I spent last week making art in two different workshops. It was a very humbling week. I encountered that first hard bump of learning something new, that first jolt of, "Oh no, I can't do what I want to do, I can't make what I see in my head or feel in my heart."

Life is an enormous pu-pu platter, a giant offering of possibilities, and it is up to us to keep sampling the delicious tidbits until we find the ones that make us dance on the table with satisfaction and exultation. I keep thinking, "What if Beethoven had never encountered a piano?" and "What if I never found out I was gluten intolerant?"

Can I tell you, frankly, how sick I am of the story that because we do what we love, we should always be jubilant, light hearted, blissed out, can't-wait-to-get-out-of-bed every-bloody-morning happy and content? Have you ever fell into this belief? Here is my claim: you can do what you love, for a living or a part-time living or simply because you love it, and you will still suffer.

Did you know the critical part of your self is never going away? In fact, to want to kill the critic off is just playing into the Critic's game because it is wanting to kill off a part of yourself. It reinforces the idea that something is wrong with you that needs to be fixed -- "Once I get this critic handled, THEN I'll be able to create." Here is what works much, much better: accept the critic but always, always remember you--the adult, is in charge.

I've been observing the tremendous power our interpretations of events have to influence our bodies, our moods, and our ability to be present and notice what is.

You are smack in the middle of inventing your life every moment... for some, that idea makes you all tingly with excitement, but for others it may spark a reaction similar to, "Another thing to do?? I don't have time to invent anything; I'm too busy reacting to this, putting out that fire, going hither and yon." Maybe you'd never say, "Hither and yon," but you get my drift. My point is attitude is so central to our experience of "reality."

Do you secretly hold an “ascetic self-flagellant, it-must-be-hard-to-be-good, that’s for other people” attitude about your creativity? (Don't waste your time telling me you aren't creative -- life is the ultimate creative act and you are alive, or else you wouldn't be reading this). Self-care and creativity are best friends -- one cannot exist without the other.