I was thinking about what I wanted to express for this morning's blog when a song from the Broadway play and movie, "Auntie Mame", magically popped into my head. I haven't thought about this song and it's powerful message in years yet here it was, right there, the words ringing louder and stronger beckoning me to share them with you. I've learned to listen to that intuitive voice so you'll find the poignant lyrics to "Open A New Window" below. May they guide you as you masterfully create your artistic expression and life experience.
My favorite version of this movie was filmed in 1958 and starred Rosalind Russell in the title role.
Mame: (to her nephew Patrick)
Open a new window,
Open a new door,
Travel a new highway,
That's never been tried before;
Before you find you're a dull fellow,
Punching the same clock,
Walking the same tight rope
As everyone on the block.
The fellow you ought to be is three dimensional,
Soaking up life down to your toes,
Whenever they say you're slightly unconventional,
Just put your thumb up to your nose.
And show 'em how to dance to a new rhythm,
Whistle a new song,
Toast with a new vintage,
The fizz doesn't fizz too long.
There's only one way to make the bubbles stay,
Simply travel a new high way,
Dance to a new rhythm,
Open a new window ev'ry day!
If you follow your Auntie Mame
I'll make this vow, my little love,
That on the last day of your life
You'll be smiling the same young smile
You're smiling now, my little love,
If you wake up ev'ry mornin'
And you pull aside the shutter,
And you promise me that these'll be
The first words that you utter...
Open a new window,
Open a new door,
Travel a new highway,
That's never been tried before,
Before you find you're a dull fellow,
Punching the same clock,
Walking the same tight rope
As everyone on the block.
The fellow you ought to be is three dimensional,
Soaking up life down to your toes,
Whenever they say you're slightly unconventional,
Just put your thumb up to your nose.
And show 'em how to dance to a new rhythm,
Whistle a new song,
Toast with a new vintage,
The fizz doesn't fizz too long.
There's only one way to make the bubbles stay,
Simply travel a new high way,
Dance to a new rhythm,
Whistle a new love song,
Toast with a new vintage,
Open a new window ev'ry day!
"Live, live, LIVE!" Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!" - Auntie Mame
Valery is an Artist Mindset Mentor & Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles in the life of an actor, artist and performer. Clients learn how to express their full potential to create more passionately, profoundly, productively & profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Case Study - Use Intuition As Your Personal GPS
You were born with a personal guidance system set to always lead you in the direction of your dreams, what your heart calls you to become. This internal GPS is your intuition, the voice of your Higher Self, your Inner Being or what I playfully call the Wizard Within. Wizards are alchemists, after all. They know how to turn dreams into reality.
When you tap into, listen and follow this inner wisdom resource you will always speak and act in the direction of who you want to be, what you want to do and all that you desire. When you are detached; when you ignore your intuition you will veer off course, without question.
"Know thyself." - Socrates
When I lived a life full of self-doubt and fear I would always second guess myself, my own intuition. I grew to hate and fear tests of any kind. Misguidedly believing that I was just not smart enough to have the right answers I often changed my intuitive knowing answer to what ultimately proved to be the wrong answer. I had difficulty maintaining a decent grade average throughout school that only served to give energy and 'proof' to my thought that I just didn't have the smarts everyone else did. Truth is I was absolutely smart enough. My original answers were most often correct yet I doubted my own intuition. Teachers would lament that I was not living up to my potential and they were right.
Firmly believing that I wasn't smart enough or good enough at anything to score well on an exam of any kind, I avoided them as if they were some dreaded disease. As in my youth, I struggled with tests I had to take and often had to retake these tests in order to achieve a passing grade. Visits to the DMV were dreaded because the written test loomed large. Thankfully I didn't have to take that awful test very often. Until today.
"Every man, through fear, mugs his aspirations a dozen times a day." ~Brendan Francis
I recently moved back to California and had to register my car and get a state drivers license. I had long since learned that I'm not merely smart enough, I am actually very bright. I learned how to tap into and trust my intuition and it had served me very well over the last few years. Yet on the way to the DMV I felt that old sick feeling in my stomach when I thought about the test I would have to take and pass in order to get what I wanted - a California drivers license.
The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach was the first sign that I had started to veer off course, move away from what I wanted to achieve. I wanted a California drivers license and know I was entertaining thoughts filled with doubt and fear. Tapping into that wise Wizard Within, I reminded myself of all the things I had done well in my life; things that if I didn't have a brain in my head I could not do. It began with learning how to walk! Heck, if I thought to myself that I was just not smart enough to learn how to walk the first time I fell on my butt I would still be crawling around on my hands and knees!
I was feeling more confident as I took the test, read each question for clarity, made my choice and marked my answer. As I stood in line to turn my exam in to be graded I started to hear the voice of that old Inner Critic serving up doubt that I made the right choice, got the right answer. Ignoring the fact that I know how to drive, have managed to drive for decades without losing my license and had passed the test (ultimately) before, I was about to make a few changes to my test answers when I mindfully stopped myself. I took a deep breath and reconnected with my GPS who reminded me that choices made from fear and self-doubt would always lead me in the direction I did NOT want to go. Choices made centered in the truth of who I am, confident and tapped into my unlimited internal resource of wisdom and intuitive guidance will always deliver that which I seek. I made no changes to my test as I once had in the past.
I aced the exam. Got every question right and I hadn't even read the California Driver's Handbook! Woo-Hoo!
It's a seemingly small example of how everything you need to be, do and have what you want in life is already within you. Never doubt your ability to create the life experience you long for. What your heart longs for is what you are here to do, your purpose in life. It is why you were given your very own, unique, GPS to guide you to fully express your fully potential. Tap into this wisdom that is your birthright and you will always be guided well as you turn your dreams into reality!
"The unconscious is our best collaborator."- Director Mike Nichols
Valery is an Artist Mindset Mentor & Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles in the life of an actor, artist and performer. Clients learn how to express their full potential to create more passionately, profoundly, productively & profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
When you tap into, listen and follow this inner wisdom resource you will always speak and act in the direction of who you want to be, what you want to do and all that you desire. When you are detached; when you ignore your intuition you will veer off course, without question.
"Know thyself." - Socrates
When I lived a life full of self-doubt and fear I would always second guess myself, my own intuition. I grew to hate and fear tests of any kind. Misguidedly believing that I was just not smart enough to have the right answers I often changed my intuitive knowing answer to what ultimately proved to be the wrong answer. I had difficulty maintaining a decent grade average throughout school that only served to give energy and 'proof' to my thought that I just didn't have the smarts everyone else did. Truth is I was absolutely smart enough. My original answers were most often correct yet I doubted my own intuition. Teachers would lament that I was not living up to my potential and they were right.
Firmly believing that I wasn't smart enough or good enough at anything to score well on an exam of any kind, I avoided them as if they were some dreaded disease. As in my youth, I struggled with tests I had to take and often had to retake these tests in order to achieve a passing grade. Visits to the DMV were dreaded because the written test loomed large. Thankfully I didn't have to take that awful test very often. Until today.
