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This Is Soul Therapy
Through grounded conversations, gentle reflection, and intuitive storytelling, This Is Soul Therapy explores how creativity, nervous system work, spirituality, and self-reclamation help us build lives that actually feel like us.
This isn't just about healing, it's about deep personal excavation and creating safety to shift how you think, remember who you are and create a reality that resonates at the soul level.
Whether you’re reconnecting with your creativity, navigating a transition, or redefining your path, this is a space to come home to yourself, fully, with power and intention.
This Is Soul Therapy
13. Navigating Your Artistic Journey: Overcoming Inadequacy Fears and Fostering Creative Growth with Mindset and Action
Greetings, fellow creatives! Have you ever found yourself in a quiet standoff with an untouched canvas, surrounded by art supplies that seem to whisper doubt? Join me as I open up about my own battles with the intimidating array of materials collecting dust, mental blocks I've been facing and the compare and despair trap that's so easy to fall into.
In this episode, we'll unravel the layers of what 'good enough' truly means for us, seasoned creators. I'm not just your podcast host; consider me your trusted confidante and guide through the twists and turns of your artistic journey.
Together, we'll gracefully navigate the delicate dance of honing skills while embracing the ever-evolving landscape of creative growth. Creativity is not just a luxury; it's a muscle that craves the richness of novelty and thrives on problem-solving. We'll delve into the impact of a sedentary lifestyle on creativity and explore actionable steps to revitalize our creative intentions.
If you're seeking personalized support, I extend an open invitation for a creativity coaching consultation. Sometimes, a gentle nudge is all it takes to unleash a torrent of self-expression.
Join me on this refined journey as we explore the transformative power of constraints and mindset shifts. It's time to fully embrace and celebrate the depth of your creative potential. Are you ready to embark on this journey with me? Let's elevate our artistry and conquer those creative obstacles together
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This is Soul Therapy. I'm Jen Hully, your host and therapeutic arts practitioner, creativity coach and photographer, obsessed with empowering others to build creatively fulfilling lives. This week, we're talking about the idea of being good enough, and what the hell does that even mean? We're gonna dive into the things and experiences and lessons that we have potentially blocked ourselves from because we have been waiting until we were good enough to start. Hello, hello, welcome back to another episode of this is Soul Therapy.
Speaker 1:I am so excited to dive into this concept of good enough, good enough, good enough, good enough. What does that even mean? It is such an arbitrary, abstract statement that has so much power and has so much impact on our self-belief, our mood and our creative pursuits. It can really dictate what we undertake, when we undertake it and how we do or don't. And I want you to ask yourself, before we dive in, how many resources, how many things, how much time, how much energy, how many ideas have been wasted or abandoned and how much expression of self has been silenced because you didn't start or keep going or complete something, because you felt that you weren't good enough.
Speaker 1:And I'm gonna share a story with you about my hoarding of art supplies. I'm just gonna out myself. I fucking love art supplies, I love stationery. Since I was a kid, I would take me to a cute little, quaint little store that sells stickers and papers and paint and colorful little paper clips and I am in fucking heaven. I am in fucking heaven and since I've been really undertaking a journey to connect with my creativity from a therapeutic standpoint and a wellness perspective and to push myself outside of my comfort zone of photography, I've been trying new things and learning new things and buying new things. So I've been purchasing things like you know watercolor paints, paintbrushes, paper to work on stickers.
Speaker 1:I got this amazing sticker book that just brought me so much joy and like it was just like my inner child was so happy when I saw it. It's this hardcover book with these amazing stickers and I remember seeing it and being like, oh my god, this would be amazing for mixed media work and paper. I saw some watercolor paper. I was like, oh, this paper would be perfect because it wouldn't buckle. You know when I'm doing wet on wet technique, and so I've got this cupboard behind me that's like full of stuff, full of all sorts of fancy little art supplies that catch my attention and they just sit there. They sit there and I don't use them. And it's like when I do sit down to do something, I find I'll like reach for my dollar store materials, which no shade dollar store materials have their place and I fucking love dollarama.
