The creative gut is an interesting creature. It runs on intuition and is a natural part of you. Yet, over time, you might learn or decide not to trust it.
Between crushed expectations, negative experiences with someone close to you or old patterns you took on from family, your creative gut can lose the upper hand – and you don’t even realize it. Your inner truth becomes harder to sense, and what you really want to see can be hiding behind a super foggy mirror. This makes you feel very disconnected from clear inspiration, and doubt can start to mess with your focus.
When you run across this bit of confusion, it’s also challenging to know when to release a project, idea or dream with love, or simply refresh it.
To be sure you are clear and honoring your own creative truth, take a little time to tune in using one or a few of these simple creative gut-checks:
1. Do you feel one thing in your heart, but hear an inner voice in your mind telling you something different?
When the head and heart are in conflict, you have a standoff in your energy field. Find a way to calm the mind through meditation, exercise, play, getting out in nature or just take a break. Then wait a few hours or days and check in again.
If you run across the same challenge, there are some unresolved things popping up that require a little more inspection so your heart and mind can connect instead of oppose each other. It could be an old belief or a desire to hold onto a person or idea that no longer serves you, so be willing to finally release it.
If neither of those seem like a fit, it can simply be an invitation to ask yourself deeper questions about what you really want, not what you’ve been taught to want. In this case your belief system just needs a little refresh so you become more in tune with what works for the current you.
2. Is there an intriguing idea that cycles back over and over, but you ignore it?
When the same idea makes multiple visits with you, it might be time to look at why you aren’t taking action on it. Is there fear in the way? Has someone slashed it down with negative feedback, or is your mind doing a great job of that for you? Are setbacks making the experience more challenging than you expected, so you feel the idea is doomed?
It’s extremely easy to think of reasons why you shouldn’t or can’t do things. The negatives are much easier to spot because they cause friction and stand out more, even if a hundred awesome things went just perfectly.
If a specific idea has a hold on you, take some time to reflect and write some notes about it. Jot down why it would be fun or beneficial to pursue or why it might be a disaster. Then you at least have given the creative gut a forum of expression and you can see if still feels like something worth pursuing. Even if the fear seems overwhelming, acknowledging it out loud goes a long way in soothing it.
3. Are you listening to your inner truth or judging yourself into a corner?
There is a big difference between listening and judging, but it’s easy to get them confused. Being objective about your own creativity can be a challenge at times!
To open up some space between what you think you should do and allowing yourself permission to explore a creative direction, it can help to find a person you trust to talk things over. Or, you can record yourself talking about an idea or stuck point, and listen to it a few days later. Saying things out loud and actually hearing your thoughts outside of your mind can create a powerful shift in your point of view.
Another option is to put an idea on ice for a few weeks, then check back with it once you’ve created clear space. A lot of times the urgency to figure something out pushes you towards judging instead of listening, and space allows you to see if any judgement is clouding the view.
What are some techniques you use to make sure you are tuning into the truth of your creative gut?
If you need a little extra support to move past bigger stuck points, I’m always happy to listen and offer objective feedback to help you re-frame your creative perspective. Just send along a contact form and we can set up a time to connect.
Photo credit: halighalie, Lambech, gloson, santheo