Ep #48: Letting Your Creativity Flow Without Judgment

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I was interviewing this wonderfully creative, beautifully creative, powerfully creative wise woman. I was admiring her brilliance and everything she creates and also the life that she has created within her family relationships, within her community. And I especially was admiring just the way she seemed so at home in her own skin.

I so admired the way she flowed, the way she shared her gifts with the world and the ease with herself. And you could tell the kind regard she had for herself in the process, and then also how this was reflected in this amazing body of work that she had created and also in this amazing life she had created. And it was also reflected in your sense of her as a woman.

And so I asked her, you know, what have been some of the keys to your success? This full thriving, this fully expressed beautiful artist woman, do you have a secret, one secret you could share? And she leaned in and said, “I no longer judge my work.”

And that one sentence blew my mind and blew my heart open with the possibilities, because so much of what I had been taught and conditioned to believe is that the only way to get better is to constantly be judging your work or having others judge your work.

But I could tell by the way that she said this that there was truth. And then I realized, she said, “I no longer judge my work.” And so I said, “So that means at one time you did judge your work? Tell me how you did that. How did you go from judging to not judging and then end up as this amazing empowered creative force of nature?”

And she said, “Well, lean in, dear, because that’s quite the story.” So, if you want to hear that story and hear about how it has revolutionized my creative process and how that informs my coaching practice and how I work with my clients, then lean in and listen to today’s podcast.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Welcome back, everyone, and greetings from fall in Southwest Michigan, although it feels a little summery yet, I actually even went swimming outdoors just two days ago. So we are enjoying this Indian summer, and after this podcast, I’m off to pick up my little ones. The boys have a cross country meet and my daughter will tag along for now and run along on the sidelines. And I’m also coming off – not even coming off – I am right in the middle of it.

I am amongst all of it right now, some pretty significant life things, including a couple of things I wanted to share with you today that are relevant to this episode and relevant to this work that I am doing, that I’m so passionate about doing, about what is it that really helps us thrive as human beings and what potential within us is there yet to be explored that helps us thrive in mind, body, and spirit. And how do we actually cultivate what way of being, mind, body, and spirit, thinking, emotional mastery, how we act in the world, how we don’t think, feel, and act in the world in order to be in this space, to be the kind of person who what we dream of creating, it flows inevitably from who we are and from who we are being in the world.

And so much of what I’ve been talking, with my clients in The Art School, who are amazing – and those of you in The Art School listening, I cannot tell you again or enough how grateful I am because coaching you feels more like collaboration and you, for sure, help me take this work to the next level and you are endlessly inspiring to me.

So, all of you, there’s so much gratitude in this podcast and in everything I’m doing these days for you. And I had a call today with the mastercless, which is like the mastermind within The Art School, and there we were talking about how doing this work and doing some of the heavy lifting of this work, the heavy lifting of truly what it means to be the creative authority in your life, to have agency in your life, and to exercise that agency by questioning the limitations you have placed on yourself, the ones you’ve adopted from society or the ones you’ve just adopted because of who you have come to believe you are and questioning all of that and how it really does require a lot of vulnerability, a lot of inner strength, and this aspect of doing it in community is priceless.

And then I was reminded of that again because, after that call with The Art School masterclass, I then went and joined a call with the mastermind that I am a part of.  So this year, I invested in being in this amazing mentor and coach’s mastermind. Her name is Susah Hyatt. She is just a joy bomb of inspiration and creativity and empowering women entrepreneurs. And she has a great way of saying these one-liners that just stick with you.

And today, we were talking about what we want to create in Q4 and finishing out this 2019, which, mind you, this is the last, what is it, 90-some days of this decade. That feels pretty significant. And can we be in that space of feeling that significance and the potential energy that is there if we let our self use that kind of tension in a creative way, as this coiled energy that helps us tap something different within ourselves and unleash it and contribute in the world and be more fully ourselves in the world.

