A Little Advice for Creatives

If you are someone who is a creative. If you are a writer, a painter, composer and any type of creative, then you should have a practice. That means that every day you go into your area where you make your art, or your desk if you are are a writer, and you write, for, I don't know, three hours, one hour or 20 minutes. Whatever you decide your practice is.

This is SUPER important! Not only because *Inspiration* (that IS mysterious) will come every once in a while and visit you in your practice, in your writing, in your painting. And something special or magical will come through your. But because you develop a muscle or a flexibility about it, a fluency. It's like speaking a new language, if you don't use it, it's rusty.

So, if you want to have a creative output, a body of work, that you've done in your life. And you want to become better at whatever skill it is that you use in your creativity, you have to practice every day. Do it every day. And one obstacle to that is the constant judging of your Inner Critic against what you create. But you just have to do it anyway. I think it's Julia Cameron who says: "Universe, I leave to you the quality but I will focus on the quantity." So that is a great point, you know. It's a fantasy to think that the people who have created something that has been meaningful for humanity for many years did it, like, were inspired and sat down and did it in one time. No. They had a practice, and they were fluent in that because they practice every day. And then one of those things that they created resonated with the rest of humanity, and that is why it has longevity. Ok?

And by the way, this is not only about other people. I realize that no human on Earth knows the experience of not thinking about other people. Because no one has experienced that. If you were a baby and there was nobody else around, you would die. So you've never tried, it doesn't exist in your mind space how to behave or act without knowing that other people exist. And without trying to connect with them or somehow influence that relationship between you and other people. Fine. But in your creative output, it's also, or it is MAINLY about yourself. It's mainly about the things that interest you, it's mainly about your perspective. You are developing your view or your perspective of the world. So, yes, other people will see it and they will have opinions about it. Fine. But that is not the main thing about it, that is the number TWO thing. The number ONE thing is that you are developing your fluency, that you are understanding something about yourself, that you are rejoicing in your life through making these things that you enjoy to do. So, I hope that this helps.

“You don't need to justify your love, you don't need to explain your love, you just need to practice your love. Practice creates the master.” Don Miguel Ruiz

With care and respect,
Lorena Fernandez, PhD