"Every man, through fear, mugs his aspirations a dozen times a day." ~Brendan Francis
I recently moved back to California and had to register my car and get a state drivers license. I had long since learned that I'm not merely smart enough, I am actually very bright. I learned how to tap into and trust my intuition and it had served me very well over the last few years. Yet on the way to the DMV I felt that old sick feeling in my stomach when I thought about the test I would have to take and pass in order to get what I wanted - a California drivers license.
The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach was the first sign that I had started to veer off course, move away from what I wanted to achieve. I wanted a California drivers license and know I was entertaining thoughts filled with doubt and fear. Tapping into that wise Wizard Within, I reminded myself of all the things I had done well in my life; things that if I didn't have a brain in my head I could not do. It began with learning how to walk! Heck, if I thought to myself that I was just not smart enough to learn how to walk the first time I fell on my butt I would still be crawling around on my hands and knees!
I was feeling more confident as I took the test, read each question for clarity, made my choice and marked my answer. As I stood in line to turn my exam in to be graded I started to hear the voice of that old Inner Critic serving up doubt that I made the right choice, got the right answer. Ignoring the fact that I know how to drive, have managed to drive for decades without losing my license and had passed the test (ultimately) before, I was about to make a few changes to my test answers when I mindfully stopped myself. I took a deep breath and reconnected with my GPS who reminded me that choices made from fear and self-doubt would always lead me in the direction I did NOT want to go. Choices made centered in the truth of who I am, confident and tapped into my unlimited internal resource of wisdom and intuitive guidance will always deliver that which I seek. I made no changes to my test as I once had in the past.
I aced the exam. Got every question right and I hadn't even read the California Driver's Handbook! Woo-Hoo!
It's a seemingly small example of how everything you need to be, do and have what you want in life is already within you. Never doubt your ability to create the life experience you long for. What your heart longs for is what you are here to do, your purpose in life. It is why you were given your very own, unique, GPS to guide you to fully express your fully potential. Tap into this wisdom that is your birthright and you will always be guided well as you turn your dreams into reality!
"The unconscious is our best collaborator."- Director Mike Nichols
Valery is an Artist Mindset Mentor & Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles in the life of an actor, artist and performer. Clients learn how to express their full potential to create more passionately, profoundly, productively & profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Fear And Loathing = Celebrity Self-Sabotage
What is it about celebrity that often results in a pattern of self-sabotage and public humiliation? What drives the crash and burn of those who seemingly have everything going for them? Celebrities have success, fame and the financial resources to live a rich delicious life. Why, then, are so many famous people unhappy, addicted to drugs or on a downward spiral spinning out of control as they destroy everything they desire and worked so hard to achieve?
Some will say that the media that shines so much attention on a rising star then engages in a feeding frenzy to knock the celebrity off the very pedestal they placed her on. It is true that in the days of competitive 24-hour news channels and entertainment tabloid television shows the media is hungry for scintillating celebrity stories that will pull in ratings. However, the media did not take the drugs, pick up the hooker, have a public temper tantrum or end up in jail for one reason or another. The celebrity behaved badly; made bad choices that resulted in unwanted or even humiliating outcomes.
“If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility for it. If we can't take responsibility for it, we'll always be its victim.” - Richard Bach
The choices you make in life are based on your perception of yourself, your world and what's possible for you in that world. The egoic behavior often exhibited by famous people is often a means to hide inner insecurity. Some celebrities feel like a imposters, feel like they are frauds and it's only a matter of time before the public and their peers find out that they really aren't good, smart or talented enough. Or they don't believe that they deserve all the attention and wealth thrust upon them. What the public sees as arrogance, then, is often masked low self-esteem. Self-loathing guarantees a path of self-destruction. You only have to look as far as the lives of Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, Mariah Carey, and Mel Gibson to see examples of stars crumbling their careers and reputations with their bizarre behavior.
"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right!" - Henry Ford
Simply put, if you think you are a fraud; if you think you are not worthy, you will unconsciously work very hard to bring yourself back down to a level of experience that matches who and what you think you are. You will Find Excuses And Reasons (F.E.A.R.) that will justify even the most bizarre incidents of behavior. "What was I thinking?" you will lament. Exactly, what were you thinking? What was the thought that resulted in the action that created the incident of self-sabotage?
Once you examine the thoughts that create your outcomes you will be able to reframe these thoughts to turn them into a structure that supports rather than undermines you. If you think you are a fraud with little or no real talent focus upon your moments of brilliance, when you have creatively expressed your full potential. Those are those enjoyable moments when you are 'in the zone' firing on all cylinders in the throws of doing what you love to do. If you think you do not deserve the abundance of wealth and/or opportunity you have, focus upon all that you have achieved. Just getting up every day and following your dream is an achievement! Learn how to love yourself unconditionally so you can accept the love and adoration shone upon you.
“Don't become a victim of yourself. Forget about the thief waiting in the alley; what about the thief in your mind?” - Jim Rohn
Valery is an Artist Mindset Mentor & Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles in the life of an actor, artist and performer. Clients learn how to express their full potential to create more passionately, profoundly, productively & profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Some will say that the media that shines so much attention on a rising star then engages in a feeding frenzy to knock the celebrity off the very pedestal they placed her on. It is true that in the days of competitive 24-hour news channels and entertainment tabloid television shows the media is hungry for scintillating celebrity stories that will pull in ratings. However, the media did not take the drugs, pick up the hooker, have a public temper tantrum or end up in jail for one reason or another. The celebrity behaved badly; made bad choices that resulted in unwanted or even humiliating outcomes.
“If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility for it. If we can't take responsibility for it, we'll always be its victim.” - Richard Bach
The choices you make in life are based on your perception of yourself, your world and what's possible for you in that world. The egoic behavior often exhibited by famous people is often a means to hide inner insecurity. Some celebrities feel like a imposters, feel like they are frauds and it's only a matter of time before the public and their peers find out that they really aren't good, smart or talented enough. Or they don't believe that they deserve all the attention and wealth thrust upon them. What the public sees as arrogance, then, is often masked low self-esteem. Self-loathing guarantees a path of self-destruction. You only have to look as far as the lives of Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, Mariah Carey, and Mel Gibson to see examples of stars crumbling their careers and reputations with their bizarre behavior.
"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right!" - Henry Ford
Simply put, if you think you are a fraud; if you think you are not worthy, you will unconsciously work very hard to bring yourself back down to a level of experience that matches who and what you think you are. You will Find Excuses And Reasons (F.E.A.R.) that will justify even the most bizarre incidents of behavior. "What was I thinking?" you will lament. Exactly, what were you thinking? What was the thought that resulted in the action that created the incident of self-sabotage?