So these are the things I love thinking about. And the one-liner that – well, Susan said lots of great things today, but the one that’s really sticking with me, and I wanted to share in introducing today’s topic was this theme of, like, this is it. Like, that line of right now, this is our life, not later, not once things get easier, not once life quiets down, not once I feel more confident, not once I’ve been handed some plaque from the universe or other accrediting agency that says, “Here you go, Leah, here’s a permission slip and validation to do everything that’s in your heart to do.  All those things that you have a sense in your heart that you’re meant to do, here is that hall pass that’s going to say, yep, stamp of approval, go ahead and do that.”

I think, as creatives and entrepreneurs, we’re always needing to take back our power and anoint ourselves, choose ourselves, and then live with that vulnerability that comes up and those voices that come up that say, who do you think you are? And then developing within yourself, it’s not just pushing those voices away or pretending like they don’t exist, but instead of listening to those voices, it’s can you then talk back to yourself, to your soul.

And that is what I think can be a total game-changer is, instead of just listening to those voices, talk back, and that you do get to choose what you say to yourself and what you listen to. And so, when the voices say, who do you think you are, one way of answering back is to answer in the affirmative, I am the woman this day creating this, doing that.

And another way of answering is to do the work, is to, every day, show up and do the work. And right now in life, you can have so much going on. We all love people in this lifetime and it is a fragile thing and things can happen. And I think one of my great fears in really taking my business to the next level and some decisions I made in the past to do that was, oh my gosh, what if something comes up in my life and I can’t handle caring for the loved ones in my life, I can’t handle the way it rocks my world, and also serve my people and take care of my business and operate at this level.

And now that that’s happening, I’m doing it. I have increased my inner capacity, I’ve increased my resilience. I have also deliberately increased my support group and my self-care and my appreciation for surrounding yourself with the right kind of people and the right kind of support has depended immeasurably. And I feel like that’s also grown my heart so much too.

And while being an entrepreneur can sometimes feel like this lonely endeavor and being, you know, an artist can too, it’s also been so eye-opening to me how it’s led me to develop these beautiful relationships and very authentic relationships and very meaningful community. It has also inspired me and lit a fire beneath me to always be on the lookout for people that I can learn from. They also maybe have something to contribute to and support them, and then also really valuing mentorship.

So sometimes that comes in very surprising ways, as it did with the woman I mentioned during the intro of this podcast that I had the conversation with. Because those of you who are my clients are maybe familiar with this woman because you may recognize her from stories I’ve shared about her before and from exercises I have done with all of you before because this woman, that creative force of nature who has built this beautiful loving thriving life from the inside out, that’s my future self.

And I do this exercise with clients, and because it’s a practice that I return to again and again, is to visit this older wiser more seasoned further along on the path version of myself. And it’s been so useful because sometimes, when you are wanting to create something that you can’t look around and see anybody that is currently doing what you’re doing, that can feel very lonely.

And I can for sure, I have so many amazing women to look up to in my life, and I can learn from aspects of what they’re doing and I can understand why I admire them and the way that they’re doing what they’re doing and learn from their way of being in the world. And I’ve benefitted from that immensely and I’m so grateful. And I’ve also come to realize, I also, being the person that I am, I need to blaze my own path and this future version of myself practice is one way that’s been very transformative in doing that.

So if that seems a little odd for you, just humor me for a bit here and give yourself a chance to hear me all the way out to see if there might be something in this for you. And others of you are like, yeah, bring it on, or you’ve done this exercise with me before. But for instance, that particular conversation with my future self, she told me exactly what I needed to hear and gave me that aspirational, what was at that time, an aspirational belief for myself, this idea that creating without judging was an option.

Because when I looked all around, I could see people creating and creating, and I also saw, understandably, people being very hard on themselves and it being a process that was not, like psychologically positively reinforcing, was not necessarily healthy. And I took that feeling and was like, who am I to think there’s another way? Who am I to think that I can grow and flourish and become that creative force of nature without oppressing myself and without struggle?

But something in me said, you know that’s true, you know there’s another way and it’s yours to find it. and use your creativity, use that mind you have, use that imagination you have and put it to constructive use for you here. Let it work for you here. How can you imagine another way?

