Pursuing Your Dreams…

Hm – sounds like a classical, almost too clichéd topic, especially coming from an artist, right?

I don’t want to bore you, so you’ll get a mix of personal story, psychological/philosophical insight and the occasional dance of words in the flowery gardens of imagination to add some poetry.

Whether you identify as a creative being or not, I think the following words can be beneficial for you!

I truly believe that we humans all have the capacity to express ourselves creatively – whether we consciously believe that or not doesn’t matter to the macro-aspects of the universe. (But it obviously matters to us as individual beings, who have a heart & soul and all the feelings attached to the human experience!)

What matters to the macroscopic planes of existence as well as to our hearts(!), is that creativity is our birth-right and everything that we are surrounded by (and everything that we are) is to one degree or another based on creative forces – most of them are, of course, beyond the visible spectrum, imperceptible to the naked eye…

Ponder: Creativity is something that we all have and we can all make use of. 💪🏼

Now, I want to share a personal story here – something that, to be honest, has had quite a heavy effect on my well-being over the years…

Ever since I was little, I was surrounded by a lot of critics, jealous people and individuals, who were… well, to put it like this: who didn’t have my best interests at heart – non-poetically: bullies.

Don’t get me wrong – my parents were always loving and, sure, parents make mistakes and each and every human being in existence has difficulties and traumas to work through, but they were not the reason for not feeling safe enough in the world.

Despite some bad neighbours and encounters with flat-out spiteful strangers, school was a psychological and emotional hell for me – I felt like a silly-nilly outcast and I deeply dreaded going there, every day… I felt like a robot whose screws were loose and whose wires inside, around the motherboard, were flailing around in a constant state of electronic panic — Not the best analogy! But you get what I want to say, right? Beep-boop. 🤖😃

I believe school is where a lot of the feelings of not being good enough/appreciated enough are coming from.

Coupled with an imposter syndrom and the natural propensity to be hyper-self-critical, the journey as an artist gets embellished with clichéd complementary colors (poetic, huh?) 🥸

Pursuing Your Dreams Despite the Nay-Sayers 🐣

…might sound like a huge challenge! Heck! Pursuing Your Dreams without Nay-Sayers can already present itself as a gargantuan, epically monumental, flabbergastingly dangerous-looking mountain to climb, with a peak that’s encased in the thickest mist you’ve ever seen — Okay! I know, this sounds rather dramatic – too dramatic maybe…

But it is a challenge. As, for most people, childhood experiences (and interactions along the way of growing into an adult) shape the predominant worldview & general perception of reality (reality, despite many collective concordances, is somewhat subjective).

And this can take quite a lot of energy later on in life – when we do not actively recall those interactions that have shaped us, but that are still there, lingering in the subconscious/unconscious parts of our membranes…

But also, when we are aware of some of those moments that have shaped us – it can still be draining to operate with elements in the background that are not in your hand to control.

And this ties in directly with the magnitude of influence (for better or worse) someone from the outside can have on you – we could say, the amount of “reality-lens-shaping” is inherently linked to one’s internal filtering system and the thresholds that come along with it.

What thresholds?

The ones that determine how much energy and attention you, unconsciously, send towards your own perceptual-and-verification-system or somebody else’s.

In other words: You have certain inner mechanisms and internalized (often personality-defining) patterns that dictate how you perceive (again, unconsciously!) how valuable your own desires & convictions are versus someone’s from the outside.

So, this filtering system inside of you has been tweaked according to what and how certain childhood experiences have occured. Thus, this system sometimes (or often) devalues your own voice and puts a “stranger’s” voice on a pedestal…

Ergo: One’s evaluation of what is more important to one as an individual gets jumbled e.g. the question arises: Is it yours or your collegues…?

Which opinion towards an endeavor you want to pursue is more valid FOR YOU? Your own or the nagging voice from somebody, who might simply be jealous of you even coming up with the idea of pursuing your dreams in the first place.