Speaker 1:I buy a lot of stuff but I became really aware that like I had really good watercolor paper that I wasn't using and then was getting really frustrated with something I was working on because the paper was falling apart. Like I was working in a crappy sketchbook instead of on actual watercolor paper and that my sticker book was just like sitting there, I wasn't being used. It was just like lonely and being like please, let me play. It's like when you'd get a Barbie doll and you wouldn't take it out of the box. Remember those holiday Barbies that you're like they can't come out of the box. Like stuff is supposed to come out of the box and you're supposed to use it.
Speaker 1:But I had like allowed myself to experience the joy of collecting the things that I wanted and like like flirting with the idea of working with mixed media or using these stickers or whatever. But I was like gatekeeping the actual experience that I wanted. I was like it was almost like, well, you can have it, but you can't use it. And I was telling myself that I couldn't use it because I was like, oh, I'm not good enough yet I want to save this for when I'm better. I want to save these stickers and I will use them when I'm actually good at collage, or you know, this watercolor paper is expensive or it's really it's like a professional grade, so I shouldn't use it when I'm just like messing around and don't know what the heck I'm doing. And so this label of like when I'm good enough, all at myself, xyz, became like an iron gate that just kept me from my creative expression.
Speaker 1:That was like wanting to come out and that led me to ask like, what does being good enough even mean? Like why it has such power, this statement like, oh, I'm not good at that, so I can't do it, and it has such, like I said, it's got such power to create this like barricade between us and things that we want to experience. But it's also invisible, because can you even define what that means if I said to you like, what is being good at something mean? And it's really abstract, often it's a shape shifter. Like I said, it's not something that, oh, being good means X, y, z, because as you grow and change, your concept of what is good will grow and change. So this idea of being good at something is this like shadowy, elusive, non-descript shape, shifting cloud of shit or sludge. That's like always lurking in the darkness, always hanging around the corner, and it's always moving. You don't know where it is, but it's there and it's going to try its damages to stop you from doing something.
Speaker 1:And if we really look at like okay, let's at least try to get some sort of a definition of being good at something, what does it mean? Often it means something or it's based on, like, our perceived ability to replicate something that we've experienced in complete perfection, to that experience. So, like, if we're talking about drawing, we're saying we're a good drawer when we can draw with like exact photo realism, what is in front of us. And if you were like me and you had a fricking art teacher in grade seven named Mr McDonald, who made you do sketch of the week, where he'd give you a mark out of 10 for, like how well you could, with pencil, recreate the Pepsi can that he had on his desk in front of you and, god forbid, it didn't look like a Pepsi can, because you were getting like two out of 10.
Speaker 1:If you grew up with something like that, you probably programmed your brain that being good at something means like you're a human photocopier, that you can make something look exactly the way it is in the world. And is that true? Like is that? What being good is? Is being able to follow the rules and do exactly what you see in something else or in someone else make you good? Or does the idea of good mean that you're able to put your unique spin on it and your own lens on it and show your own interpretation of the world? I'm thinking it's more of the second one, right, but our little survivalist brain, which is often in direct competition with our creative brain, probably believes the first one, right, and it may have come from those early experiences as a child or just what we look up to, right. What are, who our mentors are, who we aspire to be? Everybody has things. You know.
Speaker 1:We pin shit on Pinterest or we scroll through social media or TikTok and we look at people creating the work that we want to be doing, and we see these videos, even if it's in a different realm than us. I'm a photographer and I'll see people doing painting and I'm like man, I wish I could do that, Like, how often have you scrolled through TikTok and watched somebody creating something a cake, a piece of you know, like a fashion piece, or knitting, or writing, even writing poetry and you think to yourself, oh, I wish I could do that, I wish I was good at that, I wish I was creative like them? And we put this barrier between our experience and their experience and we think like, because I can't replicate exactly what I'm seeing in my environment, this video, this other person's expression, because I can't do that exactly with precise precision, that's double precise, because I've said precise precision, then I'm no good. You know what I mean. And that's pretty detrimental because it can stop us from even starting. And I saw something posted this week where it was like a person who was a watercolor painter and they were phenomenal, like their work is just amazing and they run a lot of workshops on how to develop watercolor skills. But then they had this other workshop coming up where it was like just watercolor for mental health and wellbeing and stress relief, which is a very valid way to engage with art therapeutically, to affect our mental health and to foster a sense of wellness. And I had to think how many people will watch this video or this promo and think, well, I can't possibly be helped by that because I can't paint like them. Like how easy it would be to cross-transfer this idea of not being technically a precise or experienced watercolor painter and therefore not being able to reap the therapeutic benefits of just playing and dabbling with a new way of creative and artistic expression.
