How to Move Past Creative Fears

Even before COVID I had a sense of urgency about getting a lot of creative work done.

I have been exploring how we get more diverse voices into a media landscape.

One of the issues is the challenges of a media landscape that is becoming more narrow because of algorithms and value systems that prioritize income over ideas.

The second challenge is of the people whose voices do not have space not wanting to share their stories in a landscape that is unwelcoming to their perspective. Add to that internal fears about saying the wrong thing, being rejected, making mistakes.

THE FEAR OF SHARING OUR VOICE

I know the difficulties in sharing our voices from a personal perspective. I have struggled to share my own ideas because of fear.

And I know the difficulties in sharing our voices from the perspective of a documentary filmmaker. I choose subjects because I’m struck by that person’s unique perspective or experience yet often they don’t see this in themselves.

For many people, it is does not feel natural to share our voice. Some of us have buried our voices under ‘shoulds’, expectations from others, expectations from ourselves.

However, when our voices are buried we are limited in how we show up in the world.

And because of that, the world is smaller.

LEARNING TO GET OUT OF FEAR

This past winter writing one book (which turned into three) turned out to be a practice in getting out of fear of sharing my voice.

Each day I had to show up, be vulnerable, meet the page, empty my mind from distractions, and relax into letting the words flow.

The process of getting to this point didn’t happen at the moment I decided to write. It happened months, even years before sitting down at the desk.

It starts by starting and making showing up a practice.

Make getting into creative flow a practice. It is in this flow that you access the best of what you have to give to the world.

Here is a summary of what I learned about my own process. I hope that one or more of these reflections help inspire you to show up and share your voice.

Three Strategies for Sharing Your Voice

INTEGRATE CREATIVITY INTO EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE

For anyone familiar with the book, The Artist’s Way you will be familiar with artist dates. These are once-a-week solo outings where you go out and do something that fills your creative well. Dates include activities like going to a museum or going for a walk.

I discovered that once-a-week outings weren’t enough for me to live my best creative life. I built creative input into my daily life.

Here are some suggestions to build creativity into the fabric of your life.

• Be active about your input, add inspiring podcasts, YouTube videos, courses, music to your life daily.

• When you hear or see something interesting, capture it, write it down, take a photo, make a note in your phone.

• Create a capture system, a way of storing the ideas and images you find throughout your day.

• Find a way to organize your inspiration by topic of interest. 

KNOW YOUR REASON FOR CREATING

When we are working on a creative project we can get lost in the details.

That is fine until the time when you start to think, ‘Why am I doing all this work?’ ‘Who will care to read this?’ or ‘Can I even do this?’

During those times we need to return to our reason for starting the project in the first place and ground our current action in the impact it hope to make.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when you get stuck in your process:

• Why did I start this project?

• What do I want to communicate?

• What do I want my audience to feel?

• What do they feel now?

• What do they understand now?

THE BETTER YOU FEEL THE MORE YOUR WORK WILL FLOW

When I feel good I can get into flow pretty easily.

When I don’t feel good I’ve learned I need to do things to get back into a relaxed state.

Some people think they need to be amped up to work. I found that energy gets me to the starting line but to do my best work I need to be relaxed.

When I’m relaxed I have access to all parts of my brain.

Here are some ideas to help you get in a relaxed state when the pulls of excitement or despair threaten to get you out of flow:

• Pay attention to the feelings that pull you out of flow. What are they telling you? They are information. Don’t stuff them down. Listen. Hear what they have to say.

• If you are feeling agitated I recommend this technique shared by psychologist and Buddhist teacher, Tara Brach, R.A.I.N.

• Take more pauses. Pauses help you reset your nervous system. They help you access a calm mental state. When I go blank or have unhelpful thought, the pause gives me space to why I’m doing this work and who I want to serve.

• Be intentional with your Pauses. Before taking a Pause, ask yourself a question or look at the place you are stuck, put that in your mind and then let it go. Your mind will work on your question or problem in the background.

CREATE FIRST, EDIT LATER

Unless you are doing surgery or some other lifesaving work, whatever you put your mind to doing you can do.

You can do a first draft. And you can do something with a bad first draft. You can edit or course correct.

You can’t do something with a blank page or empty canvas or photo, course, talk, fill-in-the-blank that exists only in your mind.

MOVING FORWARD IS A PROCESS

Moving past one fear after another is part of the process any creative human goes through. Since we all are creative, that is the process we all go through.

The artists I respect the most move forward with their creative dream.

I’m sure they have fear. They have just found a way to relax into their own process of creation.