Creative growing pains are part of evolving and expanding your reach past the limitations you place on the inner you. We don’t limit ourselves consciously, but it requires a consciousness to move through the old layers into something bigger and more in alignment with what’s next.
The growing pains start as subtle friction that feels itchy and uncomfortable, making you a bit wiggly within your regular ways of being or thinking. You can also feel more emotionally reactive to everyday occurrences or within your closest relationships.
When this starts to happen it can feel very confusing and throw you off balance. We often blame ourselves, thinking something is wrong that needs to be fixed. What’s really happening is that the universe is inviting you to step up and change, to call on intuition and evolve your creative gifts to a higher level, or open up into new ones you may be denying to stay comfortable.
As creative beings what we express is always changing. Life breaks us open and builds us back up. People enter and leave our lives. Opportunities, grow, shrink and change. Each of these elements impact the inner creative self, and as a result, invite us to change through the experience of creative growing pains.
Even the Path to Nowhere Starts Somewhere
When moving through creative growing pains everything can feel limiting or tight. It’s like the path ahead is covered in deep, thick brush and the path behind is beaten, dry and flat as a board, all creative essence drained from its surface. This can leave you feeling as if you are on a path to nowhere with nothing to grab onto and no road signs that make sense. What you do know is that you are frustrated, emotional and want something to change.
This is actually the best place to have a seat for a while – and here’s why.
When you are in the midst of confusion, emotional turmoil or deciphering mixed internal messages, it’s not time to take action. It is, however, a time to honor your creativity and inner self to feel into what’s next. The mind wants action, a path to tear into and make it’s own. The soul wants heart-centered clarity to help you move into the next stage of self-expression in an intuitive way that honors all of you.
The more you force action, trying to find a path in the moment because you feel it’s time, the harder it is to see the new path you are meant to take to connect with your next creative adventure.
Honoring the Purpose of Creative Growing Pains is Part of the Journey
Let’s just put the truth out there – creative growing pains can absolutely sting, kick your butt and turn your life right on it’s head. They can also keep niggling at your heart in the background while you transition into something that’s more in alignment with your personal growth path.
While it’s not always entirely clear up front, they do have a purpose. You may not like, accept or want to change, but the gift is in acknowledging that change has arrived, and is knocking on the door. By accepting that change is possible, you are already taking one of the bravest, most courageous steps to transform beyond a plateau into what’s waiting on the other side – the darkness or “possibility” where true creativity is born.
We All Have Pains to Work Through
If you are still on the planet, you are working through creative growing pains. The most successful people you know as well as your parents, neighbors, famous “gurus – each and every one of us. For a long time I had pains I was unable to identify clearly, I just knew that I was unhappy and often felt unfulfilled, no matter how many things I tried to change or distractions I added to my plate. And as frustrated as I was, and can still get at times, it’s this very friction that has sent me on the path to expressing more of my true self than I ever was able to when I limited my reach to what I could clearly see and anticipate.
The goal isn’t to reach a magical plateau where challenges are no longer an issue, but to learn how to navigate them in a way that gives you space to work through each one without judgment from a place of intuitive clarity – even if the same challenge comes back time and again.
So instead of getting caught in the “what-ifs” and “it -should be’s” take is slow and honor what is. Be thankful that you’ve seen the need for a change and have the opportunity to live into what amazing possibilities come with it.
If you can do your best to love yourself at every stage through your creative growing pains, then you are doing the most important thing first. The rest will make itself clear at the right time so you can take action with a clear head and heart – and that’s the highest form of creative self expression.
Want some support as you work through some creative growing pains? Are you in transition and want to get a better feel on how to navigate what’s next? Let’s connect for a creative reflection session and see what tools can help you honor exactly where you are right now. Want to see what you can get started on your own? Download my Mini Guide for Connecting with your Inner Guidance and Creative Fire.
Photo Credit: Shannan Sinclair, Doug888, Simon Gardiner