Speaker 1:We know that watercolor is good for our mental health, we know that that process could benefit us, but we see these beautiful pieces of art from this person and think, well, it only helps them because they can paint a tree that looks like a tree, so we don't even try. We you know, I guess unintentionally and inappropriately think that their product and their ability to create their product is what is important, and more important than what the process will be for us. And I think that's where the error in thinking can lead us down a dangerous path. If we ask yourself what does good enough even mean, and how are we letting the label of good enough impact and affect how we live our lives? It's important to remember that we don't have to be good at something before we start doing it, and in fact, I'll argue, anybody who's good at something is now good at it because they started doing it when they weren't good at it. It's important to remember that, yes, we don't have to be good at something to start doing it, and we don't have to be good at something for it to be good for us. Right, we don't have to be an amazing marathon runner for exercise to be good for our body. We don't have to be an amazing painter for exploring with watercolor or paints or whatever to be good for our creativity and our well-being. And we don't have to be good at something before we will allow ourselves to have the power to decide what good is going to mean for us.
Speaker 1:I wanna share a story of all this shit that I've made this year. I've made shitty art. There's a woman on Instagram Her name is escaping me right now but she does this thing. Her name is Heather Travis, I think. Or was that a TV woman? Was Heather Travis like a TV? Anyways, my brain's going off. I will find out this lady's name and she does this like she calls it making sharp. She does these things about like making shit art, and the whole idea is that the process is more important than the product, and if you're signed up for my emails, you would have got some really interesting examples of shitty art that I've made in the last year, because I'm a photographer I have worked in food photography, I've worked in commercial photography, social media, weddings, portraits but I've been pushing myself to develop an art journaling habit this year, and so my beginning of dabbling with different types of art started when I was getting my therapeutic arts practitioner certification.
Speaker 1:They had us doing things that I'm not good at and I don't enjoy, or didn't enjoy, or rather thought I didn't enjoy because I wouldn't be good at it and so I've been working on this process this year to continue to stretch that and to continue to build my creativity muscle by having myself explore and play with things that are unfamiliar to me, things that I might not be good at. And yeah, I just looked up. I described my phone. Her name is Heather Travis. Her name is Heather Lynn Travis. On Instagram she's at Heather Travis T-R-A-V-I-S and she hosts something called Shart with Heather. It's quite funny. I highly recommend her If you're interested in this idea of like making shitty art and what that can do to your you know ability to create, how it can expand your creativity or wellness, even just teach it to loosen up a little bit.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so I've been doing this art journaling as a way to play and stretch my creativity muscle outside of photography, because there's a problem with staying with the tried and true and like sticking with the predictable things that you know you're good at. Yes, I could spend every single day setting up a flat leg, getting dishes, pouring some you know drinks or whatever, and being like boom, beautiful photo. And that is really affirming Makes me feel good and confident, to be like look at this amazing thing I made. But all that is doing is working on my repetition muscle. It's not actually stretching my creativity muscle because when you stick with the tried and the true, the true, the true and the predictable things that you know you're good at and that you know you can execute, it keeps you in a very small pond. You feel like a big fish, but you're in a very small pond because, like I said, you're not experimenting with things that are new. Maybe you're experimenting a little bit, being like I'm gonna change the lighting a little bit or whatnot, but you're not throwing yourself into the deep end of here's something you've never worked with. Figure it out.
