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"!
Showing posts with label creativity block. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creativity block. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
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"!
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"!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
How to Get A Grip on Your Inner Critic
Ever want to tell someone to get a grip? Tell them that they have run amok in their minds and are not facing reality? Stop them from completely 'losing it' and self-destructing? How often have you told yourself to get a grip only to later serve up more and more justification for your misguided thinking and emotions? Your very own self-sabotage?
How do you achieve a centered calm presence when your life experience is flung in scattered directions, randomly, leaving you with anxiety, fear, depression or utter confusion? Or worse yet, your frozen in action; completely stuck. Trapped in the mire of your own monkey mind.
You get a grip on your Inner Critic by letting go of the grip it has over you.
"People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them." ~George Bernard Shaw
You create your experience through the expression of the essence of what you think about, whether it is something you want or something you do not want. Your Inner Critic is often the originator of what you think about. If your focus and attention in upon that which you have and do not want, you will create more of what you do not want. If you allow your thoughts to be occupied with worry then you will create an experience that reflects what you fear.
Your Inner Critic serves up these seemingly automatic thoughts of worry, fear and other anxiety to hold you back and keep you safe. He has you in his grip as if you were a child about to run into the street. He holds onto in fear of your safety for if he were to let go you would surely die. And you live, frozen in place or creating more evidence to support the stronghold the Inner Critic has over you.
To release the Inner Critic grip tell him "You're not the boss of me!" Reclaim your power. In that powerful you stand centered in the truth of who you are and committed to your passion, your gift that you are here to bring forth into the world. You will remember that there is nothing that you desire that you cannot achieve, and there is nothing that you do not want that you cannot release from your experience.
Recognizing the connection between what you think and feel and what you create for your life experience weakens the fearful grip you hold upon yourself. You can release the grip by taking responsibility for generating the thoughts and feelings that will deliver more of the experiences you desire and less of what you do not want to occur in your life.
What is your dream, your deepest desire?
Speak and act in the direction of that desire. Any thoughts, feelings, emotions you have that run contrary to that desire is the work of your Inner Critic. He in then in control of the decisions and choices you make moving forward. It's easy to tell if your Inner Critic has a grip on you or not. When you are victim to his power, entrenched in his grip, you do not feel good. It is as simple as that. Uncomfortable feelings are clear indicators that your thoughts are not in alignment with your dreams, your desires. The choices you make based on those thoughts will not result in the experience you want to create. Fear based thoughts will lead to self-sabotage. Without exception.
"Every speaker has a mouth; An arrangement rather neat. Sometimes it's filled with wisdom. Sometimes it's filled with feet." - Robert Orben
Whatever you are paying attention to, whether it be remembering the past, observing the present or thinking about the future, you use to plant the seeds for what you will experience in that future. How you show up in your life is what you create. Do you show up in the clenched fist of your Inner Critic or will you present yourself standing firm in your own power, speaking and action in alignment with the fullest expression of your authenticity, your truth?
Release the Inner Critic grip to free yourself to create from your heart instead of your Inner Critic monkey mind. With this freedom comes expanded possibilities and unlimited potential.
"To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." - Henry David Thoreau
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor 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"!
How do you achieve a centered calm presence when your life experience is flung in scattered directions, randomly, leaving you with anxiety, fear, depression or utter confusion? Or worse yet, your frozen in action; completely stuck. Trapped in the mire of your own monkey mind.
You get a grip on your Inner Critic by letting go of the grip it has over you.
"People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them." ~George Bernard Shaw
You create your experience through the expression of the essence of what you think about, whether it is something you want or something you do not want. Your Inner Critic is often the originator of what you think about. If your focus and attention in upon that which you have and do not want, you will create more of what you do not want. If you allow your thoughts to be occupied with worry then you will create an experience that reflects what you fear.
Your Inner Critic serves up these seemingly automatic thoughts of worry, fear and other anxiety to hold you back and keep you safe. He has you in his grip as if you were a child about to run into the street. He holds onto in fear of your safety for if he were to let go you would surely die. And you live, frozen in place or creating more evidence to support the stronghold the Inner Critic has over you.
To release the Inner Critic grip tell him "You're not the boss of me!" Reclaim your power. In that powerful you stand centered in the truth of who you are and committed to your passion, your gift that you are here to bring forth into the world. You will remember that there is nothing that you desire that you cannot achieve, and there is nothing that you do not want that you cannot release from your experience.
Recognizing the connection between what you think and feel and what you create for your life experience weakens the fearful grip you hold upon yourself. You can release the grip by taking responsibility for generating the thoughts and feelings that will deliver more of the experiences you desire and less of what you do not want to occur in your life.
What is your dream, your deepest desire?
Speak and act in the direction of that desire. Any thoughts, feelings, emotions you have that run contrary to that desire is the work of your Inner Critic. He in then in control of the decisions and choices you make moving forward. It's easy to tell if your Inner Critic has a grip on you or not. When you are victim to his power, entrenched in his grip, you do not feel good. It is as simple as that. Uncomfortable feelings are clear indicators that your thoughts are not in alignment with your dreams, your desires. The choices you make based on those thoughts will not result in the experience you want to create. Fear based thoughts will lead to self-sabotage. Without exception.
