Love is all there is.

  So how can you be anything

  less than loving?

  Embrace who you are and show

  the person next to you who they are.

“Creative minds have been known to overcome even the worst programming.” — Anna Freud

Does the thought of being creative make you cower, quiver and bring up every self-doubt you’ve ever had?

You’re not alone. Exceptionally talented and gifted people struggle with insecurities and low self-esteem all the time.

Meryl Streep reveals her battle with confidence when she says, “You can have a perfectly horrible day where you doubt your talent … or that you’re boring and they’re going to find out that you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Will Smith admits, “I still doubt myself every single day. What people believe is my self-confidence is actually my reaction to fear.”

“I have written 11 books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody and they’re going to find me out,’” award-winning author Maya Angelou says.

John Lennon once said, “Part of me suspects that I’m a loser and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.”

These talented artists suffer from the impostor syndrome: “Eventually they’ll find out who I really am.” 

Dr. Valerie Young, who developed The Confidence Project, explains how the impostor thinks. “No matter how well they do or how loud the applause, they always think they could have done better or that they just had a ‘good audience.’” There are no boosts in their confidence.

“Somewhere deep inside, you don’t believe what they say,” says Joyce Roche, former CEO of Girls Inc. “You think it’s a matter of time before you stumble and ‘they’ discover the truth.”

But at least these talented “impostors” never let their fears and doubts prevent them from sharing their creativity with the world. But what happens when your fear paralyzes you and keeps you stuck on the sidelines of life while your creativity bites the dust?

If you are a true artist, your heart shudders, your soul shivers and you carry the feeling of “not enough” into everything you do. You try to fill the horrendous hole in your life with relationships, food, alcohol, material things. But nothing works. Gifts and talents that go unused can cause depression, addiction and disease. “Less than” becomes your mantra.

A talented friend of mine was asked by her shrink to make the ugliest, most imperfect picture she could. The clock ticked away as her perfectionism dug in. As he tapped his feet and patiently waited, these thoughts went through her head. “What if I don’t do it perfectly?” “What if it’s not ugly enough?”

Creativity asks that you let go of control, which is the powerful fuel that runs the ego. Another friend of mine created a soulful bust of an elderly man. It was absolutely exquisite and no one was more surprised by its beauty, strength and tenderness than she. Yet, she walked away never again to feel the cool clay between her fingers — fearing the next creation would not measure up to the first.

Ego, perfectionism, fears, doubts, judgments — looking for your truth in all the wrong places. And what is your truth?

I believe it reveals itself through your ability to receive and internalize as self-worth. To hear and acknowledge the applause for a job well done. To feel good about the effort put forth — not the end result. To feel the joy and gratitude in the ability to use your creativity. To have the courage to show up for it every single day of your life.

To fall to your knees in its presence.

There is nothing more sensual  and appealing than pure love and joy!

Look past appearances and stop comparing yourself to others.

Reconnect with your spiritual essence.

You will become stronger, more powerful, more confident and desirable.

Dare to find the courage to honor yourself and live your vision.

Then you will live with joy, passion and purpose. 

Let your authenticity inspire others to find the courage to be true to themselves so they may discover the road that leads to serenity and inner peace.

Entry to a cool underground parking structure.

Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. Innovation is the production or implementation of an idea. If you have ideas but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.”

The key word is “act.” Without purposeful and focused action, even a brilliant idea is useless. Even a genius when cloaked in fear is ineffectual.

The dilemma facing us now is how to move beyond our fears into a new state of mind in which fears can no longer block innovative solutions. In which complacency is overcome by an overwhelming compassion for human need. In which the news reports and images of tragedy are seen as a higher calling to take part in the healing of humanity.

Where do you begin? The answer is right where you are. Mahatma Gandhi said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Are you willing to change yourself? Are you ready to be less impatient, irritable or whatever negative character trait (we all have them) you have that gets in the way of you being part of world change?

Do you have creative ideas you would like to implement in your own life but hold back because of doubts, shyness, fears or cares about what others think? What if those ideas are part of your growth and purpose? What if they are part of world solutions?

We begin with where we are. Small steps — that’s all that is asked. Each step is an “act” that will be key to bettering your world and, thus, the entire world.

Then when you witness the drama of the news you will see beyond its appearance into the heart of humanity.  You will know that by your willingness to change yourself and risk creatively you have changed the world.

 

 SACRED

  Reverse the letters a and c

  in the word sacred and it

  spells scared.

  Which world do you choose?

Taking time to connect with your inner truth is the key to building a strong foundation from which your creativity can flourish.

Five Steps to a Creative & Purposeful Life

1.Inner Knowing: In order to arrive at your truth it takes practice. It requires becoming quiet. When your emotional state prevents you from doing that, it is your responsibility to apply techniques to calm down. Breathe deeply, take a walk, meditate, journal, visualize, etc. You will begin to recognize your truth through inner peace.

