Photo by Gabriel Jimenez on Unsplash
The next time you get really down and convince yourself that you don't have anything worth offering the world, that your creative impulses couldn't possibly compete with doing something practical, like accounting or nursing or knowing how to fix a car, try this.
Play a song, watch a movie, read a few lines of your favorite book, move to music that makes you feel like you MUST dance, look deeply into the brush strokes of a painting.
Become aware of how your heart beats.
How you feel a little less alone.
How, no matter what you're going through, you can have the tiny comfort of knowing that somewhere in history, someone felt the way you do and instead of letting it eat them up from the inside out, they chose to dig up what they may have perceived as ugly or special or completely ordinary, shake off the dirt, and throw it up into the sun, allowing us all to see that what we most try to hide might just be the best thing we can share with others.
After you realize how much this song, movie, book, dance, or piece of art makes you feel like you might just belong in this big, messy, hard, tender, gorgeous life after all, go back to telling yourself that what you are dreaming of, making, and putting your whole life force into doesn't matter.
Notice how you feel.
The shift won't happen all at once, but almost nothing ever does.
Keep listening, watching, reading, moving and admiring and allow your heart to make room for and consider the idea that, just as your favorite humans and creative souls make the world more beautiful bit by bit, you just might just be part of that, too.
Play a song, watch a movie, read a few lines of your favorite book, move to music that makes you feel like you MUST dance, look deeply into the brush strokes of a painting.
Become aware of how your heart beats.
How you feel a little less alone.
How, no matter what you're going through, you can have the tiny comfort of knowing that somewhere in history, someone felt the way you do and instead of letting it eat them up from the inside out, they chose to dig up what they may have perceived as ugly or special or completely ordinary, shake off the dirt, and throw it up into the sun, allowing us all to see that what we most try to hide might just be the best thing we can share with others.
After you realize how much this song, movie, book, dance, or piece of art makes you feel like you might just belong in this big, messy, hard, tender, gorgeous life after all, go back to telling yourself that what you are dreaming of, making, and putting your whole life force into doesn't matter.
Notice how you feel.
The shift won't happen all at once, but almost nothing ever does.
Keep listening, watching, reading, moving and admiring and allow your heart to make room for and consider the idea that, just as your favorite humans and creative souls make the world more beautiful bit by bit, you just might just be part of that, too.
