Do you feel like your insides are being squeezed? As if your current creative expression is too small for what you want to share with the world?
Expand Your Creative Expression
It’s important to know when your creative expression is ready for a different canvas.
Is there a new aspect of yourself you want to explore? Perhaps you are drawn to get involved in the political arena, in the arts. Or to change your career or to live in another country.
Are you ready to expand your venue to a different or unfamiliar audience?
Notice if you feel a greater call to be out in the world. There are times when your expression and energy are needed. You may feel an inner urge to try something new.
Is your voice ready to be heard in different ways, perhaps in new places?
Resistance is Natural
It is natural to feel some inner resistance to doing something unfamiliar. After all, you are venturing into unfamiliar land. Yet if you rely on past experience to define who you are, you’ll never discover what is possible.
Realize that once you have expressed a vision, it becomes outdated. You can’t give the same speech, year after year. It’s why I could only teach classes that I created for a limited time. Then I had to go on: something new was waiting to manifest.
When you step into the unknown a new vision starts to take shape.
Move Forward
Allow yourself to explore and experiment. Watch what draws your attention. Ask yourself if there is something you need to do in this new arena. Your willingness to expand your comfort zone opens the door to more of your possibilities.
Then your potential becomes a reality.
Expectations Be Damned!
Let go of any expectations about how you will perform, or how you will be received. Look at how you feel and how your body responds as you put yourself out in this new way. Continually update your picture of yourself.
As the adventurer, you build new experiences. You open doors to new opportunities, expanding your vision.
Aren’t you ready to act on a new stage in life?
Reflection
Take a breath. Release it. Take another. Devote some dedicated time of concentration/meditation to this. It doesn’t need to be hours of quiet, perhaps only 15 minutes. Then allow the question to simmer within you. Let responses bubble up into your awareness. Notice new ways of thinking, of images or ideas that arise spontaneously. Pay attention to your dreams. Let it happen. Be aware. See where it leads you next. Let yourself savor this process of receiving from yourself. Don’t judge whatever comes up, just receive it. Make notes.
I invite you to share something from this process. Sharing is an important way to anchor an insight in your body. It leads you to deeper insight. It stimulates action.
Scroll down and add your comments. We’d love to hear from you!
14 Responses
Hi Laurie
I am discovering dancing, singing and new forms, stages, audiences as a public speaker! I am a Grandmother and creating a new space to express my Self as a Grandmother. Maori Grandmother and Elder Wai Turoa Morgan has been very inspiring for me and now it’s up to me te express the Grandmother in me in my own unique, authentic way!
Love,
Christina
This is wonderful, Christina! I’d love to come and see you some day. I imagine the fun you have—your audience, too.
Much love,
Laurie
For many years I’ve wondered about how I appear to others: how do I seem to my kids and grand-kids – what do I look like, sound like, feel like in an existential sort of way? It’s not that I want anybody to tell me; I’m OK with not knowing – it’s simply a passing thought which I imagine everybody must feel: we can never know what kind of figure we cut in the universe even if we see ourselves on video. Being consumed by such thoughts would result in heightened self-consciousness, in ‘expectations about how you will perform, or how you will be received’. The balancing and exciting alternative is to ‘continually update your picture of yourself’ – to go inside in order to be able to be receptive of appropriate feedback.
I recently had a church-organ piece I composed performed. That was a huge adventure resulting from exploration of the potential of an instrument the sound of which has moved me for years. That’s a model for how I know I should proceed: just get on with it… What I’ve always fought shy of is the feeling of ‘resistance to doing something unfamiliar’ like selling myself, my writing, my painting, my music.
I suppose the problem is that I’m more than content when just one or two people seem to react positively to what I do! That may well be enough of an adventure – the idea that another human being is making sense of what I do; it gives me the necessary feedback.
Colin,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
I imagine that you receive feedback in multiple ways: through your experience of manifesting something that had previously been only in your personal “ethers”, the responses of others to what you create, and simply getting on with whatever is there to be gotten on with. Is your resistance to “selling” because of its unfamiliarity? Or is it because of some internal value judgment about selling what you create? a thought to consider… And then ultimately, it may not matter a bit if you are content with the adventure.
Laurie
Always love the Friday Focus series and YES, I am ready to show up on a bigger stage and step into the adventure. Not sure what it looks like, but excited for the journey ahead. I appreciated the suggestion of sitting with the question and allowing it to simmer!
Yes, Minette, let it simmer! Then your own questions will surface so you can dive deep into what you want to create. Coming up this week, the FF is about listening to your inner voice as you navigate change.
I, too, have been simmering. Some life circumstances have prolonged that process a bit longer than anticipated. As a result, when my mind wanders, it’s going to some surprising and delightful directions. There are some new potential ‘partners’ coming into focus. I’m excited to find out “where I’m headed.”
It’s wonderful that you are being so flexible. I find that is necessary, since things are always changing. New people come into our life, elements retreat or alter in some way; it all means that the interplay between you and the Universe is evolving!
I love the metaphor of the canvas! “It is important to know when your creative expression is ready for a new life canvas.” Thanks for the invitation Laurie!
It sounds like you are receiving the invitation loud and clear, Joy!
I am filled with anticipation for whatever presents itself next. That said, I know I have to actually step forward and the woodsy, shy introvert wants to hold me back. 🙂
I had someone tell me once that some people were too gentle to be in this world and that I was one of them. Even though I know it was said with love and care, I think I need to let it go. Yes, I’m gentle (and shy) but I’m here for a reason.
Bam! Now bring it on!
I identify with that introvert, Sheila. Some days I have to deliberately remind myself that I have a voice that needs to be expressed. We are going for it!
For me, meditation is the vehicle that can help me participate in the world in a new way. It seems strange to say that going deep into oneself makes that person more willing to become something new or takes a different view on life. However, meditation allows me to go deep into myself and find all kinds of good things. It allows me to explore and even prioritize those things that are becoming important in my new way of living. I do get brought down by society every now and then, but the inner vision is improving and the inner strength is becoming real. Basically, all is good.
All is good, Roy! I so appreciate the way in which you engage with meditation and allow yourself to discover all that is new and possible.