Refill Your Creative Superpowers

Yesterday I woke with a bad feeling.  Do you ever start your day that way?  I didn’t want to get up.  I wasn’t sure I could face the day.  Something was just “off” (I even skipped my morning Doodle!).

I felt small. I felt insignificant. I felt lost. The day ahead had this feeling of being totally insurmountable.  I felt…vulnerable.

 

 

I finally got the nerve to get up and face the day anyway and started with a quick check of my Facebook Page and News Feed…

and there it was.

“Vulnerability” staring me in the face.

I’m not even sure where it came from but someone posted the Brene Brown TED video about vulnerability.

 

 

I’ve seen it before…but I watched it again and reconnected to the beautiful and powerful message she shares.   I shared it on my Facebook page, admitting my day’s “vulnerability” and went on to read other posts.  Apparently the universe knew I needed more, knew my vulnerability quotient was a little too high and needed some superpower infusion. I received it with more golden nuggets of goodness from Brene Brown and also a new discovery of Jamie Ridler who is doing great things with creativity and inspiration.

Brene became my superhero of the day.  Her honesty and authenticity around vulnerability and comparison is inspiring and refreshing.  In an interview with Jamie, Brene talks about her own journey of discovering her “creative side” and what it means to her and to others.

Join me for a little creativity superpower infusion courtesy of Brene!

 

Courage and Vulnerability – It’s Just Part of the Creativity Package

Did you know that creativity takes enormous courage and vulnerability?  I do…well, I sorta do.  I think inherently I knew it because I’m living in this vacillating state of courage and vulnerability every day as I move through my creative journey.  I’m never quite sure from one minute to the next which is going to be stronger:

My courageous self saying “I can do this!  This is who I am meant to be.  I’m going to share this gift I’ve been given.”

or

My vulnerable self saying “I feel small, insignificant, lost, fragile…SCARED!”

I now feel like I’ve been given permission to feel them both.  To be OK with not knowing which will come next.  To embrace both of them as shiny badges to proudly display for playing my part and standing strong in my creative journey.

I feel them. Brene Brown feels them.  Do you?

 

 

Comparison!

One of the downfalls of creativity is comparison.  In her interview Brene says there is a mantra for comparison:  “Be just like everybody else…but better.”  I find that whole sentence to be completely, utterly TERRIFYING!  Can you imagine holding yourself to that measure?  Can you imagine a world where we’re all the same…but we want to be better than the same?  Exhausting really.  But we all do it!

So consider her words:

“I’ll never be the ‘best’ _____________ [fill in the blank with your job, hobby, passion, dream…] but nobody will be able to bring to their [fill in the blank] what I bring to mine.  To sacrifice that, to make it look like everyone else’s…I’m sacrificing ME.”

That’s pretty powerful stuff!  I get it Brene!  I really do!

I’ll never be the “best” photographer, but nobody will be able to bring to their photography what I bring to mine.  To sacrifice that, to make my photography look like everyone else’s…I’m sacrificing ME!

 

Abstract Photo from the Water Colors Collection of images from the bottoms of boats

 

What do you bring?  What part of YOU are you sacrificing?

 

 

 

Own Your Story

“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we’ll ever do.  Expressing our creativity is the most loving way to own our story.”

We all have a story.  We all have something we can teach others.  Something that will touch another and change their life for the better.

An experience.  A lesson.  A journey.  Our STORY.

Sometimes it’s not easy to share.  I know this! And, sometimes it’s not easy to love ourselves through the process.

It isn’t easy because we get vulnerable.  And, we compare.

I realized today that I need to love myself more.  For the courage I have to maintain my creative journey.  For telling my story with creative expression.  For the “me” I bring to the world and to my passion.

I don’t need to try to be the best or like everyone else.  It’s enough to be fully, completely, expressively me.

And mostly, I need to love myself in the vulnerable days and be brave in the face of fear and comparison and stand strong in courage and individuality.

 

 

When you are brave, you make everyone around you a little braver…

Where are you being brave?  Who are you touching with bravery?

 

 

 

Thank you Brene Brown for inspiring me all over again!!

 

You can listen to Jamie interviewing Brene here.