Stop Being Your Creativity’s Worst Enemy

I know it’s hard, but it is necessary

Early on we learn that we should treat others the way you would like to be treated, but we forget that the rule applies to how we treat ourselves as well.

We bad talk our creative dreams, belittle them in the eyes of others, or even worse, compare them to others’ creativity in ways that make it impossible for them to ever measure up. We don’t give them room to make mistakes or grow because we become too afraid of what doing so could mean to our ego or how we’re perceived. We become our creativity’s worst enemy, yet we never stop asking it to perform like we’ve been best friends all along.

Now is as good of a day as any to do away with the toxicity in your relationship with your creativity and turn to positivity instead. Your relationship won’t change overnight, but starting today is better than not.

First, it’ll be important to apologize to your inner creative. Take the time to jot down the ways that you’ve actively hurt it or asked too much of it. Then spend some time figuring out how you’re going to make up for those discretions. Julia Cameron suggests dating your inner creative, but if that feels like too much too fast, figure out what small step you can take.

Some examples:

• Starting a note on your phone with instances you want to bad talk your creativity and what you did instead
• Loosening the structure you may have created around your creativity (sometimes taking steps forward means pausing for a few beats)
• Going for a long drive without any specific destination in mind

We all have found ourselves making an enemy out of our creativity, don’t beat yourself up about it, but like I’ve said before, nothing will offer good output if your input is only toxicity.

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I write about creativity, mental health, grief, and how to cope with life’s everyday challenges on VivNunez.com. Follow along on my Instagram for mini-essays on the same topics, and sign up for a weekly newsletter of encouragement.