Once you examine the thoughts that create your outcomes you will be able to reframe these thoughts to turn them into a structure that supports rather than undermines you. If you think you are a fraud with little or no real talent focus upon your moments of brilliance, when you have creatively expressed your full potential. Those are those enjoyable moments when you are 'in the zone' firing on all cylinders in the throws of doing what you love to do. If you think you do not deserve the abundance of wealth and/or opportunity you have, focus upon all that you have achieved. Just getting up every day and following your dream is an achievement! Learn how to love yourself unconditionally so you can accept the love and adoration shone upon you.
“Don't become a victim of yourself. Forget about the thief waiting in the alley; what about the thief in your mind?” - Jim Rohn
Valery is an Artist Mindset Mentor & Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles in the life of an actor, artist and performer. Clients learn how to express their full potential to create more passionately, profoundly, productively & profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Friday, August 21, 2009
How to Transform Performance Anxiety
It's a funny thing. Life provides an abundance of timely lessons often delivered in unexpected ways that can easily go unnoticed if you're not paying attention. Once you're tapped into the messages presented to you to guide you in the direction of your dreams life becomes a whimsical series of out-of-the-blue events that propel you to move beyond what holds you back. And the truth of it is, the only thing can hold you back from living the life you dream of is Yourself!
I have learned how to remain tapped into my conversation with the Universe, my Higher Self, God, or whatever you want to call it. I playfully call this voice of wisdom, intuition and inspiration the Wizard Within. Here's how I experienced a profound transformational lesson that catapulted me beyond my current comfort zone and into a large public speaking opportunity. Oddly enough, the lesson was delivered to me as I observed the different behaviors my two cats exhibited during my recent move into a new house.
My cats, siblings and rescued as kittens from Hurricane Katrina, have lived together in the same environments with the same set of circumstances throughout their entire lives. Yet they are vastly different from how they show up in their day. This difference creates two completely different experiences resulting from the very same events. Dak loved the move. She had such fun. Each day there were boxes to explore, wrapping paper to tear apart, new cubby holes to crawl into. There were new people to greet as the movers came in an out of the house loading and unloading furniture and new windows to explore the outside world. Every day for Dak was a new opportunity to learn, grow and have some fun!
Willy, on the other hand, experienced the very same event with a different perspective. She did not enjoy the move one bit. She showed up each day terrified of what new change she would have to face and what new person would come into the house that could harm her. She didn't explore her new surroundings. She found the first 'hidey-hole' and hid there - for days. Terrified. Her world shrunk to the size of a tiny space behind the washing machine and she certainly did not have any fun.
Where Dak saw opportunity for fun and adventure, Willy saw a threat to her very survival. Same event, two different perspectives resulting in two different experiences.
"Be able at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you can become." - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
The same is true in your life. Events in and of themselves do not cause stress. It is how you view these events, what you have the events of your life mean for and about you that creates your anxiety. Simply put, You create your anxiety. If you don't like experiencing anxiety every time you are faced with an opportunity that requires you to "put yourself out there", do something that stretches beyond your comfort zone, then reach for another perspective. Look for ways the experience can help you learn, grow and have some fun.
I had a pattern of crawling into my proverbial hidey-hole when given an opportunity to speak in front of any kind of an audience. Oh, I Found Excuses And Reasons (F.E.A.R.) why I absolutely could not speak on that day in front of a particular audience but the truth was I was terrified. What if I fail? What if I completely embarrassed myself? My career, my life would be over! I'll never be able to show my face in this town again!
I viewed this opportunity from the perspective that the worse thing that could possibly happen to me if I spoke in front of this audience would, indeed, happen. If I ran and hid when I fell on my butt trying to learn how to walk I would still be crawling around on my hands and knees. It never occurred to me that people crash and burn in front of audiences every time and live to tell the tale. Hugh Grant crashed and burned in a public way when he picked up a Hollywood hooker and got caught. What did he do? He went on Jay Leno's show and lovingly laughed at himself and the audience embraced him. He has not been caught picking up a hooker or publicly humiliated since. Grant went on to continue a very successful career.
Others have publicly humiliated themselves and blamed everyone and every thing else on the planet for their misstep. These people continue to humiliate themselves regularly providing scintillating fodder for the newspaper tabloids. Instead of being embraced by their audience they are ridiculed, publicly. They learn nothing from the event. Their world of opportunity shrinks and they certainly are not having any fun!
So, if you noticed that you are anxious, in fear, of doing something know that this very thing is what your heart is longing for you to become. Do the thing that makes you anxious to transform your anxiety, whether it be public speaking, auditioning for a major career enhancing role, or attempting to give a dinner party for twelve when all you know how to cook is a hard boiled egg. Learn, grow and have some fun!
"Live, live, live! Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" - Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame, 1958
Valery is an Artist Mindset Mentor & Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles in the life of an actor, artist and performer. Clients learn how to express their full potential to create more passionately, profoundly, productively & profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
I have learned how to remain tapped into my conversation with the Universe, my Higher Self, God, or whatever you want to call it. I playfully call this voice of wisdom, intuition and inspiration the Wizard Within. Here's how I experienced a profound transformational lesson that catapulted me beyond my current comfort zone and into a large public speaking opportunity. Oddly enough, the lesson was delivered to me as I observed the different behaviors my two cats exhibited during my recent move into a new house.
My cats, siblings and rescued as kittens from Hurricane Katrina, have lived together in the same environments with the same set of circumstances throughout their entire lives. Yet they are vastly different from how they show up in their day. This difference creates two completely different experiences resulting from the very same events. Dak loved the move. She had such fun. Each day there were boxes to explore, wrapping paper to tear apart, new cubby holes to crawl into. There were new people to greet as the movers came in an out of the house loading and unloading furniture and new windows to explore the outside world. Every day for Dak was a new opportunity to learn, grow and have some fun!
Willy, on the other hand, experienced the very same event with a different perspective. She did not enjoy the move one bit. She showed up each day terrified of what new change she would have to face and what new person would come into the house that could harm her. She didn't explore her new surroundings. She found the first 'hidey-hole' and hid there - for days. Terrified. Her world shrunk to the size of a tiny space behind the washing machine and she certainly did not have any fun.
Where Dak saw opportunity for fun and adventure, Willy saw a threat to her very survival. Same event, two different perspectives resulting in two different experiences.
"Be able at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you can become." - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
The same is true in your life. Events in and of themselves do not cause stress. It is how you view these events, what you have the events of your life mean for and about you that creates your anxiety. Simply put, You create your anxiety. If you don't like experiencing anxiety every time you are faced with an opportunity that requires you to "put yourself out there", do something that stretches beyond your comfort zone, then reach for another perspective. Look for ways the experience can help you learn, grow and have some fun.
I had a pattern of crawling into my proverbial hidey-hole when given an opportunity to speak in front of any kind of an audience. Oh, I Found Excuses And Reasons (F.E.A.R.) why I absolutely could not speak on that day in front of a particular audience but the truth was I was terrified. What if I fail? What if I completely embarrassed myself? My career, my life would be over! I'll never be able to show my face in this town again!
