Verbs & Possibility
One of the best parts of being a creativity coach is that every person I work with is different. Each writer has a unique voice, each artist a different creative signature and impulse. Different aims, different desires, and different paths toward fulfillment.
And yet the magical thing about us humans is that alongside our remarkable distinctions lie some very universal threads, ones that most of us carry. When it comes to the harder aspects of creativity—wounds, blocks, & circumstances that freeze us up—I find so much relief in knowing I’m not the only person who gets stuck there.
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The other day, I made a map: I listed out a handful of clients I’ve worked with over the past year or so. Without overthinking it, I wrote out what each of them were working on, trying to capture both their own words and my personal-professional observations.
Then, I went through the list with my dual-tip highlighters and sorted the data, underlining key emotional words, highlighting what jumped out, and taking note of any interesting patterns.
Three verbs came up, again and again and again:
“She’s coming into a fuller ownership of her artistry.”
“They want to protect the sacredness of their creativity.”
“She is actively building creative confidence and self-trust.”
Own. Protect. Build. For those of us seeking a sustainable and thriving creative practice, these are the verbs we turn to.
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Owning your creativity means you know that your artistry, regardless of what it looks like, is real—you take your creative impulses seriously, and this is your starting point, not a thing you must earn. You believe that your version of creativity counts, and you regard yourself with accuracy and compassion.
Protecting your creativity means, first of all, showing up: Because you cannot protect a thing that you aren’t in direct relationship with, a thing that lives only or mostly as an idea. It is in direct relationship where you build your most reliable self-trust, where things that are hard to believe will slowly start to feel less pretend and more apparent. You protect your creativity, too, by accommodating your full self: your needs, your spoons, and your shifting capacities.
Building sturdy creative practices is where all this work is put into action. What does showing up look like for you, and how often do you do it? Who are the artists, authors, and thinkers you turn to—not because they’re in the canon, but because they energize you? What habits are you building, what desires are you pursuing, and what experiences are you cultivating more of?
Through 1:1 creative mentorship, sensitive creative humans just like you—humans of all ages, experiences, and abilities—overcome the obstacles holding them back and move toward real possibility.
What I want you to know today:
That your creativity is worth attending to, because there is no other voice like yours, no other person as uniquely qualified to follow your artistic impulses as you are.
That taking ownership of your creative voice is—I think I’ll use a big word here—your birthright.
That your creativity deserves protection. And nourishment. And time & space. And your loving attention.
That you are capable of building it: The project. The belief. The identity. The experience. The story. The sacred relationship. The creative life. I just know you are.