And this conversation with my future self, where she said, I no longer judge my work, I had a visceral reaction to that. Like, I felt a weight lifted off my heart and my mind and I knew, in that moment, that was something I was going to practice until embodying it became a second nature, and practice it and embody it until, indeed, those creative works flowed from me, not as a result of trying to prove something or trying to get somewhere or efforting or forcing or trying to be better than where I am, but as a result of showing up and connecting to myself and letting flow what needs to flow and practicing courage in that space and vulnerability.

Because it’s one thing for a six-year-old, seven-year-old to do that, but then we acquire different conditioning and it can make it harder when you are an adult to do that, especially if you were an adult as I was, who acquired, or maybe came wired with some perfectionistic tendencies. And for sure, believe me, my brain, my rational mind kicked and screamed about this and said, well, then you’re just being oblivious, you’re putting your head in the sand, you’re fooling yourself if you think you will ever grow as a creative if you give up judgment.

And I sat with that and then considered a couple of different alternatives. I knew I’m the kind of person, I can sign myself up for things and I will show up. I am disciplined. I will work. I’ve done that in the past. I’ve followed through with things. I got the degree, got the job, I showed up for work. I was a good employee, you know, I show up for things. I was an endurance athlete for Pete’s sake.

I knew I could do that and so I could look forward and see a future where, yes, I write the things – I don’t know if I get to write the things in my heart in that way. But I could see that I could write books. I could write things. I could create art and also have the experience of then just going down that path and the process being one that I used a lot of judgment and being hard on myself in order to get there.

I’ve done that before, I’ve seen other people do that. It can be done. And then I considered, but what if what my real calling here is not just to make the art and not just to write the poems, write the stories, write the books, not just to create the business, but what if it is to do that from a place where I just fall more in love with the work and with the process and with the relationship to mystery, and also with discovering myself and things about myself along the way. And what if this process too does bring up all of those old patterns of self-loathing in order that they may be healed and released?

What if I can heal those things? What if I can heal patterns of perfectionism that are rooted in self-loathing? What if that is possible? What if I get to have that life where I am this creative force of nature and I also really love being in my mind and in my heart and in my body, and even all along the way, even if I’m not yet producing the works that I see in my imagination, can I also love myself regardless, unconditional, on the work I’m creating? Can I do that for myself? Is that available?

And it’s so strange, the hesitation I felt to being able to give that to myself. But I knew that if I was choosing between those two adventures, that that second one was so much more appealing to me, and also would require so much more of me, so much more spiritual growth and evolution, so much more mental and emotional mastery, and also physical mastery.

And that then became, you know, one of my great aspirations, like, as I do my work, can I develop a psychology and also an emotional state, a spiritual state, a physical state where I flow the work and I work on unlearning that voice that wants to judge, that I just sustain the energy of being in creativity for longer and longer and longer and continue to work with this concept, which I no longer think is a concept.

And I am not there 100% of the time now. I practice it also with this podcast, which has been incredible. But more than a concept, this truth that I can create and I don’t need to use these weapons of judging myself. That’s not to say that I don’t believe I am not learning and growing along the way.

Austin Kleon – I believe I’m saying his name right – who has written some great books about creativity. They’re little books but I have so enjoyed them.  One time, on his website, I saw this image for a creative learning spiral. He has it starting with imagine. I think he borrowed it from someone else. It starts with imagine, and then it goes to create, and then it goes to play, and then it goes to share, and then it goes to reflect, and then it cycles back around to imagine.

And I realized, one of the things I loved so much about that image is that, at no point in there, did it say, “Workshop critique, judgment, tear one’s self and one’s work apart, put it back together again.”

He was offering this other way and I don’t think it was unintentional that those aspects were missing. And this is all part of what I think, if I look at my work and what I’m about and what I’m so obsessed with and fascinated by on a meta level about the creative process, is not just the creative process, but it’s really revolutionizing your creative process, my creative process, how we all think of creativity.