I viewed this opportunity from the perspective that the worse thing that could possibly happen to me if I spoke in front of this audience would, indeed, happen. If I ran and hid when I fell on my butt trying to learn how to walk I would still be crawling around on my hands and knees. It never occurred to me that people crash and burn in front of audiences every time and live to tell the tale. Hugh Grant crashed and burned in a public way when he picked up a Hollywood hooker and got caught. What did he do? He went on Jay Leno's show and lovingly laughed at himself and the audience embraced him. He has not been caught picking up a hooker or publicly humiliated since. Grant went on to continue a very successful career.
Others have publicly humiliated themselves and blamed everyone and every thing else on the planet for their misstep. These people continue to humiliate themselves regularly providing scintillating fodder for the newspaper tabloids. Instead of being embraced by their audience they are ridiculed, publicly. They learn nothing from the event. Their world of opportunity shrinks and they certainly are not having any fun!
So, if you noticed that you are anxious, in fear, of doing something know that this very thing is what your heart is longing for you to become. Do the thing that makes you anxious to transform your anxiety, whether it be public speaking, auditioning for a major career enhancing role, or attempting to give a dinner party for twelve when all you know how to cook is a hard boiled egg. Learn, grow and have some fun!
"Live, live, live! Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" - Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame, 1958
Valery is an Artist Mindset Mentor & Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles in the life of an actor, artist and performer. Clients learn how to express their full potential to create more passionately, profoundly, productively & profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
How to Unclog Artist Block
It’s a devastating thing for an artist to feel they’ve lost their inspiration, to encounter a creative block. But suffering from artist’s block doesn’t mean you’ve lost your artistic ability. Artist block can be overcome.
Invariably it will happen. It's something that happens to all creative beings and all beings are born to create something. Within each purpose beats a heart that longs to be, do and have in this world. When a creative person suffers from an artist block or has lost their inspiration to create it is a devastating experience. Life energy is seemingly drained and the person is left empty in desperation.
Then fear takes over. Fear that there is no longer purpose in life, no reason for being, no hope for the future. Someone who suffers from artist block will Find Excuses And Reasons (F.E.A.R.) why she cannot possibly create that day or 'should' give up the dream to pursue some other, inauthentic, vocation. Or, she will despair day in and day out over the inability to create and the lack of inspiration. In this despair she will further drive that which she longs for even further from her reach. It can become an agonizing and soulfully vicious cycle of existence.
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Winston Churchill
If your heart literally aches from artist block then know this: your truth is that you are an artist. That's why your heart aches. You are not expressing who you are at your deepest core. You were born to fully express your artistic potential. Anything short of this achievement will leave you feeling a little less whole, striving to reach for an expansion of your artful communication to the world.
In that moment, the moment you are awash in this truth you have a choice. You can choose to ignore this truth, give up in fear and go find some other life to live; creating someone else's truth. You can beat yourself up over your lack of inspiration further driving you away from what your heart is calling you to become. Or you can take a deep breath, center yourself in the truth of who you are, and ask your inner being what it wants to express. Then pick up your script, your paint brush, your instrument, your pencil, seat yourself at your computer - place yourself in a position where you can begin whatever it is you wish to create.
"To know how to choose a path with heart is to learn how to follow intuitive felling." - Jean Shinoda Bolen
If inspiration doesn't present itself immediately that's ok. Every bit of inspiration that you long for is already within you. All you have to do is allow it to flow. The more you resist your block the more power and energy you add to this block. Allow yourself to be blocked for the moment and begin anyway. Try a new approach to the character you're portraying, put some paint on the canvas, write the next line in your book even if the line is "I have no idea what comes next" and then take another step until the expression flows. Allow those first few forward movements to be real stinkers if that's what needs to get out of the way so your creativity can flow again. Let go of any judgment that what you create has to be good. Sometimes it is the woefully errant advancement that will lead to the opening of your creative resources once again.
Let go. Know that blocks are inevitable and that you have all the power you need within you to fully express your artistic potential. Honor your truth and your will be and act in the direction of your dream. You will live in alignment with your purpose in life following your own inner wisdom, the voice of your intuition, your higher being, your muse.
"There is neither painting, nor sculpture, nor music, nor poetry. The only truth is creation." - Umberto Boccioni
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Invariably it will happen. It's something that happens to all creative beings and all beings are born to create something. Within each purpose beats a heart that longs to be, do and have in this world. When a creative person suffers from an artist block or has lost their inspiration to create it is a devastating experience. Life energy is seemingly drained and the person is left empty in desperation.
Then fear takes over. Fear that there is no longer purpose in life, no reason for being, no hope for the future. Someone who suffers from artist block will Find Excuses And Reasons (F.E.A.R.) why she cannot possibly create that day or 'should' give up the dream to pursue some other, inauthentic, vocation. Or, she will despair day in and day out over the inability to create and the lack of inspiration. In this despair she will further drive that which she longs for even further from her reach. It can become an agonizing and soulfully vicious cycle of existence.
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Winston Churchill
If your heart literally aches from artist block then know this: your truth is that you are an artist. That's why your heart aches. You are not expressing who you are at your deepest core. You were born to fully express your artistic potential. Anything short of this achievement will leave you feeling a little less whole, striving to reach for an expansion of your artful communication to the world.
In that moment, the moment you are awash in this truth you have a choice. You can choose to ignore this truth, give up in fear and go find some other life to live; creating someone else's truth. You can beat yourself up over your lack of inspiration further driving you away from what your heart is calling you to become. Or you can take a deep breath, center yourself in the truth of who you are, and ask your inner being what it wants to express. Then pick up your script, your paint brush, your instrument, your pencil, seat yourself at your computer - place yourself in a position where you can begin whatever it is you wish to create.
"To know how to choose a path with heart is to learn how to follow intuitive felling." - Jean Shinoda Bolen
If inspiration doesn't present itself immediately that's ok. Every bit of inspiration that you long for is already within you. All you have to do is allow it to flow. The more you resist your block the more power and energy you add to this block. Allow yourself to be blocked for the moment and begin anyway. Try a new approach to the character you're portraying, put some paint on the canvas, write the next line in your book even if the line is "I have no idea what comes next" and then take another step until the expression flows. Allow those first few forward movements to be real stinkers if that's what needs to get out of the way so your creativity can flow again. Let go of any judgment that what you create has to be good. Sometimes it is the woefully errant advancement that will lead to the opening of your creative resources once again.
Let go. Know that blocks are inevitable and that you have all the power you need within you to fully express your artistic potential. Honor your truth and your will be and act in the direction of your dream. You will live in alignment with your purpose in life following your own inner wisdom, the voice of your intuition, your higher being, your muse.
