As a child, you may have yearned to play piano professionally, to act on Broadway, to write a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Perhaps you mentioned your aspirations to someone and were met with laughter or assurance that there was no money in it. You swallowed your creative dreams and satisfied yourself with listening to music on radio, to reading books or watching movies. How often have our creative selves been swept to sidelines, to being observer? We internalize belief that we don’t have what it takes to make it big, and of course we don’t because we have hardly tried. Its time to go for it. There is no proof that you will get rich, famous, or even produce anything worthwhile. Ignoring this urge to create isn’t making it go away. More and more people are heeding call from within themselves to act upon their creative urges. We sense that there is something behind this creative urge, that expressing ourselves creatively may be missing piece to a fulfilled life. Creative expression, whether through mundane means or through art, is worth effort. I have seen difference in my clients’ lives when they are expressing themselves. Here is a list of benefits of expressing creativity that you too, can have. Added up, they can amount to a richer life.

1. Expanded sense of time. Countless artists have discussed experience of timelessness that one encounters in creative zone. Time is limitless when you are in creative ‘zone.’ Strangely enough, when you give time to creative pursuits, you gain time. Who couldn’t use feeling of more time?

2. Freedom. Creativity invites messiness and exploration. Here’s an opportunity to return to that feeling of being a child, to not know, to not be ‘good’, smart, expert.

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Thanks, Claudette Rowley ==============

Sign Your Own Permission Slip Claudette Rowley Copyright 2003

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by things you didn't do than by ones you did do. So throw off bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

Growing up, permission slips were a big part of school life - essential to participating in special projects, field trips, or class trips out of state. For me to take part in any adventure outside of classroom, my mother or father had to sign slip. Now, as an adult, I can sign my own permission slip. In fact, I don't even need one! Yet I realize how often I don't give myself permission to be who I want to be or do what I want to do.

How many times have you decided that you wanted something, and then denied yourself permission to have it or even ask for it?

In my experience, here are top ten beliefs that cause people to deny themselves permission to want what they want:

- I can't afford it. - I don't deserve it. - What will other people think? Someone might not like it. - "In my family, we don't desire things like that. My parents had same sofa for twenty years. Why should I be any different?" - What if I get it and decide that I don't like it? - I might fail. - I might succeed. - I can't have THAT (it's too big, too small, too expensive, too fill-in-the-blank). - I'll have to step outside of my comfort zone. - And essence of all resistance: "I am afraid."