Life Orgasmic

living your bliss-filled life

  • Life Thoughts
  • Bliss Tools
    • eBooks
    • eCourses
    • Meditations
    • Challenges
    • Printables
    • Transcripts
    • White Papers
  • Earn Money
  • Write for Us
  • About
  • Contact

Every Poet has a Paint Brush

I may from time to time offer links to products or services on my blog. If you click those links, and make a purchase from them, I might get some money to take a vacation...and, by take a vacation, I mean hop on my bike and hit the open road {trails around my house} or maybe attend a movie if it's been a good month.  Thank you for contributing to my bliss!

 

Michele

I am more than enoughMaking friends with your Inner Critic

Have you stopped yourself from writing or journaling because you didn’t know what to say? What would happen if you picked up a paintbrush and allowed it to be your pen, expressing your inner wisdom and creativity?

“What me paint?” you say- I don’t know how to paint

Or perhaps you paint but feel that it has to be done a certain way, following guidelines you learned in art school or painting in a way that is pleasing to others.

“Every poet needs a pen”

Perhaps your pen is a paintbrush

Imagine painting freely with whichever colors your heart desires

Imagine the images flowing out from your paintbrush and extension of your fabulous creative self- yes you
YOU are creative.

You can do this.
You have permission.

So many of us hold our creative selves back from expressing our true selves. We either don’t pick up our pen or brush or pencil or when we do we restrict ourselves from full expression.

We feel our art has to look a certain way.
We fear we will be laughed at.
We worry what we might discover if we unleash our creative selves fully.

What it often comes down to is that we listen to that inner critic more than we listen to our creative muse. The inner critic is a character we have constructed over the years from criticisms we were unable to fend off. Their messages become internalized when we believe any or all parts of the critical messages we get and take them personally as an indication of who we are.

Luckily we each also have an inner muse. However, many of us are so removed from our inner muses that our creative potential is underutilized. Often at my work myself and the other 2 art therapists are asked to do the “creative stuff” for staff events with an underlying assumption that unless you are an “artist” you are not capable of being creative.

The truth is we are no more creative than our other colleagues; it’s just that we believe more in our own creativity and embrace our inner muse. In reality, we are all creative; we all have an inner muse waiting to inspire us.

Your creative muse lives inside you. Though many will tell you inspiration needs to come from outside your self, if you listen carefully enough you will hear the gentle creative voice of your muse.

She is there. She is patiently waiting for you to say that you are ready. She speaks softly, subtlety nudging you to feel her presence, to believe in her. To believe in your Self and all your own unique creativeness.

What’s that you say? You can’t hear her, over all the other critical voices bogging you down. Voices that tell you how you should be, or voices that incessantly compare you to others, telling you your art is not worthy enough.

Enough.

Enough! You ARE worthy enough. You are more than enough. There is no need for you to listen to those voices that put down, or minimize what you create. You can turn the volume down if you want to. But you must want to. Excuses are tempting I know. They help us stay ”safe”, not from danger but from change.

Do not settle for “yes buts” as answers to why you are not creating more often.

Putting off art projects, which would otherwise feed your creative soul. The voice of the inner critic can be intimidating indeed, but does not have to be.

Here are some ways to combat those inner critics:

Listen to what their underlying message is: I know I said earlier that you don’t need to listen to the rants of your inner critic. I still mean it. Don’t listen to their surface message, there is usually more to it if you just dig a little. You could try to ignore them of course but that usually doesn’t last long. Often the messages from our inner critics are important to listen to because they highlight an inner struggle that needs to be resolved. Old scripts that need to be acknowledged released and replaced with messages of encouragement.

Have a back-up plan:  Even when we know that the messages are false or based on past experience, some days may be harder than other days to not take criticism to heart. Be prepared. I once read that for every negative thing said it takes two positive things to “erase” the damage.

Write down on little finger size cards the words of encouragement you need to hear. What would you tell a friend who was struggling with believing in her own creativity?

Work with your inner critic: Sometimes inner critics may bring our attention to something we need to pay attention to, for example their mean words may be based in fear, where is that fear coming from? Interview you inner critic about their fears. Let then be detectives about where these critical messages, doubts and fears are coming from.

If you would like to discover more ways that you can face those inner critics connect with inner muse, join me online for 5 weeks of exploration and adventure with Painting with Your Muse.

Petrea Hansen Adamidis R.C.A.T. is a Registered Art Therapist, a mom, artist, & an avid nature nut with over 18 years of experience working with children, families and adults. Join her at ArtTherapist.ca where she offers a free e-course “Free Your Inner Child” plus other creative resources to draw the self out.

Blog/website

Twitter

Facebook

January 8, 2013 Filed Under: Life Tagged With: creativity 5 Comments

About Michele

Michele Bergh is a teacher, a student and a lover of life. She is a healing artist who enjoys a variety of mediums and also has a few mad techie skills up her sleeves. By day she primarily does WordPress design and development and works with others to create a blissful life. By night, you'll find her behind a camera lens, on her bike, in a big comfy chair, cooking up a storm in her kitchen or sewing while listening to great music (probably from the 70s) on her ipod. Her greatest joy comes from living a orgasmic life by design.

What Others are Saying

  1. Petrel says

    January 9, 2013 at 5:37 pm

    Suzanne you have the right idea: “FUN” is key to unleashing your creativity! Thanks for having me here Michele!

    Reply
  2. Suzanne McRae says

    January 9, 2013 at 9:17 am

    Thanks for the great reminders that I am enough! Great post filled with so many insights and ideas as to what we can do. I have so much fun whenever I allow myself to explore creatively with paints and it always brings me to such a joyful place. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Michele says

      January 9, 2013 at 1:17 pm

      Petrea always has such great ideas. I’m just tickled that she’s shared them here!

      Reply
  3. Loran says

    January 8, 2013 at 11:23 am

    Petrea, when I was taking art classes, the inner critic was fueled by the teacher’s expectations and demands. I decided I didn’t have enough “talent” to pursue art. When I discovered art journaling, I was freed from caring what the artwork looked like. Now I can express myself creatively without caring about the “audience.” It’s so much more fun that way!

    Reply
    • Petrea Hanse-Adamidis says

      January 10, 2013 at 10:28 pm

      Yay to art journalling for setting you free Loran!
      Audience can really hinder one’s expression- so glad you listened to your inner wisdom.

      Reply

Your Comments Make Me Smile Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome

Welcome to my lifestyle blog where I like to spend my time thinking out loud.  I'm honored you've chosen to stop by and join me on my journey. You are invited to engage in conversation by sharing your thoughts on my blog or submitting a guest post to be featured on our site.

subscribe to my blog Michele BerghI hope you'll stick around and visit for a bit and, if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to my weekly dose of awesomeness below so you don't miss a thing.

Get your weekly dose of awesome

* indicates required


Michele Bergh Blog Bloglovin

Copyright Life Orgasmic © 2020 · Affiliate Disclosure · Affiliate Log In · Privacy Statement · Kind Words · Contact

Get your weekly dose of awesomeness...
Hey sexy, there's no shiny free bribe to join my tribe (but you'll find plenty of freebies here). This is simply an invitation to be a part of something great. My blog is about indulging in life's simple pleasures as well as building a business around the things that give your life meaning. We've made it super easy to join us...just enter your info below.
Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party.