Living as an Artist Without Fear or Judgment

So many times we find ourselves questioning what is it we are doing in our daily lives that define us? Are we doing these things, or are we defining someone else’s vision for the world we see all around us?  Usually, the answer is yes.  We do it daily, without thought, without care, without even knowing that it is going on under our very noses.   But still we do it.   We listen to everything everyone has to say about us when we realize they are interested with ears at attention.  We absorb the words and thoughts of people we don’t even know and give them validation in our lives.   We take it all in day and day again, and we don’t even have the courtesy to edit out the lies to keep ourselves from believing them.  But how could we be courteous to ourselves when, we didn’t even realize we were doing it?

I found this to be true in my life as I began to notice the patterns around me.  When I started listening to that little voice, the one you never believe when it says you can do something my life started changing, because I started living.  I realized that everything I was choosing, saying, believing, was based on a myriad of other factors and people that had nothing to do with me.  I was supporting another vision that was not my own.  And this had to stop!

After learning that my art and my writing and everything creative I do, down to cooking had to become an expression of not only who I am, but who I want to become, I saw the change take place.  This time based on my thoughts, my decisions, my preferences, and my expressive gifts to the world.  Now when I write, I write because I want to and because it makes me feel alive to give words on paper life and animation.  Fear and judgment are the two voices that any artist has to abandon to truly be able to state their message as their own.  Without either of them lurking around, you will say what you need to say, without it being edited by the world around you.  You have to create the world around you and constantly nurture it in order to enjoy it and make it better for those ahead.