Creative fear can keep you from owning or freely sharing your talents, but what if the truth was about something else entirely? What if you are really afraid of leaving your comfort zone and all the “mess” that might entail?
It’s easy to tell yourself that you suffer from a lack of creative talent when it doesn’t fit easily fit into the life you’ve built, or when it might take work to develop your raw skills. You can also always find an excuse for why you aren’t creative enough or could never express yourself in a way that would be accepted or meaningful. Yet if you break down all the excuses there’s really only one thing underneath it all that scares you – and that’s change.
Why Challenges Get a Bad Rap
Change can be challenging, but it’s also freeing, heart-opening and a huge part of your self-growth. Your creative abilities are a direct connection to the edge of what’s possible, and that’s the uneasy feeling you may often mistake as creative fear.
Rethink and feel into how you interpret those twinges of fear and really ask yourself what you are afraid of, and you can begin to see the patterns behind how you trick yourself into staying small to avoid being challenged and stay “safe”.
The push to question what you’ve come to know as true is the most powerful way to bust through creative fear because you finally see there’s nothing to fear about your own ability. You will also begin to feel how your creative abilities expand exponentially when you see challenge simply for what it is, your next creative edge – and that twinge of fear is just letting you know you’re close to the next big adventure.
If you need a little extra shove to re-envision your abilities and get a better understanding of how fear is part of the growth process, check out 5 Timeless Books of Insight on Fear and the Creative Process.
Simple ways to tune into where you get hung up around your own creative fear so you can embrace the energy instead, then transform it into creative fuel:
- Meditate, go for a walk for get a massage to help yourself get back into your body and out of your head for a while, then…
- Write down what you think you are afraid of and ask yourself, why? Keep doing this exercise until you get an answer that feels clear and certain.
- Look at ways you can make friends with your fears or “gremlins” instead of trying to avoid or banish them. The friction is there for you to take notice and invite you to make changes in order to embrace more of your true self, every day. Once you learn what you need, the friction will dissipate on their own.
There are lots of easy ways to shut down when fear pops into your heart, but it’s worth spending time to truly understand the challenge under the sensation of fear if you want to transform it into useful fuel for your creativity.
If you are looking for a little extra insight on creative fear, check out some of my previous blog posts, including Creativity Kick-Start: Confess a Creative Fear or Creative Risk Taking and How it Relates to Self-Esteem. Want a little extra support to see though your creative fears? Connect with me for some one-on-one creativity coaching.
Photo credit: 2thin2swim, Deb Nystrom