After a long year of learning, brainstorming, creating and doing, your creative self deserves a big thank you.
Remember all those days filled with chaos and deadlines? The long nights you were poking at your creative muse, begging for it to come up with something fresh and innovative? How about the early mornings spent filling yourself with high-octane coffee, pouring over the fine details of your latest project or idea to make sure every little thing was “just right”?
Your creative self was there every step of the way, plotting, scheming and co-creating with you. It joins you day after day as you push towards the success you desire and expand into new projects or directions. It also provides you with insights and advice when you are stuck on a challenge or aren’t sure what direction is calling your heart.
Spending time in reflection to honor, love and celebrate your most important collaborative partner – your creative self – is a great way to close out the year and puts you in a place of heart-centered gratitude for all you’ve accomplished together. Reflection also signals the end of one aspect of the creative cycle and the beginning of another.
Celebration Signals a Creative Cycle Can Begin Anew
Your creative self is the main pipeline for all the goodies waiting to come to life, gestating in your heart or simmering in your subconscious. If you never acknowledge what has already come to pass and keep pushing for more, the true value of what you’ve already created is never realized. It’s like having a baby and then putting it in a pile with all the other babies to go make another one without even stopping for a second to love what you’ve created.
The cycle of birth and death are equally important aspects of your creative self. Whatever happened served a purpose. You may not have loved every aspect of the experience, but you can still celebrate what you’ve gained and how it changed what you want to create next. Then – honor and release it. To keep the cycle moving you need to create space, fill your own cup, nurture new creative seeds and prepare to give birth again.
Make Saying Thank You Easy
How do you replenish and thank your creative self throughout the year? Do you leave time and space to just “be” so your creative self gets a vacation from tasks? Do you build in self-care time as much as you should? How about forgiveness? Can you forgive yourself and move past the things that didn’t go as planned?
In the hustle and bustle of life, take a few minutes to write yourself a thank you note in whatever way is easiest. If you are willing, record it on your phone or in a quick video. The how is not as important as the act of gratitude itself.
Then sit and reflect on how saying thank you to your creative self really feels in your body. Is it light and fizzy? Does it fill your heart or bring tears to your eyes? Are you giggly and smiling?
As much as external appreciation is a “nice to have”, you alone are in charge of filling your own cup. Are you ready to give your creative self the appreciation it deserves?
Feel like you need a bit of a boost to push through some creative blocks at the end of the year? Snag a copy of my free Mini Guide for Connecting with your Inner Guidance and Creative Fire. It may give you the perspective you need to move past a long-held block or give yourself the nurturing you need right now.
Photo Credit: Amy Gizienski, Enrique Pellejer Larrauri, holly c.