It was a wild roller coaster ride, with many ups and downs, unexpected twists and turns. 🤪🎢

Usually in the amusement park, there are also ice-cream, lollipops, pizza and burgers 🍦🍭🍔 🍟 🍕…on my roller coaster I was drinking litres of coffee followed by litres of water to mitigate anxiety. 😫 

For the past few months, I’ve been entirely focused on creating a new art collection, writing less of my blog as you may have noticed, and being more active in my studio and sharing progress on Instagram.

My mind is kinda creative ( AKA “gets easily distracted”) , so I knew I had to make this project my number one priority in order to follow-through.

You know this from your own life. Each time you’ve been doing or learning something new, there were probably many moments of discomfort and resistance along the way, the same applies to exercising your creativity.

Being creative means going out of your comfort zone, of what’s familiar.

What I discovered are these wild steps ( invisible forces)  that anybody who does or wants to create “anything” has to go through.

Here are 6 steps of the creative roller-coaster ride to watch out for with some examples and what they meant in my recent process:

STEP 1: Euphoria – “This is awesome, let’s do it.”

Creative flow and enthusiasm for the beginning. My creative process usually starts when I’m not creating per se.  I often sketch ideas for paintings on a piece of paper in between computer tasks and then review them on a regular basis to see if they are somehow ready to sprout above the surface. I then identify a few ideas to develop them further and to see what feels right to me. This is the time to let your creative juices flow.

STEP 2: Challenge – “OMG, this is harder than I thought.”

Nothing ever comes exactly as initially planned. Mistakes, detours, and new discoveries (about the craft and yourself). Handling these challenges with managing my little one 👶 who somehow decided not to sleep well in that period – were quite overwhelming. This is the time to use your humour and patience to move forward.

STEP 3: Despair – “This is shit, WTF am I doing?”

After so many low moments, I was close to quitting ( sounds familiar?), especially that the only melody I was hearing in my ears was this one: “What the FU*K am I doing with my life?!” And that one: “You’re crazy, what the hell you were thinking”… blah blah blah. I cried and tried to comfort myself with food and wine at dinner. This is the messy middle, this is when Resistance is hitting hard. This is the time to use your inner strength & to believe in yourself to not give up to the fear.

STEP 4: Complete Resignation- “If this is shit, then it means I’m shit.”

This is the part of the process where we have the lowest confidence and all worries kick in. This is the time to face your fears, and tap to your inner wisdom and peace within. You move past this by showing up for yourself with grace and self-compassion.

STEP 5: Hope – “This actually might be OK.”

After many attempts, corrections, and a calmer attitude things start to come together, and we are finally moving though the messy middle. Project is taking a nice shape and we feel much more hopeful. This is the time to stay focused and keep going.

STEP 6: Euphoria – “This is awesome.”

This is the moment when you finish your creative project and cry with tears of joy because most of the time, everything comes even better than initially envisioned. It’s time to honour yourself for all the efforts and your self-development.

Would I get on that roller coaster once again if I knew what’s going to be about? The answer is YES! (my mind has already come up with “new crazy ideas”! 😂)

The good thing to always remember is this: All obstacles on the creative journey are mental, so they can be fixed mentally.

Moreover, just a few days ago I received an invitation to exhibit at the Venice International Art Fair 🤩 🥳 which would never have come my way if I wouldn’t have faced that Resistance in the first place.

What I truly want to share with you is this: Now, it’s your time, go out there and do what your heart has been calling you for. 

Tomorrow, I’ll celebrate with you an opening of my second art collection, I’ll cry with the tears of joy, and I hope to see you there online at 8 PM 🥳🎨💃🏻 ( I will share with you the link tomorrow).

In the meantime, stay strong and keep following your heart. ✨

With so much love,

Lena

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