And again, I always think of that revolution with the R in parentheses, because to me, it’s also about this evolution, this evolution of myself as a human being. And when I say evolution, I mean like, to me, that means adapting in a way that moved me forward in a positive way in all aspects of my life, not one at the expense of the other, but all aspects of my life. And that, in turn, elevates and lifts others. So it’s about shifting the creative paradigm.

So this episode is really an introduction to this and there are so many other topics and themes and subtopics associated with this, but I wanted to get the party started by talking about this today. And here are some other themes that are related to this that I have podcasts planned for in the coming weeks.

So there’s this notion, as I mentioned today, of notion truth of creating without judgment and sustaining that energy and that way of being for longer and longer, until that is your predominant experience of yourself as you are creating, and that within that, embedded within that, trusting that within you there is something so deep and wise, this self-organizing intelligence that is learning and assimilating as you go, and it is going to help you discern what feedback is useful and what feedback is keeping you down and is cramping your creative style.

So this is not about never opening yourself up or being vulnerable, but this is about putting down any weapons against yourself, especially those internal ones, which is most of what the weaponry is that we use to destroy ourselves and our creativity or keep it under lock and key, so putting down the things, identifying what is a weapon, and identifying what’s an ally and what’s going to help you and your work move forward.

And most of the time, that doesn’t mean just having people validate and say, hey that’s great, but it’s learning the difference between discernment and destruction. And also again, for me, my experience in working with other people too has been that there is something deep, that watcher within us, that deep original innate intelligence that is organizing things as we go along. And that is assimilating and learning.

Also related to this is the idea of linear versus horizontal revision, which is something I learned from the extraordinary Fran Quinn, poet, amazing poetry teacher, and one of my top mentors in creativity and poetry, and I would say life – so talking about linear versus horizontal revision. I won’t even go into it now because it’s so awesome, I will get sidetracked.

I also have, for months now, if not since when I started this podcast, been brewing and kind of on fire to do an episode on debunking the 10,000-hour rule, because I don’t want to affirm that that’s what it is. But we’re going to talk about that idea that it requires 10,000 hours of practice at something for mastery. I think that is one of those things where they took science and mythologized it in a pop-culture kind of book.

And while there may be some value in the research, I think the way it was mythologized and misunderstood is a very debilitating myth.  If you take on the best aspects of what’s there, yes, deliberate practice and continuing to show up for something that you love and growing and improving, that is all great and useful. But I have found it, more often than not, to be one of those things that people use as a weapon against themselves, where they’re defeated before they even get started.

And this idea of 10,000 hours is required for mastery keeps so many people from venturing out from even exploring things, from giving things the first one to five hours that’s required just to start to learn and get your sense of where you are and get oriented, not to mention then deprives them of that joy of learning and of beginners mind.

So if that currently is a story you’re using against yourself, there’s something you want to create but you’re doing the math and you’re 40, you’re 55, you have a family and a job, or you’re 60 and you’re 70 and you’re like, oh shoot, not 10,000 hours available for me to do that, I guess I won’t even try. That’s something, I want to say, you’ve got to let go of immediately and give that up. And so I’ll talk about that in a future episode, debunking the 10,000-hour.

But for right now, to return to creating without judgment and what that’s like, this came up a number of times these past two weeks, both in The Art School and with my private clients. Let’ say we were talking about a golden shadow, so somebody that an artist admires, another artist who does work that a client of mine really admires. It’s amazing work. And so you can feel her energy lift and get big when she is just in this space of being like, wow, look at that art, there’s something in me that is drawn to that and we’re kind of in a similar space, mine might look different. There’s something so incredible about that that’s calling to me, that speaks to me.

And then, so fast that she didn’t even know it was a separate thing happening, she’d say, and I’m never going to get there and I don’t see how I’m ever going to get there, or I see, like, where she I s and where I am and it just seems impossible. And so what I wanted to point out to her, and did, and what I want to share with you is notice that there was a separation there.

There was two things happening. There was being in that space of being inspired and something within you lit up to do the work and in love with this kind of art form and with the possibilities for getting your hands in on doing that kind of work and what can happen and what you can create.