"Every speaker has a mouth; An arrangement rather neat. Sometimes it's filled with wisdom. Sometimes it's filled with feet." - Robert Orben
Whatever you are paying attention to, whether it be remembering the past, observing the present or thinking about the future, you use to plant the seeds for what you will experience in that future. How you show up in your life is what you create. Do you show up in the clenched fist of your Inner Critic or will you present yourself standing firm in your own power, speaking and action in alignment with the fullest expression of your authenticity, your truth?
Release the Inner Critic grip to free yourself to create from your heart instead of your Inner Critic monkey mind. With this freedom comes expanded possibilities and unlimited potential.
"To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." - Henry David Thoreau
Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mindset Mentor 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, July 13, 2009
Is Creative Block Just Part of Your Process?
Blocked!
Words are not spilling onto the page; color choices elude you; you can't embody the character you've been chosen to portray. Simply put, you're stuck! It's not the first time you've been stuck and certainly not the last if you're a creative being. In your stuck-ness you beat yourself up, and often others, in your frustration and anxiety over your creative blocks. You worry that you may not have another creative thought, an inspired moment, ever again! Your life will be over! Argh!! And you resist your stuckness only to give your power over to it allowing the struggle to grow large blocking your vision, your expression, your talent, your gift to the world. Double ArrrggghhhH!!!
"Being true to yourself is what feeds creativity, not self-doubt and criticism." - Diane Arenberg
Did it ever occur to you that you were trying too hard to get over your artist, your creative, block? What if your seemingly blocked moments were just pauses in your creative process? What if the pause is a call to you to replenish your energy, feed your creative soul, with what it enjoys, what it plays with? What if this pause was opportunity calling?
"An inconvenience is an unrecognized opportunity." - Confucius
Instead of resigning to the possibility that you're washed up as an artist, consider that you are merely making a pit stop. Pit stops are essential to any Formula One race champion and you are absolutely a champion! You are a master, endowed with unique gifts and talent, here to express your full potential. Pull into the pit stop and refuel!
I can hear your Inner Critic screaming now! "If I stop, pull out of the race even for a moment, others will pass me by!". Nonsense! Others will require pit stops as well. Besides, they're not running the same race you are. They're not creating YOUR masterpiece. They are in the process, the race, to create theirs as you are yours. The only one you're racing against is your very own Inner Critic who has no idea where he's going or how to get there. He is hopelessly lost begging you, your Higher Self or what I playfully call the Wizard Within, to take over the lead.
"Creation is such an elusive thing, for the more we think we are in control, the more we remove ourselves from the actual creation." - Betty Jean Billups
Recognize that you've paused and allow the pit stop experience to unfold. Let if flow naturally without restraint. What you resist, persists. If you resist being blocked, your block will persist. If you embrace where you are in the process the process will continue to move forward, you will naturally replenish your energy that serves your intuition and inspiration. Before you know it you will pull out of the pit stop inspired and firing on all cylinders!
"The creative act is not hanging on, but yielding to a new creative movement. Awe is what moves us forward." - Joseph Campbell
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"!
Words are not spilling onto the page; color choices elude you; you can't embody the character you've been chosen to portray. Simply put, you're stuck! It's not the first time you've been stuck and certainly not the last if you're a creative being. In your stuck-ness you beat yourself up, and often others, in your frustration and anxiety over your creative blocks. You worry that you may not have another creative thought, an inspired moment, ever again! Your life will be over! Argh!! And you resist your stuckness only to give your power over to it allowing the struggle to grow large blocking your vision, your expression, your talent, your gift to the world. Double ArrrggghhhH!!!
"Being true to yourself is what feeds creativity, not self-doubt and criticism." - Diane Arenberg
Did it ever occur to you that you were trying too hard to get over your artist, your creative, block? What if your seemingly blocked moments were just pauses in your creative process? What if the pause is a call to you to replenish your energy, feed your creative soul, with what it enjoys, what it plays with? What if this pause was opportunity calling?
"An inconvenience is an unrecognized opportunity." - Confucius
Instead of resigning to the possibility that you're washed up as an artist, consider that you are merely making a pit stop. Pit stops are essential to any Formula One race champion and you are absolutely a champion! You are a master, endowed with unique gifts and talent, here to express your full potential. Pull into the pit stop and refuel!
I can hear your Inner Critic screaming now! "If I stop, pull out of the race even for a moment, others will pass me by!". Nonsense! Others will require pit stops as well. Besides, they're not running the same race you are. They're not creating YOUR masterpiece. They are in the process, the race, to create theirs as you are yours. The only one you're racing against is your very own Inner Critic who has no idea where he's going or how to get there. He is hopelessly lost begging you, your Higher Self or what I playfully call the Wizard Within, to take over the lead.
"Creation is such an elusive thing, for the more we think we are in control, the more we remove ourselves from the actual creation." - Betty Jean Billups
Recognize that you've paused and allow the pit stop experience to unfold. Let if flow naturally without restraint. What you resist, persists. If you resist being blocked, your block will persist. If you embrace where you are in the process the process will continue to move forward, you will naturally replenish your energy that serves your intuition and inspiration. Before you know it you will pull out of the pit stop inspired and firing on all cylinders!
"The creative act is not hanging on, but yielding to a new creative movement. Awe is what moves us forward." - Joseph Campbell
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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