Speaker 1:What you're doing is working on how well you can repeat certain actions and receive, you know, expected results, and this is an important process. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying like never work on your craft. Working on your craft is really important because if you're doing this for clients or as a side hustle or it's work, or even just because you want to have that experience of seeing your skill set improve, we do have to work on replication. But if you're trying to harness and develop your creativity and to you know benefit like have brain health benefits as well as mental health benefits of building esteem and getting comfortable with problem solving, then we need to work in spaces that are unfamiliar to us. And I would argue that if we put too much attention on our replication muscle instead of our creativity muscle, it can actually harm your creativity, because we know creativity is a skill set. We know it's like a muscle. You need to work it in order for it to continue to develop and to be accessible and like something that you can harness when you need.
Speaker 1:Perfect example, if you're working out a lot, your muscles, you know, get to a certain level and like they support you throughout the day to day. You stop exercising for a couple of months or whatever, and then you're like I'm gonna do a core workout. Your core is like not gonna be there in the way that it used to be, and I can speak from personal experience, having had a child. Before having a kid, I used to like do Pilates and whatnot, oh, like six days a week, because I was disgusting like that and had like free time. But you know that's not the case anymore and I've recently been like, okay, I'm gonna get back into it. And it is hard. It is hard because I haven't been using certain muscles, so they've just like we're not needed. We're gonna just, you know, not wither, but we're gonna go into sleep because we wanna conserve energy and redirect our energy to something else that's needed. And that happens with your creativity too. Right, if we're not working it and stretching it, your brain and your body learns like well, this part of me isn't needed right now, so I'm gonna direct my resources and my energy to something else.
Speaker 1:And creativity thrives on novelty, problem solving, thinking outside the box, the times where we have to find unique solutions to scenarios and situations that are unexpected and require us to be innovative and use our imagination. It is like that messy as fuck, I don't know what I'm doing kind of behavior that encourages creativity and there are easy ways to nurture your creativity and there's ways to do it that support your nervous system. I do not believe in like totally throwing yourself in the deep end, where you're completely stressed out and freaking out, because if you put so much pressure on yourself and you're in such a state of discomfort you're not gonna enjoy it, you're not gonna be able to reap the benefits of play, you're not gonna be able to play with abandonment and freedom, like you're going to play within rules and be like well, this is a safe way to play. So when we find we're in a creative rut and we're thinking, you know what? I need to get back into this. I want to be more creative. I want to experience the benefits in my work, but also in my life, that creativity has for me. We need to do it in ways that feel safe to our body and ways that are doable, because if it's like I said, if it's too scary and too uncomfortable, we're not gonna do it because our survivalist brain's gonna be like this shit's not safe. Let's not do this ever again. And if it's too logistically hard again, we're gonna. Our survivalist brain's gonna be like this takes too many resources and energy that I don't have right now. Therefore, it's nothing to invest time or belief in. So we have to be really careful and mindful about how we nurture our creativity in a way that feels aligned for us, and so I want to talk through some really easy, gentle ways that I believe we can safely support our nervous system to experience novelty and explore the unfamiliar in ways that will help nurture and just sort of like coax out our creative muscle and our creative expression. That's like just maybe hanging out there, that just ready to come out but isn't totally confident yet.
Speaker 1:And the first one is to move your body. And you might be like what does this have to do with anything? I want to be a poet, I want to get a creative writing project off the ground, or I really want to start working with clay and make earrings. Why do I need to move my body? And if you know the answer to everything, if you're ever like you know, when you like symptom search and you're like I have this and this and this, what's wrong with me and, like you, go out on WebMD or whatever one of those things they always say quit smoking and exercise. And you're like, what does that have? Why is that? Always the answer Because our body is so important and moving your body really does directly affect our creativity. We have a very sedentary lifestyle now. You know, I don't think as souls or organisms, we are meant to be sitting as much as we are right now. And we need to move our body yes, for our health, but also, like our mental health, because when we do something simple like go for a walk, we reduce stress hormones, and when we reduce stress hormones, we make space for creativity.
Speaker 1:Creativity cannot flow when our mind and body is in a state of fight or flight. It's the very first thing that will squash it. So getting up and moving your body can help set the stage internally for you to feel safe, for you to feel secure and to just clear out a bit of the stress cobwebs that need to be moved out of your system to make space for creativity and flow to start playing. So there's that element to it. But from a biological standpoint, moving your body whatever you're dancing or walking or yoga or whatever it gets blood flowing to your brain. Okay. So blood flow to the brain, that's good. We know that's a good thing. It also releases endorphins and gets serotonin going. These are things that help your brain to prime it, to get into a state of being more creative. So we're going to reduce stress, we're going to create safety in our nervous system by moving, but we're also going to start flicking the light switches on in our brain that are essential for creativity to get it to flow.