And then there is that separate thing where it’s like this second voice or vale comes in and just puts a big kybosh on it and takes that thing that was like a positive input for you, was a source of inspiration, and turns it into a weapon against yourself. So I want you just to notice if you have a tendency to do that in any of your work.

And as you do your work too – I was talking with another client who, she was really hard on herself for small things, like small mistakes, like leaving her cell phone at the gym, but man, in a moment of crisis, she’s like, count on me. I am there, I am on. I am not hard on myself. I’m the one you want. And that so resonated with me because that had been my pattern too.

And so I pointed out for this client, then the element too of that second voice that comes back around is always this self-focused voice. And also, if you notice in client one, who is admitting the other artist’s work, her attention and focus was on art, was on creating beauty, was on, wow look what humans can do, and I feel like something in me was called to creating beauty and meaning with my hands, with materials in the world like that.

And then that second voice that comes in so fast, it feels related to your creativity, which is then why we start to avoid our creativity because we think they go hand in hand, but they don’t. That second voice comes in and it makes it no longer about that joy for creating, that inspiration, that art. It makes it about you and your deficiency.

And so similar to the client who in a work situation, it’s like, I’m on, in a crisis I am so good, I am so on, I don’t do this thing where I beat myself up or I’m constantly judging myself. And so there too, that was a case where, when she is in a crisis, the focus is on another, is on something outside of her that needs her full attention, so there is no space in a situation like that to have the kind of self-absorbed thoughts that we have when we’re judging our self.

We want to say judging is necessary and that it’s going to make us a better person and it’s going to make our art better, but I want to say be discerning about the voice that comes in because I see so much of judgment coming from a sort of self-obsessed, self-focused neuroses of how am I doing, it’s never good enough, I’m not good enough, I should be doing better. And we think that’s going to make us better and that’s somehow going to make us less delusional and less self-absorbed, but it really just ends up being a loop.

And I’m familiar with that loop because I have done that myself so many times, including at the end of my first year of law school, I was in the ER, like a bleeding ulcer, I was just mentally not in good shape, and I was like, what the heck. I started law school with these aspirations and these ideals of I’ll be given these tools and this language where then I can help other people, and what have I done, but I have become a neurotic self-absorbed hot mess.

So, the second year, I got a catering job, I sometimes worked 20 hours a week outside of law school, which if you’ve been to graduate school, you know that’s quite a bit to work outside your program. And I also volunteered for the senior citizens of that county, the senior citizens services of that county and I adopted a grandma.

And both of those situations then put me in context where people didn’t care about law school, didn’t care what I was doing about law school. I needed to show up to help someone else’s business run and run well. I was working at a party. It wasn’t about how am I doing, it was about, am I doing my job now and am I taking care of this event. and with my adopted grandma, it was about showing up for her.

And she couldn’t care less if I had a paper due or hundreds of pages to read. She wanted me to sit on the couch and watch Wheel of Fortune or cut coupons or take her to the grocery store or just visit. And I realized the relief I felt in those two scenarios, because I wasn’t thinking about myself, I was being present for others, and that was one of those early lessons about, you know, judgment wants to argue that it is so necessary for me to become a better person, I need to be continually evaluating myself, which, by the way, means never measuring up, always using the yard stick to beat yourself, flagellate yourself.

And maybe it’s time to step back and question that because the relief I felt in those scenarios and also the satisfaction that I felt, the satisfaction I felt of doing a good job in the catering position, whether I was waiting tables, doing kitchen prep, or whether I was managing an event, there was something satisfying in just being there for others and not constantly beating myself up for not doing well enough.

There was something so deeply satisfying about just sitting with my friend Margaret and listening to her and being free of worrying about how I was doing because I knew in that moment, like, my presence was my purpose. And I know it can feel like a riskier thing to practice that when you are in a career or you feel like your livelihood is on the line or money is on the line.

But it’s one of my favorite takeaways from Liz Gilbert’s amazing book, Big Magic, is, you know, if this is your sacred work in the world, if creating is, then it needs to be both sacred and not sacred because sometimes we take those things that are scared to us and we de-sanctify them by becoming self-focused with them.

