You and I are magicians.

We are capable of taking a vision, a fantasy or a desire and turning it into something that lives and breathes in reality. One of the things I love about the fact that I am a creative person is being part of that magical process of making something out of nothing. 

 

I have an idea for a workshop or a poem or a painting and if I allow myself to actually create * Poof* something is born into the world that has never been there before. 

 

It’s really thrilling. And deeply satisfying in a way that nothing else is.

 

But many of us are afraid to engage our magical power to create for a couple of reasons.

 

The first reason we hesitate around making a vision real is because we are afraid that we won’t be able to manifest it in the way that we see it in our heads.

 

We don’t want to risk being disappointed. So we don’t do anything at all. 

 

But we forget that every creation is a co-creation. It might start in our own individual minds and hearts but once we start moving into the realm of the physical plane we are joined by other energies that want to have a say in how any given project will turn out.

 

Spirit always has it’s own ideas and will support or encourage things to go in a certain way often throwing in curve balls that include the trickster element of surprise.

 

And of course there are issues like timing and resources and physical and emotional energy and other people that have an impact on the outcome of your dream.

 

Which means that we don’t have total ( or sometimes any) control over how this thing we are imagining is going to show up in physical form. 

 

The second obstacle to being truly creative is related to the issue of having an open hearted relationship with ourselves. And many of us find that difficult because we learned not to trust our deepest feelings and impulses.

 

Any kind of creative process can be intimidating and scary at times because it can bring you into places inside of your psyche where you would simply rather not go.

 

We always start out on the creative path with great anticipation and excitement. We want to be creative because of the joy and fulfillment we know it can give us.

 

But invariably and often inexplicably we find ourselves coming up against a snag in our creative stream that evokes fear or frustration. Maybe we feel blocked. Or are all of a sudden we become convinced that this creative direction that was so exciting just a few moments ago is now an incredibly bad idea.

 

The inner voices of judgment become terribly loud and threaten to take over. And right behind those voices come ancient feelings of shame as we grapple with expressing the deepest parts of our authentic self. 

 

The negative messages and irrational fears. The experiences of being humiliated or made fun of. The times of feeling not seen or valued can come back up to the surface when we begin to do this work.

 

In opening up to our full creative aliveness we will very likely come up against those things that closed down aspects our creative juiciness in the first place.

 

Sometimes it’s not judgment that stops us in our tracks but the intensity with which we want something. Or how much our creative expression reflects the truth of who we are deep down. As we open to our vulnerability around what we desire we can find ourselves facing grief or feelings of powerlessness or hopelessness that are related to fears that we can never have what we truly want.   

 

There can be so much to deal with on the emotional level as we try to make creative magic that before we know it we just want to throw in the towel and quit this stupid process. 

 

Not allowing ourselves to fully feel whatever pain or frustration or sadness arises during the creative process can stop our natural creative flow. So we need to heal those stuck and shut down places in order to become fully creatively alive.

 

And we heal it by giving ourselves the message that we matter. That ALL of who we are is important.

 

First of all, I just want to reassure you that having these feelings at some point during your creative process is totally normal. In fact, it probably means that you are really engaged with your creativity in a very deep and powerful way.

 

But it’s important to know how to skillfully deal with some of those experiences as they arise. And because I really want you to be the magician you were born to be, I put together a few guidelines to help you through some of these more challenging internal creative landscapes.

 

1.) The most important thing is to simply be wherever you are in the kindest most compassionate way possible.

 

Any time these more difficult feelings arise it’s another golden opportunity to try to meet yourself with love and acceptance. 

 

It’s also helpful to remember that there is nothing wrong with you for having any of these feelings. To appreciate that you are incredibly courageous for trying to be creative at all. That every creative act is a choice to heal some part of ourselves. And that healing most often means feeling.

 

2.) Simply feel the what you feel.

If you need to cry, cry. If you need to get angry let yourself yell or stomp around. If you feel disappointed or frustrated just acknowledge it and don’t try and make it better.

 

3.) Write about what’s coming up for you in a journal.

Writing is a way of listening to yourself in your own words.

 

4.) Find a friend to talk to.

Someone who really knows how to listen and can be kind to you in ways that might be hard for you right now.

 

5.) Be curious.

Our immediate impulse is to push these feelings away. To jump to the conclusion that we have made some kind of mistake. To distract ourselves or try to talk ourselves out of what is showing up.

 See what you can discover by just being with them. Think of it as an inner adventure into the Land Of You. Find out where you are feeling these things in your body, without trying to change a thing. Just explore.

 Try to stay away from value judgements or putting the feelings in categories of good or bad. What would happen if you didn’t think you had to fix anything? Ask yourself what the shape, sound or color of this feeling is. Then paint or draw or sing what you have discovered.

 

What we need to remember is that even a magician needs a good dose of patience and self love at times.

 

That magic isn’t always smooth sailing. And that the best we can sometimes do is to simply ride out the bumpy periods with kleenex in hand, our best friend on speed dial and the willingness to keep going no matter what.