Speaker 1:And often when we move our body, that requires that we change our scenario or our scenery. Right, like, if you're sitting in front of your desk working and you're like I got to move my body, you're going to get up and go somewhere different, right Like? You may even just walk to the hallway if you're working in a large office. Or maybe you go stand outside for a bit or you go take a class you know you go join a yoga class or a dance class or whatever. Or maybe you even go for a walk, and your walk, even if it's in your own like, neighborhood, it's a different environment than what you're sitting in now, and when we put ourselves in a space like a physical space of novelty and newness. It flicks the switch on like inspiration, because it gets our brain noticing things you know, like when you've done something a million times, you're not really present, and paying attention, like how you can drive to work and be like I don't remember driving at all. It's because your brain shut off because it knows it so well.
Speaker 1:But when we do something in a space, a physical space, or we move in a way that we aren't familiar with, it turns our brain on to be actively aware of what's going on and to actively be scanning the environment. And when we're doing this because we don't know what we're doing or where we're going, it drops us in to the driver's seat of curiosity and responsiveness, which is key for creativity. It gets you off autopilot and gets you in your body and in the space that you're in so that you can interact with it in a creative way. So, yes, moving our body super essential for what will happen in our physical state and our mental state, but also the fact that it gets you into new environments. All these things help nurture creativity and it's sort of linked to the second suggestion, which is to try something new. The key, the nucleus, the thing that creativity needs is novelty. Creativity thrives when we don't know what we're doing, where we are, because we have to find innovative ways of interacting with things.
Speaker 1:So the easiest way to try something new is to change the medium that you work with, and if you're a photographer, that might mean trying painting. Or if you're a painter, maybe you're going to work with collage. But the important thing is that you work outside your comfort zone and you're going to explore a new material so that your brain, like going into a new environment, will not be allowed to be on autopilot and you're going to have to be actively aware of your actions and the results that they elicit. And you're going to be engaged in this concept of like, exploration and problem solving. And that's my favorite go-to is just try something different, work with something that is so completely different than what you're normally used to. But when we think about the nervous system, changing completely what you work with can be too much. Sometimes it can create a lot of anxiety or expectations where you're literally like I don't know how to do this, and then it puts you into freeze mode, and if we're in freeze or a fight, flight or freeze we're not in expansion, creation and expression.
Speaker 1:So if changing your medium feels like too much. You can change your subject, so you can still work with photography if you're a photographer, or you can still write if you're a writer, or paint if you're a painter, but really change what you are creating. Food photographer I'll use this as an example, because I was really heavily into food and product photography. I shifted myself into abstract work, which is so completely different than the precise nature of food photography. That's a great way to try something new within a framework that is comfortable and supportive for you. So if you're a portrait painter or an illustrator who works with faces and people, maybe get outside or try to work with something from nature. Look at new things and new subjects and new spaces that exist already within your defined skill set, so that you're not totally in a space where you feel like everything is too new, that it's overwhelming, and you're able to confidently play with what you know in a different way. You'll know what's better for you whether working within your skill set in a new way is more supportive or you may think you know what. No, I got to really shake it up and try something completely new and go into a genre that you've never explored before. Ask yourself go with your gut, your intuition. The thing that comes up first is often not often, I'll say always with a 1% margin of error it's often your truth.
Speaker 1:And the third one I wanted to mention was to reduce choice. And you're like how does like reducing choice and taking away options actually create creativity? Because isn't creativity about, like exploration and problem solving and novelty and doing things in new and innovative ways? It is, but creativity thrives when you put constraints on it and sometimes, when things are way too open like I'm going to sit down and do creative stuff right now your brain's like because you're in choice paralysis, right? So when we eliminate choice and we narrow in the box that we're going to work in, it forces your brain already to think within the confines that you've created and to think creatively about them. So this can look like setting limits, like you can say I've got 15 minutes to work on this and you can see what you can capture in 15 minutes.
