Artists are brave
Honoring the big deal of willingness
If I have come to any one personal conclusion over the many years in the practice of doing creative work, it’s that making art requires bravery.
Making art is like turning the soul inside out and bearing something once subtle now perceivable to the naked eye, which is as profoundly vulnerable as it sounds. Exposure is transformation. To willfully take the tender risks that come with it requires bravery.
Engaging in creativity can bring up our deepest psychological and emotional patterns which may inevitably arise whether we want them there or not. To have any amount of willingness to meet with these on their terms requires bravery.
Doing creative service for others can bring up beliefs and questions that sound irrational (“Is someone going to hate this? Is someone going to judge me?”) To contemplate and seek where these questions come from requires bravery.
Doing my practices despite uncertainties big and small, despite my own self-critique, despite the messy, hard-to-chew, fragile world we are navigating as a collective of interdependent species requires a dedication to bravery so profound it surprises and delights me to all of the corners and ends of the earth that any art is being made at all.
We must all be so brave in being human.
Do you make art? Have you ever said “yes” to creativity? Or “yes” to anything that means something important to you? Have you ever entertained inspiration? This is a big deal! This is no small thing.
No. Small. Thing.
Hug yourself.
Because you might be extremely brave without even realizing it.
Note that I’m not saying the experience of bravery is fearlessness. In fact it can be so full of fear which is what defines it as bravery in the first place.
Sometimes we are afraid. Sometimes the idea of failing or wasting time can be too painful to risk. Sometimes all of the not knowing can make us freeze up and resist even beginning. Sometimes we don’t feel worthy to try. Deep-diving in with bravery and saying yes anyway can teach us what these fears really mean.
I am interested in bravery. I am interested in hardcore, passionate, unwavering, devotional bravery that pushes me to uncomfortable places of truth and surrender and tumbles me around in cycles of varying grit until I’m a polished stone. The kind of bravery that is friends with equanimity together laughing and learning from one another just safely enough on the edge of growth.
I’m saying all of this because I need to hear it often. Sometimes we don’t give ourselves enough credit for the radical courage it takes to be willing to agree to attempt to maybe even try to do something artful or any other thing we feel is important on our life path. Sometimes I am hard on myself, or something silly happens, or I make a mistake or feel discouraged, and this simple reminder that I am brave for even trying is so real, so self-compassionate, so true, it can bring tears to my eyes at times.
See yourself with eyes of admiration. See your bravery for what it is. Breathe. Repeat.
With you on this full moon,
♡ Kristen
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