2.Integrity: When you are aligned with your heart you will begin to take good care of yourself and your talents. No more paintings piled in the corner collecting dust. No more acting parts you’re ashamed of. No more hiding behind clutter. You can now move from a solid foundation armed with a strong sense of self, which honors your “truth” and expresses it openly.

3.Harmlessness: When living from your heart, your thoughts, words and actions will support and benefit yourself and others. This is where your inner critic bites the dust. This is where competition is no longer seen as a threat. This is the place of love.

4.Ownership: This in not possessiveness, but having a sense of pride and accomplishment in your projects. Responsibility and maintenance accompanies ownership. Good performance relies on it. Old, out-dated projects can be tossed. Uncompleted cherished ones are now maintained on a regular basis until completion.

5.Stewardship: This is having the willingness to protect your vision and guide it to fruition no matter how many obstacles appear and how long and difficult the journey. This is where you exercise the muscle of patience, tenacity and faith – characteristics needed for anything worthwhile.

With willingness you will learn how to become quiet, to trust, discern, communicate, let go, assert, collaborate, cooperate, act responsibly and value yourself and others.

This is where you fall in love with life and fall on your knees in gratitude for having the ability to create.

 

 

 

 

Beauty stirs the heart and awakens the senses.

It runs deep and exposes the truth of our being.  It is who we are beyond the ugliness of our wayward ways.

For today let your beautiful soul shine brightly.  Instantly the world will become a better place.

Exposure. “I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours — well, maybe.” Life and art, in order to be meaningful, require the courage to be vulnerable. To expose. To become visible.

Do you hide? I do. Far too often I catch myself playing it safe. I want to be cool like you appear to be.

I want to hide behind my words and appear together.

Artists love to hide, cloistered in their studios and private worlds. “Come out! You must become visible if you want to market your art,” I’d tell my students. They’d cringe. “Place it in a small boutique on consignment.” They’d cringe more. The excuses would fly. “It’s not good enough. It will be rejected. It will never sell.”

Their art, their individual self-expression and the thought of exposure, keeps them running back to their convenient, comfortable and safe caves. Chased back by the monster of “less than.”

Then there are artists with big egos who love to be the center of attention. They have no problem being the star of the show. They’re cool. “Less than” has many personas.

Brene Brown, Ph.D., has spent years studying vulnerability, courage, authenticity and shame.  She says, “The need to ‘be cool’ is an emotional straight jacket.”

Of course. Cool doesn’t show feelings. Cool hides fears. Cool is intellectual. Most importantly, cool is the opposite of uncool — and who strives to be that?

Cool fries the soul of an artist. Cool fries the soul of all of us.

A powerful story and legend speaks of the celebrated Israeli violinist Itzhak Perlman.

 It is rumored that he came on stage to give a concert  at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, which is no small achievement for him as he was struck with polio as a child and walks with the aid of two crutches.

According to a blog posted on www.helpothers.org on 4-5-2007, he began to play when a string snapped.  

“He waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again.

The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before.

Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that.

You could see him modulating, changing, re-composing the piece in his head.  At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before. When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. 

He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet us, and then he said – not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone – “You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”
_________
This legend of a story has circulated the Internet for years. I’ve sent it to artists and they’ve thanked me even when they know that it’s highly unlikely it happened in this manner.

Why is that?  Because we all need inspiration. We need to believe in miracles and know that the world is full of possibilities waiting to be brought to life.

“You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”

Isn’t that the task of each person regardless of age, circumstance or talent? 

To do so reveals the spirit, beauty and essence of life.  To do so reminds others of theirs.

“Why do bad things happen to good people?” This question has been asked for eons, with many assorted answers — some Biblical, intellectual and, more often than not, emotional.

 What if we dropped the label of “good” and “bad”? How does that change the question? “Why do things happen to people?”

It becomes neutral. It’s now easy to accept that they happen because that’s the way it is. But the problem with this is that we are not neutral people, we are feeling people. And it’s through our feelings, not surface emotional reactions, but our deep feelings that the purpose of so-called “bad” things is ultimately revealed. 

Years ago after writing a rough draft article about Henry and Dina Sarna, both Holocaust survivors, Henry said to me, “You did not capture the beauty.” I was shocked. I had no idea what he meant. 

Henry and his family had awakened to the horrors of the war upon learning that 3,000 Jews had been herded into a local synagogue by the Gestapo and burned alive. He survived four concentration camps, a death march and being shot and wounded during an attempted escape. When he was liberated on May 8, 1945, at the age of 22 he weighed 70 pounds. 

The Sarnas described in great detail the atrocities they endured, which I revealed in my article, yet he said I had not “captured the beauty.” I reread my notes carefully and slowly began to extract the good, which slowly revealed itself through their inner spirit. 

And that is exactly what we have to do in order to make sense of life. We must go beyond the appearance, which often mesmerizes, terrifies and causes pain, and search for the good.

Allow yourself to capture the beauty in every moment, in every circumstance. Your feelings, your heart and your humanity will lead you to it.

Once there, you will have discovered the soul of life.