Creativity

What Are You Afraid Of?

From the author’s biography

It’s impossible, but I never give up. That is my attitude, that’s my position. I go on, I write more and more. I never give up. I have to make it happen. It is going to be okay. I push on until I get it well. I will never give up.

Love and passion are two sisters. Love never ends. Love can take care of everything.

Love and passion. A lot can always be brought up again. I can look at it again. And then I can change a little.

I know everything. Tonight I know everything. He who listens, he hears, and he always catches what comes.

Love and passion are twin sisters.

Write to think! I write to find answers, I write to move on, always on. Understand me right. The world understands more of me than I think. Love has a big place. I know myself, love and passion are always important to me.

I always want them with me, the two twin sisters. If one of them disappears, I will send a message to the other. Come on, come back!

Are you scared?

What does fear have to say for creativity? So tempting to ask: What does fear have to say to people in general?

What does fear have to say especially for creativity and productivity?

What does it mean when I feel scared? What does it mean when I’m unsure? What makes me insecure? Is it when I have focus? Where should I focus? What does anxiety have to say for my creativity? What has anxiety and worry had to say for my creativity? Can anxiety be a source of creativity?

Why do I write?

Is it to put thoughts and feelings into words? Is it to reach others? Is it to make money? Is it to create something new? Is it to get rich? Is it for experience? Is it to gain knowledge? Is it to get strong, or - it to get stronger? Is it to become a winner? Is it so that others will not be allowed to dominate me? Is it because they like me? Is it for me to like myself? Is it for me to live a good life?

I live in the tension between the subjective and the objective.

The way I see myself, and the way others see me. The meaning of what I do is to build bridges between what is here in me and what is out there, over there: the world out there.

What’s the point of creativity?

I imagine that the purpose of creative work is to achieve something. To succeed with something, so that I can think and say to myself that something is good, or will be good.

The meaning of what I do — the meaning of my life — is to do things in a good way. It is doing things so that things get a little better. My contribution to the world. I do it to be my contribution to making the world a little better.

I’m going to try to do things well. And sometimes I know I’m not doing well. When I know that, I can learn from it. Then I will try to avoid it happening again. I will try to change what is bad into something positive.

Different paths to the creative

1. The negative and restrictive way:

criticism, refusal, restraint, denial, spreading fear and inferiority complex. “You’re not good enough.”

2. The positive, hospitable and helpful way

At Medium we can observe both. There are publications who are open, welcome-oriented, helpful.

And then there are those who are negative, restrictive, critical and unwelcoming.

The meaning of my life is to find meaning.

The point of what I do is to find better ways to do things. The meaning of what I do is to understand a little more. I know that I can never know everything. I can try to get everything done so that it will be good. I can never get it perfect, but I can do it so that I can say to myself: This is good. You can show this to others.

To live a creative life — to live with the question mark.

It’s living with an attitude: I’m on the way. I’m on my way now, I’m coming.

I’m going to a place. I do not know exactly where I was yesterday. But I know about where I was. I’m going to a place. I do not know exactly where I am going, but I know I am going somewhere. I’m moving, I’m on my way.

As I go, I get stronger.

As I walk I become wiser, as I walk I gain insight.

Creative writing can be about expressing what is difficult to say, it can be about expressing what was difficult to see, it can be about expressing what is difficult to understand.

To live creatively is to be on the move. It is to come to light, and search for the beautiful, search for meaning. It is to find out what counts.

It’s there all the time. The question of meaning, purpose. The requirement for me to act purposefully.

We need stirring. We need change. We need to be physically moving. Being physically in motion causes the body to wake up. I get open, I get actively engaged.

I have hope. The hope that life, where I am, will be a better place to be for me. I hope that today will be a starting point for more creativity and more well-being.

To live in creativity is to live with questions, it is to live while I push away what I am afraid of. I control my thoughts so that my thoughts are not allowed to stop me or paralyze me.

To live in creativity is to live with the thought, the performance always somewhere ahead and up there.

To live with creativity is to find pictures and words that describe the feelings of living with creativity. It is to dare to see oneself without being afraid of what the other is saying or thinking. It is to live life as a party. Live strong, fearless.

What are you afraid of?

I heard a song that describes how many people experience life. Uncertainty characterizes you in the situation you are in.

Don’t you want to live with insecurity?

You have to live with insecurity, because most things in life are insecure. And if you can accept to live with insecurity then there is a way to be free. You become free because you know anyway, things are uncertain, and therefore you just have to accept.

You have to accept that it is uncertain and when you have accepted you can stand out as a new person in your own eyes. You can stand out as one who knows, one who has thought and who is therefore no longer afraid.

I am no longer afraid of being rejected. I am no longer afraid of being denied entry. I’m not afraid of being rejected anymore.

There are mainly two basic states or attitudes out there among people, out in society in relation to me and what I stand for, what I produce, what I create.

One attitude is positively friendly and welcoming.

The second attitude a negative rejection, critically a negative way of facing the new.

Much of what happens in the life of a creative person, is that the person in question must relate to these basic attitudes: The neutral or positive friendly, questioning attitude in others and in society, and on the other hand these critical, negative, restrictive and judgmental attitudes.

In the creative life, it’s about inventing, creating things. It has a lot to do with the power in you. Forces that are creative, but that meet forces that are negative. These forces are the ones that hinder your creativity and set the brakes. The counter forces are the ones that promote your creativity and help you.

Nature’s positive powers

Walking in nature, for example, is such a force, such an energy that you can draw and thus you become stronger in your creativity, in your experience of the world.

Photography, pictures from walks in nature, pictures from what I see around me are a great help to think positively.

— I think I can. Instead of feeling and thinking that I can not.

It makes me feel that I can do better, and often what I do is so good that in the next creative round I can tell myself that it can be published.

It’s about the ability to make that choice in yourself: how you look at yourself. It’s good. You’re good enough.

You can, and no one can change you without you wanting it yourself. No one should be allowed to change you. You must do what you can and want, in your own way, based on your prerequisites, and that always applies.

You’re good enough.

You can.

The writing and the exercise

There are a few things that have become important to me in my life. When it comes to the way I live my life now, this how it is: I think, I read, I write and publish.

The writing means to find joy in what I have achieved.

Another thing that is important in my life, is that I get out. It is to feel that the body works. I feel stronger. I’m getting healthier. And I experience that life also becomes more meaningful.

In my life, there are a few lighthouses, a few areas that are important: How my day is, how my family is.

Having a good relationship and experiencing that you appreciated what I do and that I appreciated them.

I need someone to love, I need someone to have around me.

Lifeline

The second is that I need to have activity, both mental activity and physical activity, for me to thrive. The physical and mental activity is my lifeline. The fact that I can be creative, and that I become more creative day by day is vital — at least necessary for a good quality of life.

See the beauty

How is this then expressed? Description of physical activity, stories from walks in nature, and through photography. I take pictures of beautiful motifs.

Man needs beauty, we need to see the beauty around us. And to see the beauty around us, we can use the camera, the phone. We can take a picture and then we create an arena or a stage where we can see these pictures and show them to others.