"There is neither painting, nor sculpture, nor music, nor poetry. The only truth is creation." - Umberto Boccioni
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Monday, August 17, 2009
The Key to Creative Flow: Learn the Four C’s To Enhance Your Creativity
Just as learning your ABC’s are fundamental to a basic education, learning the Four C’s of Creativity are essential to life as a powerful and deliberate creator of your art and your life experience. If you are not living a life abundant with new inspiration and enthusiasm for your creative challenges then it is likely you are missing one of the C’s, a key ingredient to the recipe for boosting your creative flow.
The four C’s of Creative Flow are:
1. Centering
”The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.” – Albert Einstein
When you are centered, in alignment with the truth of who you are, life flows effortlessly. Your moments are largely spent “in the zone” of your creative spirit. You are engaged, unaware of the passage of time and firing on all cylinders of your artistic expression and life potential.
When you are un-centered, not in harmony with your authenticity life becomes a tiresome and often anxiety ridden struggle. You work exhaustively trying to fulfill the inauthentic expectations, the ‘shoulds and must do’s” demanded of you by yourself and others. Your heart longs to express and create one thing yet you hold yourself back to pursue another, often perceptively safer, path.
You may get brilliant at creating these false expectations but they will leave you unfulfilled, living a life of desperation.
2. Choice
“How you choose to respond each moment to the movie of life determines how you see the next frame, and the next, and eventually how you feel when the movie ends.” – Don Childre
Once you acknowledge and honor your truth, stand centered in the truth of who you are, it is necessary to base the choices you make and the actions you take upon this truth. If you step off your center, make a choice that is not in alignment with your center then you will struggle. Your creative flow will be blocked leaving you frustrated and unable to fully and effectively express yourself in your work and in your life.
If your choices are not grounded in your center, your core of being, you will not create the outcomes you desire. A choice acted upon and based on your truth will deliver the outcome, and experience, you want to create. A choice to take a different path, limit yourself and your possibilities in any way will create “less than” or even a train-wreck of an experience.
Choices that speak your truth feel good. Choices that belie your truth feel bad. It’s as simple as that.
3. Commitment
“The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” - Vince Lombardi
If you show up in your life centered in your truth, making choices that honor that truth you must commit yourself to honoring the choices you make. If you quit or hold yourself back in any way then you have made a new choice that is not in alignment with your center. You have strayed from your path of authenticity and the road to creating the art you wish to express and experiences you desire.
Staying committed to yourself requires trust in and love of yourself. What you long for is your birthright. It is what you are here to create. It is your purpose in life, that is why you feel its calling deep within your soul. Even if the journey is a bit arduous, if you are committed to YOU the experience will be exciting and fulfilling.
4. Challenge
“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” – Bernice Johnson Reagon
It is a challenge to stay committed to your choices and center of truth. You will be called upon time and time again to stretch beyond your current comfort zone. Moving beyond what you know is unknown and, therefore, scary. In your fear you may Find Excuses And Reasons (F.E.A.R.) to step back from your commitment, your choices and your core of being.
You may not like your current comfort zone and say you want to achieve certain goals but if you discover that you are serving up excuses why you, others, or circumstance prevent you from maintaining your commitment then know that you are in a state of fear. Just take a deep breath. Breathe out. Center yourself. Listen to what your inner being wants. Let go of the voice of that incessant Inner Critic who works hard to keep you safe. Keeping you safe to this well-meaning yet woefully misguided egoic part of you is to keep you right where you are. It’s what you know so it’s safe.
There you have it, the four C’s of Creative Flow. As with learning how to ride a bicycle, you may fall on your butt a time or two as you apply these lessons in your life. That’s ok. Just brush yourself off and get back on your bike! Enjoy the ride.
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
The four C’s of Creative Flow are:
1. Centering
”The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.” – Albert Einstein
When you are centered, in alignment with the truth of who you are, life flows effortlessly. Your moments are largely spent “in the zone” of your creative spirit. You are engaged, unaware of the passage of time and firing on all cylinders of your artistic expression and life potential.
When you are un-centered, not in harmony with your authenticity life becomes a tiresome and often anxiety ridden struggle. You work exhaustively trying to fulfill the inauthentic expectations, the ‘shoulds and must do’s” demanded of you by yourself and others. Your heart longs to express and create one thing yet you hold yourself back to pursue another, often perceptively safer, path.
You may get brilliant at creating these false expectations but they will leave you unfulfilled, living a life of desperation.
2. Choice
“How you choose to respond each moment to the movie of life determines how you see the next frame, and the next, and eventually how you feel when the movie ends.” – Don Childre
Once you acknowledge and honor your truth, stand centered in the truth of who you are, it is necessary to base the choices you make and the actions you take upon this truth. If you step off your center, make a choice that is not in alignment with your center then you will struggle. Your creative flow will be blocked leaving you frustrated and unable to fully and effectively express yourself in your work and in your life.
If your choices are not grounded in your center, your core of being, you will not create the outcomes you desire. A choice acted upon and based on your truth will deliver the outcome, and experience, you want to create. A choice to take a different path, limit yourself and your possibilities in any way will create “less than” or even a train-wreck of an experience.
Choices that speak your truth feel good. Choices that belie your truth feel bad. It’s as simple as that.
3. Commitment
“The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” - Vince Lombardi
If you show up in your life centered in your truth, making choices that honor that truth you must commit yourself to honoring the choices you make. If you quit or hold yourself back in any way then you have made a new choice that is not in alignment with your center. You have strayed from your path of authenticity and the road to creating the art you wish to express and experiences you desire.
Staying committed to yourself requires trust in and love of yourself. What you long for is your birthright. It is what you are here to create. It is your purpose in life, that is why you feel its calling deep within your soul. Even if the journey is a bit arduous, if you are committed to YOU the experience will be exciting and fulfilling.
4. Challenge
“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” – Bernice Johnson Reagon
It is a challenge to stay committed to your choices and center of truth. You will be called upon time and time again to stretch beyond your current comfort zone. Moving beyond what you know is unknown and, therefore, scary. In your fear you may Find Excuses And Reasons (F.E.A.R.) to step back from your commitment, your choices and your core of being.
You may not like your current comfort zone and say you want to achieve certain goals but if you discover that you are serving up excuses why you, others, or circumstance prevent you from maintaining your commitment then know that you are in a state of fear. Just take a deep breath. Breathe out. Center yourself. Listen to what your inner being wants. Let go of the voice of that incessant Inner Critic who works hard to keep you safe. Keeping you safe to this well-meaning yet woefully misguided egoic part of you is to keep you right where you are. It’s what you know so it’s safe.
There you have it, the four C’s of Creative Flow. As with learning how to ride a bicycle, you may fall on your butt a time or two as you apply these lessons in your life. That’s ok. Just brush yourself off and get back on your bike! Enjoy the ride.
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
How To Tell If Your Choices Are Good or Bad
"The unconscious is our best collaborator."- Director Mike Nichols
Did you know that you have a personal GPS system within you? It will tell you whether or not the turn, the choice, you are about to make will lead you to your destination or not. It will tell you whether you are on the right path to achieve all that you dream of or on the road to a life unfulfilled, a dream never achieved.
