Be kind to yourself

In your creative journey, as you practice your artform, as you experience the act of making something from your imagination and with the skills you currently have... the end result may not be exactly what you envisioned. 

The harshest critic will often be that voice inside us. That voice is an amalgam of all the criticism we remember and all the awkwardness, embarrassment or shame we have experienced when receiving it.

That voice is a feedback loop that the crocodile brain will play all the time. Whether we 'fail' and even when we succeed beyond our wildest dreams, that loop will tell us those negative messages over and over again.

In fact, sometimes we're more successful at putting our own attempts down than we are at making them happen.

As much as we may wish that voice would shut the heck up and leave us alone... I think it has a purpose. Our goal should not be to erase the voice. Our goal should be to ignore it and continue, with determination and purpose, on the path of artistic expression and creative manifestation.

Our own negativity towards ourselves then becomes the whetstone. If we persevere in spite of it, over time we will get stronger. Our skill level will increase, our knowledge will expand, our experiences will become a foundation for the next creative act.

We overcome the negativity of the voice by the act of doing the art consistently.

When we are in artistic mode, practicing or creating, we do need to try to remove the critic and just allow ourselves to be where we are on the path, and enjoy the process.

When we are done, when looking at what we've done or thinking about what we've accomplished, we need to remove judgement. Our goal should be to simply observe.

And the first observation should be, always, what we did well. I'm not saying we should be dishonest, I'm saying we should look long and hard if we have to in order to find at least one thing positive to say about what we've done. 

List the positive things first. Then acknowledge a couple of things that need to be tweaked. Write them down for next time.

Don't beat yourself up for being 'less than' what you want. Understand that art (no matter what medium) is a process. Understand that it's not about perfection, it's about experience. Understand that, if you continue to practice in effective ways, you will improve.

Be kind to yourself on that journey.

-hugs