Guest Author - Michelle Anne Cope

"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." Pablo Picasso

We don’t have to go to school to be creative, or read books, or watch DVDs, or attend conferences or club meetings. Everything we need to be creative, we already have. In fact, our creativity started the minute we were born. However, just as Picasso alludes to in his quote, we struggle with the issue of staying creative.

Why?

We create for so many reasons. Some of us just have to find an outlet to express ourselves while others create for financial means. No matter why we create, we like to show people what we are doing. Sometimes there will be necessary critics. There are times when we need and should expect to have an agent, editor, art critic – anyone who is reviewing our creations from a professional viewpoint – look at our work objectionably and give us the direction and guidance we need. Then . . . there are times we simply want to share with a friend, a family member, even a stranger, and it doesn't go well. Someone tells us that we are doing things wrong. Yikes. We shared our writing, music, art, woodworking, crafts, whatever we created, and it was not liked. We might have even heard an insult or two. It hurt our feelings, and because we don’t like to feel hurt we stopped creating. Then, one day we had to start again, we just had to, but we were careful to make sure everyone liked what we did. We quit being ourselves. Does that sound familiar?

The pesky "they don't like it" monster is running amuck and he stole our creativity. At least, it feels like a monster. It's probably just one of those mumbling mind gremlins. He just wants us to stop being creative. Wait a minute . . . that’s not okay. It’s simply just wrong! We want to be creative. I mean, it’s our right. Hey, aren’t we allowed to be creative? YES!!! I don’t shout often, but I’m passionate about being able to sit down and start a project, a drawing, a story, whatever mood I’m in that day, and not worry about whether or not it will be liked. I don’t like mumbling mind gremlins, and we are going to do something about the gremlins - right now! Let’s give ourselves permission to be creative our way, our terms, all the time. Whatever the issue behind our struggle, let's get rid of it!

Below you will find a permission slip you can copy and paste. Sign it, date, it, keep it, bury it - whatever will help you in the permission process. I have also opened a thread in our forum where you can state your independence from the mumbling mind gremlin and give yourself permission to be creative!

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CREATIVITY PERMISSION SLIP

I am creative. I have always been creative. My creations, in whatever form I choose them to be, belong to me. There is no wrong or right way to be creative. Today, I give myself permission to live a creative life. I give myself permission to create using my ideas, my thoughts, my visions, and my dreams. I'm a unique, original, extremely talented and creative individual. I am me, and that’s okay!

x_______________________________________ Date_________________________

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Creatively yours,
Chel