So it’s like walking that line. It’s then art and it’s the nuance of realizing, okay, can I be vulnerable and share and continue to give without making this such a high stakes game and the end all be all, and can I still continue to grow and learn and develop my craft along the way? Absolutely. Absolutely that path is available for you.

And that is a lot of the coaching work I do. That is a lot of the work I’ve done for myself. That is, for sure, the work I have done to grow my business and to make money. So I know some people are like, yeah that’s all good, touchy feely for art and for your mental health, emotional health, spirituality, but I’ve got to pay the bills at the end of the month.

So let me tell you, that’s how I’m paying the bills, through this process of being so kind to myself and so compassionate, including right now. If I did not have this practice of knowing how to hold space for myself and learn and grow, be vulnerable and open and honest, and at the same time, put down any weapons and instead offer myself so much grace and compassion, adversity and life things, like I have experienced lately, and experiencing loved ones going through hard things would make it so hard to do what I’m doing. And yet, I feel stronger than ever before.

I feel like this expanded, truly expanded capacity like nothing I have ever experienced before, and it doesn’t mean that my heart can’t break and it doesn’t mean that I can’t be disappointed and I know I can still show up for myself and those that I love and this work that I love in big and meaningful and also humble day to day ways.

So, this is a topic that I want to continue to dive into deeper and deeper with you and will continue to talk about it spread throughout podcasts in upcoming weeks. You can email me if you have any particular experiences about this or questions that you would like coaching around.

And for today, I want to offer you come coaching now in this aspect of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen. I want you to lean in with me here and work with me, really coach with me. And I’m going to lead you through that exercise that I led myself through so many years ago where I was starting to visit with my future self.

Now, I have a variety of different guided meditations, visualizations, exercises, questions that I lead clients through, private clients and in The Art School. But today, I really just want you to start to think about developing a relationship with this future self and for you to encounter him or her in a way that feels like organic and natural to you.

So, if you close your eyes, what comes up? Trust what you get. If you feel prompted to write a letter from your future self to yourself now, do that. Honor what you get and trust that you will, as I did, get the guidance that you are meant to receive and continue to hone your intuition and your trust for yourself by listening to what you get and honoring it.

So, one small but specific prompt I have for you is that you can close your eyes and go to that future self and you see him or her thriving. They’re in a space in life that’s so good, that is so very good. It’s not that there’s not any adversity. It’s not that they have somehow erased the human condition and now it’s just complete joy and bliss and never challenge.  But they’re strong.

They have built themselves and this beautiful strong grace-filled life and their dreams from the inside out and brick by brick. They’ve built it every day in small ways, and sometimes by taking big scary leaps.

So you’re taking all this in, this person that is you and that also you have so much admiration and respect for them. And then I want you to ask them what wisdom they have for you, how they were able to do it.

And I want you to lean in as they lean in and tell you what the wisdom they have to offer you is. Ask them what their secret is. Ask them what the key points have been and then take that seriously. Write it down. Really consider it as the best guidance, the best wisdom and advice you’ll ever receive. And begin to play with embodying that energy.

So just like I asked my clients, what would it be like to sustain just being in that energy of creativity and in love with the possibility and in love with your work and trusting yourself, what would it be like just to start to sustain that for a little bit longer and a little bit longer and a little bit longer and start to even just consider the possibility that that voice of judgment that comes back in is optional.

You don’t need to take it on as your identity. You don’t need to take it on as just something that goes hand in hand with your creativity. You can realize and, again, exercise agency and talk back to yourself and say, hey, not today. Oh, and one of my favorites, I apologize, I don’t know who to credit with this, but to me, it strikes that space of, like, sacred not sacred in both its levity and humor and also kind of right on point.

