What are your fears about creativity? Here are a few of mine: I’m not skilled enough or I don’t have enough experience. It isn’t marketable. It’s not original enough. It’s too original and people won’t understand it. These are just a few of the fears we face, especially emerging artists, but even well-experienced artists seeking to innovate and explore deeper into their creativity. So, how do we deal with these fears?
Probably the best answers I’ve ever heard were from Brene Brown. If you haven’t read any of her work, you are missing out. Here is what she says about creativity:
Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.
There is nothing more vulnerable than creativity. . . It’s not about winning, it’s not about losing, it’s about showing up and being seen.
My response to that. Ouch! Think about it. Every time we decide to be creative, we are making ourselves vulnerable, vulnerable to criticism, vulnerable to failure. But this is how we grow and develop our creative muscles.
This is also why creativity is one of the most powerful forms of emotional and psychological therapy. Through creative expressions such as, writing, painting, drawing, dance, photography, music and many others, we can connect with our emotions, unload the negative ones and give proper place to the positive ones. As a result, we bring healing to emotional scars and traumas, revealing lies and replacing them with truth.
So now it is my turn to be vulnerable. Below is one of my first attempts at free verse poetry. I hope you like, and if not, you are welcome to give me constructive criticism.
In I Must Go
Today, I made a bold decision. Facing my fears, going against screaming voices, warnings, caution signs, red flags and the like, I’m determined to understand. I’m set on finding hope, healing, a light. Today, I made a brave decision… to journey into my heart.
What will I find there? Anger, disappointment, and confusion of course. What about my inner child? What about my playfulness, what about joy and smiling and laughing and… What if there’s nothing, emptiness, no answers, or just more senseless emotion.
What do I have to lose? Either I stay here on the toxic surface or I plunge into the depths of my soul with the hopes of finding relief, freedom, I might even find beauty, renewal, peace… or maybe I’ll get stuck. There could be a trap waiting for me, a cage, a cell. What if the air inside is more toxic than what I’m breathing now? Could my own soul be the very source of pollution? Maybe I can cover my mouth and nose with logic and reason. Hopefully, they will be able to filter out the bad from the good. Hopefully.
How long will this journey take? Is it worth the effort? Aren’t there more immediate needs to meet? Like, I’m hungry. Some ice-cream would be nice… I wish there were an elevator. Can’t I read a brief summary, an outline, a few reviews? Can’t I just google it? Five easy ways to fix your soul. No, I guess not. Another ounce of information and I think I’ll explode.
So many questions and so many reasons not to go in. Yet, I know it’s the only way. But isn’t tomorrow a better day to begin this dangerous decent. No! Today is the day.
So, in I will go. Why? Because I’m an adventurer, a thrill and truth seeker. Curiosity is my guide and I will not stop till I reach the bottom. Is there a bottom? I don’t know, but in I will go.
So, I guess this is goodbye. I hope to see you on the other side, if I make it. And if I make it, I won’t be the same. I don’t know what I’ll be, but it will be me. That’s what I’m going in to find.
Thanks for reading this post and poem. I would love to read your comments or feedback. Please leave a comment.
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