So much of being any type of creative is about dancing with fear.
This is a bit of a sidebar from my last post, The Key to Cultivating Authenticity.
Listen, I had a whole series planned out about the Creative Warrior in us. I may still publish it. But the gist of it was a call to action. As artist Scott Sava says, “The world needs more art. The world needs your art.” So I add, pick up your creative medium of choice, uphold your boundaries, fight through your fears, and make art.
As I’ve spent more time making stuff, I’ve decided my inner creative warrior is more of a peaceful warrior. A lover, not a fighter.
Why?
I think belittling, trying to ignore, or trying to strong-arm our fear into submission or non-existence simply makes it come back stronger and more agitated. It becomes a “me-versus-you” internal battle, and I don’t think it needs to be. I realized that fear isn’t some external force, it’s not something happening “to you” – it’s a part of you, and you’re just experiencing it.
It is you. So is the artist. They’re both in there, sharing space (or trying to).
Fear, creativity, and all the rest – they’re on the same team
You can be two things at once, like courageous and afraid. You can be more than two things at once – courageous, afraid, daring, responsible, expressive, quiet.
It’s all part of your you-ness.
Fear gets a bad rap, though. It’s known for holding us back, keeping us small, making us stay safe.
Wait, safe? Isn’t safety a good thing?
Yes it is!
I like to think of fear as an overprotective figure that wants you to be healthy, happy, safe and secure. Fear perceives danger and then acts to stop you from engaging in it. So it’s not necessarily the fear itself that is bad (because yes, be afraid of touching that unidentified snake hissing at you). It’s what the fear is perceiving as dangerous that’s the issue.
Perception of danger is extremely complicated, and I am (disclaimer) not a psychologist, but in the same way we don’t want to be bit by a poisonous snake, we also don’t want to be ridiculed by our community. We don’t like embarrassment. We don’t want to step too far outside of societal norms for fear of being cast out.
We frequently rely on social cues and our community’s perception of us to foster that sense of safety and security, so our fear warns us when we might be about to step outside of that zone. So I think we can actually appreciate its efforts in this respect!
Dance moves
I don’t think our fears are silly or misguided, but I do think we can help them to relax. So when you’re working on self-awareness and (re)discovering what you like or love, I would not ignore the fear or judgement that comes up and tries to argue with you on it, and afford it some curiosity too.
Some questions I’ve accumulated over time:
What are you afraid of? Is it a feeling? A certain outcome?
What if that actually came to pass – then what?
What are we giving up by staying small?
If you can give your fear an ear, and seek to understand it, I bet it quiets down a bit, enough that it can give you the space to truly explore what you love. Then when you start exercising genuine self-expression, it will be with much more ease. With joy, even!
The more you do it, the more you trust yourself that you can do it.
If we get right down to it, either you share a bit of yourself out there and -gasp- nothing bad happens, OR some folks out there don’t like it, and guess what? You’re still you, you’re still okay. You’ve fostered a sense of safety and security within yourself.
The more the fear sees this, the deeper the trust, and the quieter fear becomes.
Again, deep down your inner creative and your fear are on the same team – they’ve just had a hard time working together, up until now.
Patience, understanding, and compassion are the moves that make up the slow-dance with fear. You’ve got this.
Until next time!