And that is, like, when you’re in that space, when you’re in this big beautiful creative energy and in love with what you’re doing and what you’re offering in life, and then that weapon comes back around, that second voice comes back around and it wants to criticize, shame, cut you down, somewhere along the way I heard someone say this; get behind me, ye Satan. And I don’t know why, but that both, again, strikes the chord of, like, cracking me up and being light hearted, and also as like, yeah, get behind me, Satan, I’ve got stuff to do, get out of the way, and puts me back in the driver’s seat and miniaturizes that inner critic voice and that demon that would have me believing that I’m never going to be enough, there’s always going to be something lacking. So that may or may not resonate with you, but for me, again, that walks that line and does both of those sacred not sacred.

So, the last encouragement I want to offer you today is to go back to the words I heard from my coach today about this is it. And to me, when I am really in that space of this is my life right now, there’s 90 days left in the decade and not to be in a space where you make it heavy and you make it so serious, but to be like, if this is really the case that right now, this is my life, to me, that immediately puts me in a place of crystal clear clarity about yes, the only way to do this is to do this with great kindness, great enthusiasm, great love.

And something else happened for me this week as I was coaching my clients on this creative process, and I myself have had to unlearn that hyper critical part of my brain. And I realized a place where I haven’t done this is with coaching. I have developed my coaching style and practice and abilities always from fascination.

I have been critiqued, I have done trainings, I have spent so much money on trainings and certifications and continuing ed, and it’s never been from a place where I thought, I need to do this to be a better coach, I need to do this to get my permission slip and my stamp of accreditation from the university. It’s always been, I seek out other amazing coaches because I’m like, oh wow, that’s so exciting the way she does that, the way he does that, that question they asked, that was so good. And I don’t turn and then use that as a weapon against myself.

So I just had this epiphany the other day of, I don’t think I have really developed that part of my brain that would think it’s necessary to grow and develop as a coach by being so hard on myself. And that’s not to say I haven’t had doubts and that’s not to say that I haven’t had things more on the business side that have shaken me and I’ve grown with that kind of adversity. But I realized, maybe because I never made it. I naturally came into that way with coaching of, oh this is sacred work. And I also don’t take myself so seriously that I make it professional and about proving myself.

I love it. And because I love it, I naturally want to learn more about it. I naturally want to find ways to help unlock people, so it’s very other-focused too.  So those are great insights for me too that are continuing to inform then, oh how can I use that to be more and more free with my art? How can I use that to, more and more, really embody that future self now of I no longer judge my work, and I flow.

I am rooted in my creativity and I flow. I no longer judge my work. And it hasn’t rendered me oblivious, it hasn’t rendered me dumb or blind or stupid. In fact, I feel like more awake and honest with myself and on fire to continue to grow and discover and deepen my craft more than ever.

So how might that work for you? What would it be like to fall in love with what you have to offer and create and to go deeper into the process of creating, to become a creative force of nature without judgment?

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. And if so, and if you found this podcast useful, the best thing to do to support The Art School Podcast is to go to iTunes and leave a review.

It has been amazing to see the places around the world where this podcast is being downloaded and is climbing the rankings in my categories around the world. And so thank you to all of you out there listening on Latvia, in Great Britain, in the Netherlands, in Switzerland, in New Zealand, Australia, North America. So many other places I’m leaving out right now, but I don’t know, I just love thinking about who’s out there listening.

This is really kind of a miraculous time that we live in. So thank you for that. And again, if you’ve enjoyed this podcast, a great way to pay this forward is to go to iTunes and leave a review. That helps me bring this work to more people and I truly appreciate it.

So now, I want to leave you with some closing inspiration for the day. What I want to leave you with today is to really try on, go into your imagination and don’t just entertain it as a thought, but really what would it be like to be someone who no longer judges their work, who is in the flow, who is awake, who is self-possessed, and who is also in a space where they know that development and deepening their craft and learning more doesn’t require inflicting wounds with harsh criticism, that doesn’t require listening and giving into the demons of doubt and self-loathing, but what would it be like to continue to deepen your craft and move towards mastery from a place where you are also mastering the art of true unconditional self-love?

Thanks so much for listening, everyone. I love you guys. Have a beautiful week. I’m off to a cross country meet. See you next time.