This GPS system is your birthright. You experience this GPS system every day of your life yet you may not know how to use it. If your life is not going in the direction you desire, perhaps you are reading its indicators upside down. Maybe you've done a good job of ignoring or justifying the alarms it sends off. You just may not be paying any attention to the darn thing at all!
"To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." - Henry David Thoreau
Your personal guidance system is your emotions. Emotions are indicators of whether or not you've made, or are about to make, a good choice. Your emotions are served up by your Inner Being, Higher Self or what I lovingly call the Wizard Within. Wizards are alchemists. They know, precisely, how to turn dreams into reality. Your Wizard Within is there to guide you every step, every turn, on your way to the fulfillment of all experiences you desire.
"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't." - Erica Jong
Simply put, the Wizard Within will serve up a bad feeling if you're headed in the wrong direction. Similarly, if you're headed towards achieving your aspirations you will feel good! Your emotions artfully guide you every moment of every day. As a creator of your life experience, you are a masterful artist! The question is, what is guiding what you chose to create?
"Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art." - Konstantin Stanislavsky
Use your GPS to guide you as you make all of your choices, big and small. I paid attention to my Wizard Within last Sunday. I was at Home Depot buying plants for the home I just moved into. I paid for my selections and was putting my plants in my car when an uncomfortable feeling came over me. "Gee, I bought a lot of plants for $33.89!". I 'felt' that something was wrong. I looked at my receipt and saw that I was not charged for the two rather large hanging plants that were hooked onto the back of my shopping cart.
Here I was, in the parking lot, clearly getting away with my freebies yet I didn't feel good. In that moment I had a choice. I could hop in the car and go on my merry way knowing that I cheated the system or I could march back into the store and pay for my hanging plants. Which choice would make me feel good? To the sales clerk's shock and awe, I went back into Home Depot and paid for what was overlooked. I felt good again.
Why didn't I feel good about getting away with not having to pay for my purchases? It would be one thing if I were not aware that I wasn't properly charged. However, I did know. In that knowing I could choose to be a cheat and a thief or I could choose to be an honest person. As an honest person who stands centered in the truth of who I am there could only be one choice I could make that would be in alignment with that truth. Being in harmony with your truth feels good! Inauthentic choices do not feel good.
That experience was a simple example of how your emotions are GPS indicators of what life direction you are headed towards yet you can expand upon its simplicity and use it for all of your life choices, personal and professional. Use your GPS and Happy Journeys!
"Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player." - Albert Einstein
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Did you know that you have a personal GPS system within you? It will tell you whether or not the turn, the choice, you are about to make will lead you to your destination or not. It will tell you whether you are on the right path to achieve all that you dream of or on the road to a life unfulfilled, a dream never achieved.
This GPS system is your birthright. You experience this GPS system every day of your life yet you may not know how to use it. If your life is not going in the direction you desire, perhaps you are reading its indicators upside down. Maybe you've done a good job of ignoring or justifying the alarms it sends off. You just may not be paying any attention to the darn thing at all!
"To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." - Henry David Thoreau
Your personal guidance system is your emotions. Emotions are indicators of whether or not you've made, or are about to make, a good choice. Your emotions are served up by your Inner Being, Higher Self or what I lovingly call the Wizard Within. Wizards are alchemists. They know, precisely, how to turn dreams into reality. Your Wizard Within is there to guide you every step, every turn, on your way to the fulfillment of all experiences you desire.
"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't." - Erica Jong
Simply put, the Wizard Within will serve up a bad feeling if you're headed in the wrong direction. Similarly, if you're headed towards achieving your aspirations you will feel good! Your emotions artfully guide you every moment of every day. As a creator of your life experience, you are a masterful artist! The question is, what is guiding what you chose to create?
"Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art." - Konstantin Stanislavsky
Use your GPS to guide you as you make all of your choices, big and small. I paid attention to my Wizard Within last Sunday. I was at Home Depot buying plants for the home I just moved into. I paid for my selections and was putting my plants in my car when an uncomfortable feeling came over me. "Gee, I bought a lot of plants for $33.89!". I 'felt' that something was wrong. I looked at my receipt and saw that I was not charged for the two rather large hanging plants that were hooked onto the back of my shopping cart.
Here I was, in the parking lot, clearly getting away with my freebies yet I didn't feel good. In that moment I had a choice. I could hop in the car and go on my merry way knowing that I cheated the system or I could march back into the store and pay for my hanging plants. Which choice would make me feel good? To the sales clerk's shock and awe, I went back into Home Depot and paid for what was overlooked. I felt good again.
Why didn't I feel good about getting away with not having to pay for my purchases? It would be one thing if I were not aware that I wasn't properly charged. However, I did know. In that knowing I could choose to be a cheat and a thief or I could choose to be an honest person. As an honest person who stands centered in the truth of who I am there could only be one choice I could make that would be in alignment with that truth. Being in harmony with your truth feels good! Inauthentic choices do not feel good.
That experience was a simple example of how your emotions are GPS indicators of what life direction you are headed towards yet you can expand upon its simplicity and use it for all of your life choices, personal and professional. Use your GPS and Happy Journeys!
"Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player." - Albert Einstein
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Monday, August 10, 2009
How to Tap Into Your Greatest Talent
It's a funny thing. What you excel at, what is your greatest gift, may not be obvious to you. You may believe that what you do and create so effortlessly is easily achieved by anyone and everyone. It comes so naturally for you that you think it comes just as naturally for everyone else. Therefore, you may be oblivious to your special talent, your unique gift that is your birthright and purpose in life.
"Actors are dependent on being validated by other people's opinions. I don't understand what it is I do that people want. I don't know what an actor does. I have no credentials. I don't know what I'm doing. To my mind, talent doesn't really exist. Talent is like a card player's luck. It is motivation, ambition, and luck. I think acting is a con game." - Shia LaBeouf
One way to identify what is your special talent is to examine your energy level. When you are "in the zone" in the present moment of being and doing, full of energy without regard to time and space you are fully expressing your true potential, your gift. You are engaged. Your energy level is abundant and unlimited. The more you do, the more energy you generate. Your experience flows effortlessly. You experience joy.
If you are tired, possibly to the point of exhaustion you are not in alignment with your authentic and unique talent. You can get really good at what you're doing but it takes extra joyless effort to achieve a level of excellence. Perhaps you are working hard to achieve someone else's vision of what you are supposed to, or should be, creating for your life's work. You may even reach the top in your career yet you feel like something is missing, feel unfulfilled. Even with success, your emptiness is grounded in your unexpressed gifts.
