I have a formula for getting out of my own way in relation to my creativity and I want to share it. It’s helped me a lot in my process as a creative. I’ve been an artist for the last 30 something years. It basically comes down to shadow. By the way, my name is Vanessa. I am an opera singer and a writer. I survey art, culture, world, religion, mysticism, everything for wisdom about the creative process and how to stay engaged in your art for a lifetime. I’m giving workshops this month on this exact subject. If basically how to get yourself out of your own way, how to get unstuck, learning how to recruit fear as an ally. If you’re interested, like I said, link in bio or just listen to the video. It’s basically condensed for free. So let’s get into it. First, some background. So to start, you are blocked. What does that really mean? You know, there’s something that you must do on behalf of your creativity, but you’re in your own way. And what is being in your own way? There is futility in your current process. Everything that you’re currently trying does not work. Your process can include anything from how you motivate yourself, what you go to for inspiration, your studio setup, anything like that, or a million other things that you can’t even think of. It’s all part of your process, and right now it’s really not working. When you’ve Been stuck for a very long time. Those feelings start to become cross wired with feelings of ineptitude. You think that because you’ve been stuck, there’s something wrong with you. Why? Cause everything that you’re trying feels like the right thing to you, but it’s not working. So you think that you are failing what is right. Wouldn’t in creativity? If you sat in this season for a long enough, you really start to lose confidence and it. What do we do when things aren’t working? We double down on what we think is right. So you think, okay, I’m blocked, let me keep trying the thing that work. And it yields the same result, which is no result. Process that we get into in my workshops. Or when I teach us how to challenge what we think is right and what we think is wrong. On behalf of our creativity. This is shadow work, but again, it’s applied specifically to creativity. So how do you do that? Step one, identify the precise condition in your creative process. That trap you inside of a block. Identify the conditions of your futility, be it asking for help, get stuck in the editing process. Whatever it is, just write that down. Next step, survey your inner dialogue. I don’t like the way it looks. I don’t like the way it feels. I don’t write more because I don’t like the way it sounds. I stop myself before I ask for mentorship because I don’t think I’m qualified. That is the value that is animating your blog. Now, let’s go a little deeper. What is the fear that animates that value? For example, I’m afraid to write at length because I believe that I will look stupid. I’m afraid I will look mediocre. Mediocrity is the shame with the fear. In this example, mediocrity, in your mind, is bad, and it’s what scares you. And this is your clue. This is what we’re here to discover in shadow work. If you have shame about being mediocre as an example, what do you do next? Ask yourself in a compassionate way. And this is very important. Not applying more shame, but in a compassionate way, can you ask yourself, is this true of me? Am I mediocre at least in some capacity in the current stage? Am I a little mid. You’re not shaming yourself. You are approaching yourself courageously, and you are attempting to land on neutral ground. You are in pursuit of neutrality. This is what shadow work is. When we care about something out and we feel that we’re in our own way. The idea is to try to fix or get rid of the problem in us that is causing this issue. But that is not the first step. Shadow work is a process of facing yourself very intimately, in a neutral way, so that we can become acquainted with our hidden part. There is a universe of personality traits. Very deep in your subconscious. But you Learned that many of them were bad or wrong, or they were not going to keep you safe. You Learned to have shame about these things, but they are not inherently shameful. The only thing that is inherently shameful is shame itself. There is nothing inherently wrong, for example, with being mediocre. But shame that you carry about mediocrity is preventing you from taking the very step that you identified in the steps before. This said another way, your art is demanding that you find a neutral way of embodying mediocrity, so that you can get on with your creative endeavor. And so from here, you can explore, redefine what mediocrity might look like in a neutral way and perhaps even a beneficial way. If you are courageous enough to admit this to yourself, then you will also have the necessary courage to take responsibility for it. Belong to your season of mediocrity. And cats out of the bag. We all go through those season again. We’re not getting rid of your mediocrity. We’re only getting rid of the shame of it. So that you can belong to that season and receive what you need from the world around you, thereby giving yourself a new process. Have a new process. You get out of your own way. I get into detail in this, in my workshop. There are countless ways to find shadow. We just went through once. Lots of other strategies that We can find, and in fact, there’s a way to kind of prioritize which elements of our shadow are the most potent. Clue ones are really ready to define their way into our art. We also get into ways to isolate, add depth, color, specificity, certainly how to integrate. Talk about ways to thread this specific block into something useful on behalf of your creativity, which then allows us to draw together. Next steps might look like in your creative process. Again, if you’re interested, link in bio, or if you have questions, just drop them in the comments. But for now, I’ll just leave you with this. Being an artist, being a creative for a lifetime, means finding more ways to be responsible for your art year after year after year. How to get out of your own way, how to refresh your process, finding new ways to understand yourself so those pieces of yourself can show up in your art. If you’re ashamed of it, it won’t show up in your art. Shadow work teaches us that things that we have banished in ourselves because of shame could actually be allies in our creative unfolding. So within that framework, perhaps a fear of being seen, as we say, is really just a pathologized fear of how we see ourselves. And the thesis of pretty much all of my work, both personally and the work that I share with others, is that the courage to face yourself in this Way is proportional to the courage required to be seen with your art. This is what people mean when they say that you have everything that you need. If you have comments and the questions, let me know and try it. Let me know what you think.