learning to manage your creativity is like herding cats
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I hate to bring up the subject of creative anxiety twice in one week and then not offer a coping exercise! In his self-help creativity manual Coaching the Artist Within, psychologist Eric Maisel suggests we learn to appreciate what he terms the “Tao of Anxiety” and thus coach ourselves through it.
It is, as are [...]
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As Eric Maisel explains in his expert creativity manual Coaching the Artist Within, anxiety can be a tricky thing for creative people. Sometimes fear serves as a valuable alert, sometimes as a false alarm. But how can you tell the difference? And what can you do about it?
Symptoms of Anxiety
First of all, you must learn [...]
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In his self-help creativity guide, Coaching the Artist Within, psychologist Eric Maisel devotes an entire chapter to Anxiety. Certainly some anxieties are rooted in the irrational, but creative people often experience reality-based, rational fears. What happens, for example, if we perform badly, or our book does not sell, or no gallery will represent us? These [...]
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In Coaching the Artist Within, creativity expert and psychologist Eric Maisel devotes an entire chapter to “Achieving a Centered Presence.” He describes a simple, six-step, one minute process for carefully breathing and thinking yourself into a grounded state of calm so you are ready to create and take the next right step for the project [...]
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In Coaching the Artist Within, creativity expert Eric Maisel discusses the mental energy required to create. Unlike physical energy which is based on food/sleep inputs, mental energy depends on your interest, passion, desire, concern – the intensity you apply to creating. Your mental energy is depleted by mental activity, including creating – and not creating! [...]
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If you have ever said I’m “too old” to chase my dream or too this or too that … I have two words for you: Susan Boyle. We have all kinds of rational and irrational reasons to justify why we can’t create today or this week or whatever. But sometimes, even though all that may [...]
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Creativity expert Julia Cameron, writing in her creativity manual “The Artist’s Way”, notes that blocked creative types resort to an addictive cocktail of blocks: obsessions with work, food, alcohol, sex or love and more, in whatever form is handy to soothe us. These feel-good-for-the-moment behaviors are essentially creative U-turns made to alleviate fear.
Many Different [...]
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In Chapter 8 of The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron labels the belief “I’m too old to create” excuse a “Great Block Lie” and considers it on a par with that other old saw, “I don’t have money for it.” Using the “too old” excuse is so convenient. And the longer you wait to begin, [...]
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Not doing your Artist’s Way Morning Pages by hand? It’s surprising how many of us really resist this directive. Doing the daily pages and writing them out by hand is an important part of the process.
Author and teacher Julia Cameron gives all sorts of reasons why, but for me the critical aspect is that [...]
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There are all kinds of tips and tricks for getting through a writer’s block. Mostly, I ignore them and procrastinate instead. But here’s a technique I do recommend, a no-pressure method to ease into writing. It’s especially helpful if you have a deadline and aren’t quote unquote in the mood to write, or you are [...]
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