Many talented and creative people are self-critical, don’t take care of their physical and emotional health or self-care needs enough, and in other ways limit how much they can express their creative ideas.
Creativity coach Lisa Riley offers a number of simple but powerful suggestions:
It’s common for artists and creative professionals to be their worst critic. As creative individuals we beat ourselves up if our productivity or level of creativity doesn’t match up to our expectations.
Learning how to treat yourself with kindness is essential to your professional development and most importantly in surviving the challenges of pursuing a career in a creative industry.
So, It’s important to practice ways of being compassionate towards yourself. Try integrating some of the following forms of self-compassion into your daily life.
1. Acceptance
Accepting things as they are is a great way to give yourself permission to be exactly where you’re at in your creative process even if that means struggling to maintain motivation or coming up with ideas. In other words, not judging your current situation as good or bad, but that it is what it is.
2. Letting Go of Expectations
Sometimes, we place too rigid or high expectations on ourselves. For instance, some creative professionals have this idea that success means creativity would come easy for them, when in reality, creativity is an ebb and flow process.
So, always evaluate if your expectations are reasonable or unpractical and don’t be afraid to modify them in order to be more flexible.
3. Say Kind Words to Yourself
It’s interesting how without question, many of us treat our loved ones, the people we care about with loving-kindness. Yet when it comes to ourselves, we’re not so kind. We are quick to judge and tell ourselves unkind words.
Adopting a nurturing and supportive inner voice is a huge part of practicing self-compassion. Become aware of the statements that you tell yourself.
Are they nurturing or are they critical? Are they supportive or are they judgmental? Are they kind or are they mean?
> Continued in post “5 Ways to Be Kind to Your Creative Self” by Lisa Riley on her blog
– see her site The Art of Mind.
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Photo: ‘Artist at work’ By Balaji Dutt – also used for the cover of one of my books:
Being Highly Sensitive and Creative
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“Creating art has always been a way to channel emotional intensity…Finding ways to maintain that optimal zone where we are neither under- or over-stimulated allows us to use our minds to respond rather than to react. The greater access you maintain to yourself, the richer and broader your array of creative tools.” Psychologist Cheryl Arutt, on the page: Emotional Health Resources
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