Your Inner Child Might Be Hiding

What I’m about to share in this five-part series will be difficult for some of you. You might not be ready to tackle what it takes. You may not have the time or the determination to do what you need to. That’s okay. You can come back later when the timing is right.

But if you’re someone who’s committed to the journey, someone who wants to write and publish a book, you’re in the right place. I’m going to hold your hand through your journey.

Before you begin, or even if you’ve already started, there are a few things you need to UNLEARN first. You may not even be aware of the barriers that are preventing you from sharing your most creative self.

This is mostly because you’re not a child any more, and so much of what you learned about creativity you learned as a child. Since then, you’ve spent years suppressing your inner child. Responsibility and bills took the fun out of your life and with that you lost your creativity.

If You WANT to unlearn and learn, to be OPEN to learning and building new skills and awakening those that may be dormant, and if you’re WILLING to work hard – you’re in the right place.

If you want a quick fix, immediate gratification, and you’re not willing to do the necessary work to change and succeed as a writer and an author, you’re not in the right place. I wish you the best. I hope you find your way.

However, if  you’re willing to lay the groundwork first, you’ll find that you will free your creative self and your progress will explode. You’ll not only find creativity is your writing skills, but you’ll see it blossom in other areas too.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO FIRST?

—–Buy a journal or a notepad to begin your Morning Random Rants. —————

This will be your first personal tool to recover your creativity.

Let me explain.

How do you find your creativity if it’s been buried for most of your life? Even if you’ve been writing, your prose might feel flat. Your words might not feel as powerful as they could be. Or maybe someone told you that you’re the least creative person in the world.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Your creativity just needs a RECHARGE.

Here’s how:

You take a vow to begin your day with random rants on the paper. Fill three pages with nothing but petty stuff – I have so much to do today, there’s the job and the kids and the laundry.

If you don’t know what to write – scribble what’s blocking you, write your to-do list – write your frustrations or write that you are suffering from a headache.

Fill three pages. Don’t stop. Ramble if you have to. I need to wash the sheets today, and I’m worried about the dog because he’s scratching himself to a bloody state. 

Your rants will be just that – they might be blurbs of self-pity and gratitude mixed together. They might be angry or fearful thoughts or full of joy. Each day will be different. Your mood doesn’t matter. Put your fears on the page. Put everything on the page.

You’ll do this shortly after you roll out of bed. It’s non-negotiable. Never skip.

No one will read this – not even you. (For at least eight weeks.) No one will make fun of you. For eight weeks don’t look back- just forward every day. No one’s opinion matters. Even if someone happens to pick up your journal – it will probably seem mundane to them, and they’ll set it back down. Your words are not going to make the best-seller list.

This exercise is to help unleash your creative abilities from deep within your brain.

Sometimes the best prose come from something that seems irrelevant. Julia Cameron

We have old habits that we need to UNLEARN before we can RELEARN. When we were children, our parents and society told us that art was for fun and a hobby – not a career. We buried that part of our make-up because we were programmed to believe that art wouldn’t get us anywhere in life.

It’s sad because many of us older adults are realizing this later in life. Thank goodness it’s not too late. We still have time.

We have to dig deep to bring the creativity out, scoop into the empty places in our brains and reconnect the neurons so they re-spark. We need to oil the squeaky link by learning how to let go – by writing in a free-flowing way without inhibitions, even if they’re random thoughts.

We have to think like our inner child and not like an editor or a judgmental grandmother.

We do this random writing to get to the other side.

What other side?

The other side of fear. The other side that is free of the inner demons that tell us we can’t be creative, our negative thoughts.

To find your inner child, you will practice the art of writing and overcoming the blocks in your head. This will allow your logical side to step aside and make room for the creative side. Your logical brain thinks in linear fashion. It confines you and says – be neat, don’t color outside the lines. Be orderly.

An artist’s brain thinks random thoughts in circles, stars or multi-colored leaves on a tree.

Think of this journal as written meditation.

You might think that this technique is helpful to only writers, but that isn’t true. It helps artists in all different mediums.

Once I started this process, I began composing songs on the piano. I would hear them in my head and sit down to plunk them out. It was profound. I thought for sure that I’d heard the tune on the radio, but since I typically listen to talk-shows or podcasts on the radio, I knew this wasn’t the case. I realized that my inner creativity had sparked into different areas of my brain and into my life.

The same will happen to you. Commit now and stay with the program.

Stay tuned for more.

Write now!

Michelle

(This article was inspired by The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron.)