"Nobody ever encouraged me in this business. I encouraged myself. I was a very dull and shy child. I was the last person you would expect to be a success in this business. But I always felt if I kept going something would happen. But I even surprised myself at times. When I was doing ensemble theater and comedy work, I felt I had some talents. But when I started doing my shows in Berkeley and found that I could be funny on my own, I was shocked." - Whoopie Goldberg
When you recognize and acknowledge your individual and extraordinary talent you stand centered in the truth of who you are. Your energy and self-esteem emanates from that state of being. You are present and fully available for what comes next. Your talent expands and flows effortlessly from your center, your heart. Your gift is vital to the positive and ever expanding life experience of all that you touch. This is your purpose in life. Own it. Embrace it. Shine it upon your personal stage, your life expression.
"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." - Alan Alda
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
"Actors are dependent on being validated by other people's opinions. I don't understand what it is I do that people want. I don't know what an actor does. I have no credentials. I don't know what I'm doing. To my mind, talent doesn't really exist. Talent is like a card player's luck. It is motivation, ambition, and luck. I think acting is a con game." - Shia LaBeouf
One way to identify what is your special talent is to examine your energy level. When you are "in the zone" in the present moment of being and doing, full of energy without regard to time and space you are fully expressing your true potential, your gift. You are engaged. Your energy level is abundant and unlimited. The more you do, the more energy you generate. Your experience flows effortlessly. You experience joy.
If you are tired, possibly to the point of exhaustion you are not in alignment with your authentic and unique talent. You can get really good at what you're doing but it takes extra joyless effort to achieve a level of excellence. Perhaps you are working hard to achieve someone else's vision of what you are supposed to, or should be, creating for your life's work. You may even reach the top in your career yet you feel like something is missing, feel unfulfilled. Even with success, your emptiness is grounded in your unexpressed gifts.
"Nobody ever encouraged me in this business. I encouraged myself. I was a very dull and shy child. I was the last person you would expect to be a success in this business. But I always felt if I kept going something would happen. But I even surprised myself at times. When I was doing ensemble theater and comedy work, I felt I had some talents. But when I started doing my shows in Berkeley and found that I could be funny on my own, I was shocked." - Whoopie Goldberg
When you recognize and acknowledge your individual and extraordinary talent you stand centered in the truth of who you are. Your energy and self-esteem emanates from that state of being. You are present and fully available for what comes next. Your talent expands and flows effortlessly from your center, your heart. Your gift is vital to the positive and ever expanding life experience of all that you touch. This is your purpose in life. Own it. Embrace it. Shine it upon your personal stage, your life expression.
"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." - Alan Alda
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Friday, August 7, 2009
Stuck in a Creative Rut? You May Be Following Fools Rules
Life is a game. Whether you enjoy life or not depends upon the rules - your own personal rules of life.
Whether you realize it or not you guide your life, make your choices, based upon a set of rules you selected for yourself in early childhood. These rules were based on misinterpretation or complete unchallenged acceptance of whatever was seen or heard. A well-meaning relative who tells a child "Don't be stupid" as she is about to put mustard on the cookie dough becomes Rule #1: I AM STUPID. A teacher's remark that a child is not performing to her potential becomes Rule #2: I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH. A well-meaning parent's warning "Don't talk to strangers" becomes Rule #3: STRANGERS WILL HURT ME.
“Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.” - Henry David Thoreau
The rules you have taken on for yourself that do not support you hold you back. If you believe you are stupid you will not attempt creative challenges that require intelligence. If you think you are not good enough you won't allow yourself to reach for what you desire to achieve in your craft. If you think strangers can inflict harm you may resist public speaking.
Your Inner Critic, often the fool, is the manager of these rules. Since you adopted these rules, you can change them. You can take away the power your Inner Critic has to shape your choices and possibilities around these rules. You have the power to create NEW RULES!
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.” - Dr. Seuss
Be mindful of the thought patterns and internal belief systems (your rules) that form the decisions you make, the direction you take in life. If you discover that they are negative and unsupportive take note. If, for example, you recognize the "I am stupid" rule being served up by that Inner Critic of yours, look for evidence of a new rule - "I AM SMART". Examine your life and look for experiences where you made a choice that benefited you and others. Look for examples of the opposite. Create a newer, better, rule to believe in.
“The rule which forbids ending a sentence with a preposition is the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put.” - Winston Churchill
Project this exercise out into other areas in your life. For example, if you believe that women over 40 years of age cannot get a good role in a movie look to the many women over 40 who are, indeed, getting great juicy parts in major motion pictures. Meryl Streep, Heather Locklear, Diane Lane, Michelle Pfeiffer, Cindy Crawford, Glenn Close, Ellen Barkin, Marcia Cross, Helen Mirren, Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, Lauren Graham, Mary-Louise Parker, Frances McDormand, Laura Linney, Dame Judi Dench, Sally Field, and Emma Thompson are just a few of the many women over 40 who are actively working and enjoying successful acting careers.
“Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases, though not often.” - Samuel Butler
Your Inner Critic whispers your old misguided set of rules to you when you are about to stretch beyond your current comfort zone. This frightened little child within works hard to keep you safe although it is very misguided on what will keep you safe. It fears change of any kind. Change is unknown and therefore frightful. Rely on the power that you have within you that is your birthright. I playfully call this internal resource of self-esteem and wisdom the Wizard Within. When in doubt, ask what your Wizard Within would choose to believe and do. Change your rules to change your life!
“We all know, from what we experience with and within ourselves, that our conscious acts spring from our desires and our fears. - Albert Einstein
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Whether you realize it or not you guide your life, make your choices, based upon a set of rules you selected for yourself in early childhood. These rules were based on misinterpretation or complete unchallenged acceptance of whatever was seen or heard. A well-meaning relative who tells a child "Don't be stupid" as she is about to put mustard on the cookie dough becomes Rule #1: I AM STUPID. A teacher's remark that a child is not performing to her potential becomes Rule #2: I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH. A well-meaning parent's warning "Don't talk to strangers" becomes Rule #3: STRANGERS WILL HURT ME.
“Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.” - Henry David Thoreau
The rules you have taken on for yourself that do not support you hold you back. If you believe you are stupid you will not attempt creative challenges that require intelligence. If you think you are not good enough you won't allow yourself to reach for what you desire to achieve in your craft. If you think strangers can inflict harm you may resist public speaking.
Your Inner Critic, often the fool, is the manager of these rules. Since you adopted these rules, you can change them. You can take away the power your Inner Critic has to shape your choices and possibilities around these rules. You have the power to create NEW RULES!
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.” - Dr. Seuss
Be mindful of the thought patterns and internal belief systems (your rules) that form the decisions you make, the direction you take in life. If you discover that they are negative and unsupportive take note. If, for example, you recognize the "I am stupid" rule being served up by that Inner Critic of yours, look for evidence of a new rule - "I AM SMART". Examine your life and look for experiences where you made a choice that benefited you and others. Look for examples of the opposite. Create a newer, better, rule to believe in.
