Card from the Earthbound Oracle
A few things to accept if you want to live a creative life:
This road can get bumpy. By living a creative life, you’ll often find yourself whacking your own path through a gnarly wood. While other people elect to take the well-marked, well-lit paths, you’ll be off in a strange wilderness of your own making. This is certainly not the easiest way to live, but it’s the most magical.
Fear doesn’t ever really go away. You do, however, get better at recognizing it and moving forward even if it insists on following. Anytime you venture deeper into creative living, fear will require you to gather up your strength and just keep swimming.
There’s always another blank page to face. No matter what you did yesterday, “what’s next” is the most important question to ask yourself. This can seem overwhelming, but if you shift your perspective you’ll see it for what it is: the incredible gift of endless possibilities.
Droughts are part of the package. Occasionally, you will get stuck. You will get frustrated. You will feel like you can’t tap into the flow. The more you’ve encountered these droughts, though, the more tools you’ll have to maneuver them – and you’ll always find your way back to the stream.
Distractions are everywhere. Procrastination, self-doubt, drama… you’ll never have to look hard to find something waiting to take your energy away from creativity. Right when you’ve willed yourself past one distraction, another will always be waiting. This is life. You’ll have to constantly remind yourself what you really want to focus on.
Your inner critic is going to be a giant asshole sometimes. Your inner critic will lead you to overthink what you’ve attempted, berate yourself, want to tear everything you’ve created to shreds. You’ll need to get well-acquainted with your inner critic. Accept her as part of you and work to transform her from foe to friend.
You’ve probably done more than you give yourself credit for. Seriously, you need to focus as much (or more) on what you HAVE accomplished as what you haven’t. Give yourself credit. Make lists of what you’ve achieved. Remember that any small creative act is worth celebrating.
Other people’s reactions aren’t the best gauge of your value. When you present your creative output to others, you’ll occasionally get praise. You’ll probably get some criticism as well. And you’ll often get… no reaction whatsoever. So it goes. Don’t you dare rest the worth of your creativity on someone else’s shoulders!
Listening to your deeper Self is wiser than listening to your ego. Your ego might want praise, money, 10k Instagram followers, etc. But what your deeper Self probably wants is expansion, expression and genuine connection. Of course, these things don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but beware of your ego telling you one will ALWAYS equate to the other.
The hardest, most bullshit feelings can become fuel. I don’t buy into the notion that creative people have to be tormented, suffering souls. But creative people do tend to feel things deeply. You’ll go through inner turmoil and navigate murky inner waters – but there are pearls lurking in those waves. You have the gift of extracting the wisdom in your struggles and alchemizing it into something useful, something beautiful.
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I love this post so much! That last concept especially is one I’ve been thinking about since reading Big Magic – while it might not be true that creatives HAVE to suffer for their work, sometimes the things that seem most awful at the time are the sources of the best growth and learning afterwards!
Yesss! Big Magic was fantastic, so many useful nuggets of wisdom. <3
This felt sooo good. I especially related to the point of not getting any reaction at all 🙁 that’s what I experienced in my blog today after having offered 3 soundcloud episodes. The blog statistic exploded but well, no comments, nothing. But at the same time I realised that I myself also enjoy many beautiful things without commenting or even liking 🙁 your post is a great reminder of creative independence and trust into our hearts desires so thank you very much Carrie 🙂
You bring up such a good point. I try to be more mindful of commenting and liking other people’s content now that I make my own. It’s easy to appreciate something without letting the creator know, especially on the internet!
With so little time to attend to big things I seem to have little time left to attend to the small. When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and two cups of coffee. (That’s someone else’s story)
What has been following me today is “Manifestation”, regardless of whether we are on a bumpy road or are filled with fear we know “It” (no not the clown) is coming, what we ask for; what we manifest.
The endless possibilities you speak of are always at our finger tip even in our darkest hour. Sometimes the request (prayer) is ‘help me’ others it is ‘thanks’ bottom line here is there is always a line of communication to the source, the guide, angel the Universe or god… yea however you chose to label it. One person/character I look up to is Gibbs, the boss on the TV show NCIS, one of his many rules is “listen to your gut/heart” it won’t lie to you.
Something I read somewhere, “what others think of you is none of your business” I have trouble remembering that one but it’s a biggie.
Carrie I thank you for the time you invest here in your blog and in the videos on YouTube, it may be hard to see or feel but what you do for many helps keep us aware, awake & afloat.
Namaste
<3 ~Thank you~ <3
Brad
I’ve heard that story about the mayonnaise jar and I think of it often. It’s an interesting lesson, indeed. Thank YOU for your comment. It does mean a lot to me to know what I do is appreciated. <3
I’ve spent a lot of time in your beautiful little world (blog) in the last week, since I came across your site looking for more insight on The Wild Unknown deck, that which ypu provide beautifully. On theme of this post I thought I’d let you know that I have found your insights fascinating. This post resonates as I am new to Tarot and in the process of setting up my second business which is bringing up so many new feelings and issues, I have also moved hundreds of miles away from friends and family last year, completely changed my diet to plant based and questioning so many things from relationships, creativity, my place jn the world, ethics, what I do for a living, it’s been intense to say the least. I’m getting so much from The Wild Unknown and even more from it from your insights. I hope you don’t mind, I may be hanging out here quite a bit as I start my journey 🙂 thought it was time to say thank you. X
Hi Jennie, aww, thanks for your sweet words! Wow – lots of new stuff happening for you. It sounds like you are really going through the process of coming into yourself, figuring out who you are, and intentionally living the way you want to live. That’s awesome! You are welcome in my world, I hope to have you here often. <3