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Hi Everyone,
I have been getting ready for my retreat in Tuscany in September, Women, Creativity and the Journey of the Soul, and it is taking all my time. So no blogging, among other things... However, this blog is rich in articles, stories and information, so explore and enjoy...

More to come in October.
Hope your summer is abundant and creative!

Emily

Why and How Your Inner Critic Stops You from Expressing Yourself?

Here is a scenario about how the Inner Critic gains a foothold in our lives. Imagine you are a little kid and you go to touch something that is hot and your mother screams, “Don’t do that!” Or, you are playing in the dirt, having a grand time, and your mother says in horror, “Oh my God! We are going to grandma’s house and you’re filthy dirty!”

The Inner Critic takes that criticism and turns it into a dictum: don’t get dirty; don’t disobey; be a good girl; be a good boy; and be obedient. The Inner Critic doesn’t want you to make your mommy and daddy angry. The Inner Critic wants to keep you safe. It doesn’t care if it’s crushing your curiosity and creativity in the process. It just wants you to be “good” and “safe” and to do this the Inner Critic always takes a conservative, status quo stance.

This a quick view of the “why” the Inner Critic comes into being. The problem is the Inner Critic voice begins to take over and becomes the CEO of your life. The image I use is if your mind were a radio station, basically what happens is that every station you turn to is the nagging, blathering voice of the Inner Critic. It sometimes feels as if you can’t stop the Inner Critic's assault, always accusing you of doing the wrong thing, calling you stupid, dumb, asking why did you do that? Don’t you remember the time when –– twenty thousand million years ago –– when you did this and this terrible thing happened… and so it goes and goes.

So what do we do? How do we defang the Inner Critic? The first thing to do is to acknowledge the existence of your Inner Critic as a controlling voice inside your head. And to know that the Inner Critic is not all of you by any means. It is a loud voice that lives in your mind but has no access to your heart. Second part of defanging the Inner Critic is to start listening to –– I mean really becoming aware of the insistent and invasive assault that is the voice of your Inner Critic. The jabber is constant.

Thoughts on the Inner Critic

Spend time listening to your Inner Critic. He or she is not comfortable with the risks demanded by a creative endeavour. By becoming aware of the foul jabber of your Inner Critic, you can see how your mind puts up roadblocks to creativity.

Tip 3 from Ten Tips on Creativity

Imagine your conscious mind is tuned in to a radio station run by a single disc jockey, your Inner Critic, and you have no way to turn down the volume much less turn it off. In fact, you've grown so used to the constant talk from the Inner Critic, you hardly notice he's ordering you about, commenting, passing judgment and evaluating just about everything you do or say; this is all so subtle and insidious that you don't separate out the Inner Critic from other parts of you. The Inner Critic has become you-it seems as if the only time you can escape his badgering is when you sleep. There is a reason for this. When you sleep, your conscious mind shuts down. The dream state or intuitive right side of the brain, takes over.

The Inner Critic avoids the dream state like the plague. He can't get a foothold in a place where there is no apparent logic, where things appear as images, feelings, sounds and colours. It should not be surprising, then, that your best stories, characters and plots, come from this place of dreams, where little is known and anything is possible. The problem is how to wrest control of the radio station from the Inner Critic so that you can give your Inner Writer some air time.

Answer the following questions quickly, without thinking.

What is the colour of your Inner Critic?

How big is your Inner Critic?

What is the texture?

Is your Inner Critic masculine, feminine or both?

What does the voice of the Inner Critic sound like?

Make a list of the things your Inner Critic says to you. Don't worry if you repeat. Come back and add to this list as you become more aware of the Inner Critic.

What is a creative risk you fear taking?

Make a list of the reasons your Inner Critic has for you not taking that risk.

Make a list of the negative things your Inner Critic says about being a writer.

Find a symbol of your Inner Critic. Students I work with have come up with anything from a picture of a boss to a vial of sulphuric acid. The image of my Inner Critic is a fierce looking puppet. I like to turn it inside out, which makes it look like a harmless alien!

Now, write to you Inner Writer. As her or him what you should do when your the voice of your Inner Critic is very loud and destructive. Put your pen to paper and start writing. Learn to listen to the voice of you Inner Writer. Give your Inner Writer some powerful stations on the radio in your mind. Turn to her when you feel your all dried up and will never write again.

Begin now:

Dear Inner Writer....

Writing from the Shadowland of the Human Condition

There is a wonderful quote by the Roman, Seneca. He says, “Nothing human is alien to me.” I think that is such a powerful quote. If we are to find our true voice as writers, we cannot be afraid of the dark side of the human condition. What is really powerful writing is writing that explores the shadowlands of the human soul. We all have dark and we all have light within us. If you’re afraid to write about sex or you’re afraid to write about violence or you’re afraid to write about homosexuality –– if you’re afraid to write about anything, anything at all, then that’s stopping your creativity.

All aspects of the human condition have to be open to us. You can choose not to write about something, but there’s a big difference between choosing not to write about something and being afraid or actually unable to write about something.

As creative writers we need to explore all the primal passions; only then can we make choices in our writing.

Thoughts on the Inner Critic

Imagine your conscious mind is tuned in to a radio station run by a single disc jockey, your Inner Critic, and you have no way to turn down the volume much less turn it off. In fact, you’ve grown so used to the constant talk from the Inner Critic, you hardly notice he’s ordering you about, commenting, passing judgment and evaluating just about everything you do or say; this is all so subtle and insidious that you don’t separate out the Inner Critic from other parts of you. The Inner Critic has become you—it seems as if the only time you can escape his badgering is when you sleep. There is a reason for this. When you sleep, your conscious mind shuts down. The dream state or intuitive right side of the brain, takes over.

The Inner Critic avoids the dream state like the plague. He can’t get a foothold in a place where there is no apparent logic, where things appear as images, feelings, sounds and colors. It should not be surprising, then, that your best stories, characters and plots, come from this place of dreams, where little is known and anything is possible