Ponder…

Whether you know it or not… 👀

… a lot of things that you are doing and thinking right now may very well be the habitual patterns of other people’s energy.

They can be yours (stemming from you as the primary source), but chances are almost higher that these patterns stem from your surroundings – especially if you feel that you are a sensitive soul.

It can be easy for other energies to latch onto you…

Let’s say:

You are surrounded by people who want the very BEST for you.

Your friends might tell you that they like your creations, your music, your drawings etc.

Your family may encourage you to be creatively active.

And perhaps you even get positive feedback and motivating comments from colleagues and strangers on social media that fuel your passion for creative expression, making you want to pursue your life with a strong (maybe singular) focus on high-quality creative output.

In the best-case scenario that creative output (say, a music-track) may equal to a metaphysical space, where others are not only able to enjoy the immersive soundscape that you created, but where they also feel safe to express their own emotions, where they feel inspired to let their own creative juices flow and where they potentially even heal a fragment of their soul.

Sounds wonderful! Utopian even… Right? 👁️👄👁️

While yes — feedback that showcases that you made something that resonates with other individuals on a soulful level is extremely gratifying (and elevating on a collective level), there still might be opposite voices lingering (or even screaming) at you…

Just as a sidenote: Especially as hypersensitive people we definitely want to nourish our essence with acts of kindness and gratitude, we don’t want to fall into the abyss of people-pleasing (taking from experience!) and we don’t want to simply create for others and 100% not for getting positive comments and such (which stems from an inner lack of self-worth self-validation).

The opposite voices I’m talking about are both: Your INTERNAL CRITIC(S) as well as the very people, who (very often) love you greatly but who cannot conceive of a life-path that involves the act of creative expression to the degree that it is more than a hobby.

There is nothing wrong with being an artist and pursuing your craft ‘just’ as a hobby but most of us want more.

Because most artists are vessels for dense collective energies — and those energies need to be transmuted, channeled into life-affirmingly productive acts and lastly, they need to be expressed with the signature of your soul, which you can imagine (visually) as your individual mark that gives everything this special flavor or touch (the signature through which everyone recognizes you and your craft).

Now, I want to share something, that I also shared to my email-subscribers relating to this topic, and that I think can be very helpful for you:

A Weekly Practice 😮‍💨🙏🏼…

… for more awarness and presence, that can help you with a peaceful “disentanglement” of other people’s opinions about you (or your craft and your perspective on reality):

Observe your thought-patterns and the convictions you believe to be yours — write them down on a piece of paper (or a journal) and ask yourself:

Could it be that those thoughts, those emotional cycles and those internalized convictions are not really mine?

Maybe the belong to someone else?

Is it someone else’s mental or emotional energy that I picked up on?

Write down anything that comes up, without censor (you can curse and bring all kinds of dark thoughts to paper as well).

Try not to judge yourself. 🫡

And try to bring your focus to your heart, your breath and the space in front of you.

A Weekly Mantra 🤓…

If you hear someone tell you that your dreams are unrealistic, impractical or not worth pursuing — don’t give in to that! Try to react, or rather: respond, as calmly as possible.

Then, say to yourself: I know [person x] just wants to help me and I acknowledge their perspective & I choose to let them talk their talk, while I walk my walk! 😊

Try it out!

Even if you are not surrounded by loving people — and even if someone’s intentions are inherently malevolent, when they want to talk you out of something: Try to remind yourself that they have a limited field of perception and they see things completely different from you.

Their experiences have shaped their reality. And your experiences have shaped yours.

And with that, I’ll leave you to your creatively magical endeavors and wish you a wonderful week!

Much love & creative blessings 🧡

– Michael

See you soon! 😊

O! And do not forget, my beloved fellow traveler of misty mountains and pursuits to fill your heart (now, the poetry syndrome comes back!), to please share your perspective in the comments below. Your input is much appreciated.

Also, feel free to ask any questions on your mind – art-related or not. I’m looking forward to interacting with you!

By the way, did you see this cute cat painting that I made – it’s now out as an Art Print & Canvas Print!