​I just got back from the woods. It is a misty soft morning and there were drips of left over rain on all the tiny new born leaves and branches. Stunning!

It is spring and I have been dealing with a ton of ideas popping inside me- images of things I want to create. It is very fun. So much potential and bubbly energy!

I love it..... until it starts to feel painful.

The pain comes in the form of overwhelm, indecision, pressure, should's, impatience, and then moves into frustration, impotence, lack of energy, being stuck, and finally into a feeling of being a fraud, not really being an artist, being worthless, etc.

YIKES!

Does this sound familiar?

Entering a new piece of art can be tough - especially for those creatives who have some experience. You want it to be good. And that gets in the way of the open play necessary if you want to dive into something new.

There is a sense of permission that we need to give ourselves to make something that is not all that good. Or maybe even really bad. You have to risk the unknown - and sometimes it will surprise you in a really great way - and other times not so much. That is ok.

So you can see in the video below that I revel in the process of slamming and shoving - a very physical way of entering a piece - which allows me to skip entirely that pristine white canvas or paper or page or space. 

And I can slide seemlessly into pushing the clay around until I find something that is intriguing or catches my attention - and then I slow down and start to dance with the clay. 

What I said to my co-working group (I had started this process in a co-working session - look for a link below - it is a wonderful group!) is that I had started with "I don't know how to do this" and gotten all the way to Ugly. This is a place I celebrate because it is a way of entering and really being open to discovery - there is absolutely nothing to lose - nothing precious. So I have complete freedom to create. 

This is all in service of staying in the not knowing as long as possible so that I can invite the creative unconscious to play. Only later do I figure out what I have been up to and what it all means to me. 

You dream up a creative project that feels right on, and gives you a lot of joy to imagine it, but it never really gets off the ground. In fact after dreaming of it for so long, not only does it lose its joy, but it can actually begin to be a drain on your confidence!

I have so been there, and it is painful!

The thing is that you are an adult and you have a ton on your plate. 
It is really hard to prioritize a creative project when you need to pay the bills, tend to the kids, get the car fixed, buy groceries, and have some sort of a social life.

Not being able to get past that first hurdle of getting the project firmly in the line-up of priorities can be what keeps a person from doing their creative work for years and years, and this is a travesty.

The world needs your creative work!
If you have a creative itch it is because it needs to be expressed and if you need to express it there are others out there who need to be able to connect with it! It is part of the collaborative project of our human culture- we are all in it together and we need each other’s wisdom, questions and creativity. 

I believe firmly that each of us has something very particular to offer the world and it is our job to do it. And it is not always easy to know what that thing is and to find the energy to make it happen.