessarily in a linear fashion.
A small change in health for instance can bring about a shift in attitude, self-care, diet and exercise. The courage inherent in one small step creates an opening to do it again and again. Understandably when we finally take our wishful thinking out of the vapors, and start creating, we may become pleased with ourselves, and want to share.
Do not share or show too soon…
There is pressure inside to share, to announce to the world and if not the world, especially to those who are close to us. We proclaim we are going to go on a diet, stop smoking, start painting, or start writing the book that we have ruminated over for years. We take our own background noise and bring it forward, just itching to explode our news into somebody else’s lap.
It is important to use discernment when we decide to share our work. Beginnings are especially fragile, and it is easy for our bubbles to burst. There is an appropriate element of timing in the showing, and we need to ask ourselves if we are prepared to do that yet.
Impulsively sharing has ambiguous results at best. We may have great anxiety about showing and receiving feedback. We all want positive feedback. Are we really ready for an overall critique? What do we really want: approval, a critique, a possible sale, or all three?
Often when we impulsively shove our almost finished or completed work into a loved one’s hands or face, we put them in a tenuous position. They may not have enough background to critique; so they are left to soothe our anxiety with approval. We more or less corner them into only one right answer, “It is wonderful,” and if we do not get that response, we may feel let down.
Once when I showed a friend an oil painting, I was particularly pleased with, she looked at it and said, “Why didn’t you put a boat on the left to balance it out?” I knew that aesthetically it did not need another boat; it was fine with an odd number of boats. However, to this day I remember her suggestion and I wonder… Our creative self can be quite fragile and easily bruised.
Do not expect the family and friends to be supportive!
When one decides to be true to their creative yearnings, to step out, to cross the chasm of fear, doubt, and anxiety to create, it often poses a threat to family and who either will not or cannot acknowledge creativity within themselves and may belittle its importance. It may cause unease within the person who would like to have more creativity in her life but is stifled by the fears and anxieties inherent in stepping out. It is not easy to step out, fears and all. So do not allow others to hold you back, to keep you from your joy!
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.” – Rumi (Rumi & Barks, 1995)
Take out your Journal:
What gives you joy in the doing/expressing?
How long has it been since you got lost doing something that you loved?
Do you remember the energy shift within when you lost track of time as you usually experience it?