100 Day Creative Challenge Day 59: Safe Haven
We all need a safe place to create. A place where you share your vulnerability. Sharing your creative work is vulnerable. It comes from the spirit and soul and heart and mind.
If even our relationship with our work is fraught with insecurity and doubt and frustration, how more then do we need to trust the people we partner with? We all need someone to critique our work, encourage us or be our sounding boards.
Do you have someone in your life who is your safe place? Someone who encourages you?
Who is your biggest cheerleader?
Who will tell you when your work stinks, but do it in such a way that you won’t immediately throw it out of the window or delete it from your hard drive or cause you to go back to your day job?
We all need a safe haven. Yesterday I spent the day baring my creative soul with my friend, Amanda. If it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be a full-time writer and I wouldn’t be releasing my riskiest book yet later this year.
She cheers, chides, cherishes and champions me in my work and there is no-one I trust more to be a safe haven when I bring her my crazy, crackpot, creative musings. She listens and gives me constructive criticism—advice and help and guidance without judgement.
Too often when we hear criticism we feel judgement. To be secure in our creativity means to be secure in taking criticism of our work from someone we can trust.
Brené Brown tackles the topic of criticism in her book Rising Strong, telling us that all criticism is not created equal. Brené recommends that we write a list on a post-it note of all the people who are allowed to critique our lives. Anyone outside of this sacred space is not allowed to comment. Be totally clear about who matters.
Thoughtful criticism is useful. If we don’t have this we create echo chambers where nothing we do or say is challenged.
When someone who is outside the sacred space criticises you it will hurt. But we need to say, ‘He’s not on my list.’
Where or who is your safe haven? Finding that person or people is a challenge worth pursuing.
We will need to find people who will provide a safe writing space for us, where criticism comes late and love and delight come early. L.L. Barkat