“The rule which forbids ending a sentence with a preposition is the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put.” - Winston Churchill
Project this exercise out into other areas in your life. For example, if you believe that women over 40 years of age cannot get a good role in a movie look to the many women over 40 who are, indeed, getting great juicy parts in major motion pictures. Meryl Streep, Heather Locklear, Diane Lane, Michelle Pfeiffer, Cindy Crawford, Glenn Close, Ellen Barkin, Marcia Cross, Helen Mirren, Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, Lauren Graham, Mary-Louise Parker, Frances McDormand, Laura Linney, Dame Judi Dench, Sally Field, and Emma Thompson are just a few of the many women over 40 who are actively working and enjoying successful acting careers.
“Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases, though not often.” - Samuel Butler
Your Inner Critic whispers your old misguided set of rules to you when you are about to stretch beyond your current comfort zone. This frightened little child within works hard to keep you safe although it is very misguided on what will keep you safe. It fears change of any kind. Change is unknown and therefore frightful. Rely on the power that you have within you that is your birthright. I playfully call this internal resource of self-esteem and wisdom the Wizard Within. When in doubt, ask what your Wizard Within would choose to believe and do. Change your rules to change your life!
“We all know, from what we experience with and within ourselves, that our conscious acts spring from our desires and our fears. - Albert Einstein
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Your Self-Worth - Is It Measured by Your Stuff?
People often associate self-worth to worldly attachments and achievements. During your life, you are always trying to get something, be it education, job, money, or other material pleasures. You feel these things represent your value. The stuff (or lack of stuff) is evidence of how successful or unsuccessful you have been in your life. When you were little you wrote in your “Rule book for life” that more and better stuff meant that you were “more better”.
Time for a New Rule: “I am not my stuff.”
You can have, enjoy and cherish stuff. Good stuff, cheap stuff, luxury items, trinkets, baubles, and bling. No problem there. Where you do run into difficulty is when you use the stuff to define who you are.
“I am a person to be valued. I am as good or better than you! Just look at my Rolex watch or my Prada bag!” This is an internal belief pattern that someone with low self-esteem, low self-worth would have.
A person with high self-worth has the Rolex watch a Prada bag because she likes the design, has a use for a watch and bag, can easily afford such luxury items. The items don’t define her. She knows, with certainty, that she is a worthy person with or without having high-end designer accessories.
Material achievements do not indicate your true self-worth. How you feel about yourself is how self-worth, or self-esteem, is valued. Unfortunately for many, shopping for stuff is what they think will get them from who they think they are to who they want to be. There is not a dress, luxury automobile, or piece of jewelry that can ever make you feel better about yourself at your deepest core. Oh, you may experience a brief ‘high’ when you purchase the item and the boost is momentary at best.
The Inner Wizard within you, the voice of your intuition and inspiration, knows your value. You are the most worthy, most important being in the world to your Inner Wizard. Everything it does is to help you get everything you really want in life, including luxury experiences.
The Inner Critic within you, the voice of your self-doubt and fear, doesn’t recognize your value. It thinks you have little value so it tells you that if you have things that other people think are valuable you will be thought of as valuable too. Your Inner Critic has good intentions, it is just woefully misguided. Nothing outside of you can make you feel better about your self. Self-worth comes from within.
Some people tell me that their Mommy or Daddy never said they were good at anything when they were children. “Woe is me. I never got any positive feedback when I was little. It’s their fault I have low self-esteem.” First of all, you were born with a healthy self-worth. You valued yourself as the most wonderful and most important thing in your world. As a baby, whenever you wanted something you never questioned whether you were worthy enough to have it. You freely asked for it. Demanded it sometimes.
Whether it’s true or not that your parents didn’t give you positive feedback to help you maintain high self-esteem is irrelevant. You can now be your own parent. You can give yourself great feedback. Learn to see and acknowledge all of the good, the value that you bring, to the world each and every day. Every time you smile at someone, you brighten that person’s day. Find things, little and big things, about which to pat yourself on the back as a habit.
The connection between stuff and self-worth is a connection only made by your Inner Critic. Disarm this voice within you and empower your Inner Wizard who has always known your tremendous value. Value yourself as you would have others value you. It begins with you.
I encourage you to eat positive feedback for breakfast! Give yourself a healthy dose each and every morning.
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
Time for a New Rule: “I am not my stuff.”
You can have, enjoy and cherish stuff. Good stuff, cheap stuff, luxury items, trinkets, baubles, and bling. No problem there. Where you do run into difficulty is when you use the stuff to define who you are.
“I am a person to be valued. I am as good or better than you! Just look at my Rolex watch or my Prada bag!” This is an internal belief pattern that someone with low self-esteem, low self-worth would have.
A person with high self-worth has the Rolex watch a Prada bag because she likes the design, has a use for a watch and bag, can easily afford such luxury items. The items don’t define her. She knows, with certainty, that she is a worthy person with or without having high-end designer accessories.
Material achievements do not indicate your true self-worth. How you feel about yourself is how self-worth, or self-esteem, is valued. Unfortunately for many, shopping for stuff is what they think will get them from who they think they are to who they want to be. There is not a dress, luxury automobile, or piece of jewelry that can ever make you feel better about yourself at your deepest core. Oh, you may experience a brief ‘high’ when you purchase the item and the boost is momentary at best.
The Inner Wizard within you, the voice of your intuition and inspiration, knows your value. You are the most worthy, most important being in the world to your Inner Wizard. Everything it does is to help you get everything you really want in life, including luxury experiences.
The Inner Critic within you, the voice of your self-doubt and fear, doesn’t recognize your value. It thinks you have little value so it tells you that if you have things that other people think are valuable you will be thought of as valuable too. Your Inner Critic has good intentions, it is just woefully misguided. Nothing outside of you can make you feel better about your self. Self-worth comes from within.
Some people tell me that their Mommy or Daddy never said they were good at anything when they were children. “Woe is me. I never got any positive feedback when I was little. It’s their fault I have low self-esteem.” First of all, you were born with a healthy self-worth. You valued yourself as the most wonderful and most important thing in your world. As a baby, whenever you wanted something you never questioned whether you were worthy enough to have it. You freely asked for it. Demanded it sometimes.
Whether it’s true or not that your parents didn’t give you positive feedback to help you maintain high self-esteem is irrelevant. You can now be your own parent. You can give yourself great feedback. Learn to see and acknowledge all of the good, the value that you bring, to the world each and every day. Every time you smile at someone, you brighten that person’s day. Find things, little and big things, about which to pat yourself on the back as a habit.
The connection between stuff and self-worth is a connection only made by your Inner Critic. Disarm this voice within you and empower your Inner Wizard who has always known your tremendous value. Value yourself as you would have others value you. It begins with you.
I encourage you to eat positive feedback for breakfast! Give yourself a healthy dose each and every morning.
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor and Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way so that they can overcome the struggles that often come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively and profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize and express your full creative potential. http://www.InnerWizard.com. Get Free "Empower the Wizard Within tips"!
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