Dear creative mind,
Welcome to this meditation practice.
Today we are inviting ease as we challenge the stories we've been fed about the struggling artist myth.
So take a moment to find your comfortable position today,
Maybe a position that embodies the energy of ease or simplicity.
There's no need to find that perfect position.
So allow yourself to find what feels good,
What feels simple or easy today.
You can sit,
You can lie down.
There's no should here,
So allow yourself to just be and welcome yourself here.
When you get there,
You'll start this practice by connecting with your breath,
Noticing what it feels like today without trying to change it,
Just observing what is.
Noticing the rise and fall of your chest,
Noticing the temperature of the air,
Breathing behind your throat,
Behind your heart and all the way down to your belly and releasing.
Let's just be with the breath for a moment.
Beautiful.
Now I'll invite you to bring to mind a few shoulds that have been present for you lately.
Maybe it's about how your art should look like,
Maybe it's about how you should build your creative business,
Maybe it's about who you should be.
So whatever this should is,
It's something that may not come from you,
A rule that does not come from your wise self.
So bring it to mind.
And now with your next exhale,
I want you to release it.
Just let it go,
Allow yourself to shed it.
Let's do this again.
So maybe you want to bring up another should,
Bringing it to mind as you inhale and really letting it go as you exhale,
Release it.
Notice what it feels like to drop that weight.
Maybe you can even notice what it felt like to carry the should in your body.
So let's do this one more time.
Again you can bring to mind another should or keep the same.
Now really feeling it in your body as you breathe in and allowing yourself to fully release it as you breathe out.
Beautiful.
Dear creative mind,
If you've ever felt like this creative path was challenging,
You're not alone.
Because in parts it is.
Our path is a tender one.
Not only do we feel like we constantly swim upstream,
But what we put into the world is a fruit of our distilled pain.
Distilled pain and innermost feelings.
But also we may feel like this path is challenging because in parts we've been told it would be.
We've been told that artists cannot make money,
That creativity is a lonely path,
That creatives are bad at business or even that only tortured artists make real art.
By buying into these stories and believing the idea that it should feel like a struggle,
It will.
We may also feel like this path is a challenging one when we're squeezing ourselves into places that don't let us breathe,
When we force fit ourselves into a norm that doesn't really align with our truth.
We're making this path harder than it needs to be when we're carrying the weight of all the shoulds and when we're thinking that we need to operate the same way others do,
We're rubbing ourselves from seeing other opportunities that are a better fit for who we truly are.
So as you continue breathing mindfully here,
I'll ask that you imagine yourself into a tiny little box.
And this box is a representation of all those stories,
All those myths,
All those shoulds about who you should be,
About what your art should look like,
About any arbitrary milestone you should reach with your creative business.
And this box has become way too small for you to breathe,
To move and to be.
So on the count of three,
You will step outside of that tiny little box you've been keeping yourself into.
Ready?
One,
Two,
Three.
Allow yourself to jump outside of that box and let out a sigh.
Take a look around you at the space and the possibilities that are available to you now.
You can stretch,
You can dance,
You can laugh.
You're allowed to have fun with this.
You're allowed to breathe.
You're allowed to be.
Maybe you can choose to believe that it can be simpler.
It can be easier.
Because our art and our creative work is not defined by our struggle.
Our business growth and our success is not defined by how complex it is.
So let's unlearn the tortured artist myth,
The struggling or the hustling entrepreneur story.
And let's dare to make things simple.
Maybe you can finally allow yourself to collar outside the lines.
So before we wrap up this practice today,
Take a deep inhale,
Taking in anything that resonated with you during this practice and releasing.
Take the time you need and whenever you are ready,
You'll bring back some movement into the body,
Wiggling the fingers,
The toes,
Maybe stretching and gently opening the eyes.
Thank you for sharing this practice with me today.
You can save it and come back to it whenever you need to release the weight of a should.
And whenever you need to find ease and simplicity.