Speaker 1:If you're painting or drawing or taking a photo, maybe you say what can I capture 15 steps from my house? Will it be good? Will I get a good painting or drawing or good photo? Does that matter? What does good look like Right, what happens if you decide to work with one color?
Speaker 1:These limitations that you can put on your creation will really engage your resourcefulness and they will force you to interact with the things in your environment and the things in front of you in a way that maybe you would avoid. And it's going to ask you to get innovative and imaginative with the ways that you're thinking and interacting. And this is where creative magic happens 100%, where you have to find your way out of a scenario. It's almost like I'm like seeing like an escape room. I've never been to an escape room. That's like full disclosure, but in my mind it feels like an escape room thing where you're like I'm in this little room and I got to find the answer and I got to get out of here. It's kind of like that, Like how can you create that for your creativity?
Speaker 1:And so these three things of like shaking up your environment, moving your body, working within an area or a subject that you're not familiar with, and putting limits and constraints on your work are going to, like I said, push you into a space where you have to think and work differently, and this might bring up that issue that we talked about at the beginning like, oh my God, is what I'm going to do be good? Well, that really depends on what you define as good and, if you remember, we talked about how this idea of good or good enough or good at something being a shape shifter, it's going to change and it's going to mold to your mindset and it's going to shift and change to match your beliefs about the meaning behind that word. So when we are in control of our mindset and we set our internal narrative and our expectations, we really empower ourselves. So if we can switch up the definition of being good at something to mean being perfect and precise to being good at something to mean more that we explore and we have openness and a willingness to play, we may find ourselves creating more, wanting to create more, enjoying what we create and then feeling energized and excited to like, go back up to bat and try it again. Now, this idea of like, setting creative intentions and identifying mindset blocks and actively working to support your nervous system and your belief so that you can Honor yourself, expression, honor your creative ideas and start to support your growth forward as an artist, is big work and is life long work and it is something we have signed up for as creative people, and I want to let you know that I have open spots for creativity coaching for this year 2024 and my approach to creativity coaching utilizes a combination of therapeutic arts, embodiment practices, intuition and mindset work to help you eliminate blocks and overcome what's stopping you from stepping into this powerful, confident creator that you have within you. We look at things like beliefs, we look at things like play, we look at things like nervous system regulation and tapping into your intuition to support you to create a program that's going to help you connect with your authentic self, connect with your voice and then confidently and safely support yourself to get whatever it is that's inside of you out into the world. So if you're ready to like hit the brakes on your inner bullshit and get into the driver's seat of this confident creation, then let's chat about it. You can drop me a line at contact at Jennifer Holly dot com that is my email or you can use the link in the show notes and we can book a free consult to sit down and have a chat about you, your goals, your vision, the process that we work through, and we can decide if it's a good fit.
Speaker 1:I hope this episode was helpful. I hope it was inspiring and I hope it had some aha moments or some gentle or not so gentle kicks in the ass. And I asked that please share this episode with a creative friend that you know who could use a pep talk to inspire them and keep them going with their projects this year. And, of course, please, please, please rate and review this podcast on Apple or Spotify. It is super helpful, it is really important and it is what gets the show showing up in search results and things like that. So if you'd love to engage in a little energy exchange and show me some love, I would totally appreciate that.
Speaker 1:And just a reminder or a little sneak peek tune in next week it's going to be a special format, maybe not next week, let's say next episode, because I might upload it right after this. The next episode is going to be a special format to piggyback onto this idea and it's going to be affirmations for creativity, confidence and aligned action, and it's going to be an audio track that you can listen to While you're doing your morning routine, while you're getting dressed, or you're cooking or doing your laundry, or while you're driving, or even while you're working, to help reprogram your subconscious mind and to put in firm, foundational beliefs that you are creative, that you are confident and that you are able to take action. And they are designed to move you from this space of fear and not self expressing and into a space where you're stepping into who you are and showing up and putting your stuff out there. All right, so that's the next episode. Tune in for that, and until then I'll say go forth and kick some creative ass. Have a great week. I'll talk to you soon.