Empower Creativity Through Vulnerable Activity
Photo courtesy of pixnio.com
Empowering Creativity Through Empowered Vulnerability
By its very nature, creativity is an act of vulnerability. While many people are able to disassociate their sense of worth from a spread sheet or certain work projects, creatives often find themselves pouring their hearts and souls into each work. To offer these bits and pieces up for consumption—even among trusted supporters—can be terrifying. The idea of having creative work rejected can feel like rejection of ourselves, cutting deep and hampering our bravery to share in the future.
What is Vulnerability?
The American Heritage Dictionary defines vulnerable as “not protected against harm or injury; susceptible to attack.” The thought of sharing what you've put your heart and soul into feels very unprotected, like opening yourself up to harm or an attack. And let's be honest, sometimes the people we share with offer critiques that feel very much like an attack. But sometimes it's our own insecurities that cause us to hear critique as an attack. Where someone says, “this section of writing flows awkwardly” we may translate it as, “your writing is awkward” or “you aren't a good writer.” It's good to remember that we are usually our own worst critics. Sure, there are plenty of people out there ready and able to rip into anything with vicious “honesty.” But vulnerability isn't about being able to take a punch. Vulnerability is about showing something raw to another person in good faith that they will accept it. Vulnerability is about meaningful connection. It's about showing up as you are and making space for others to join you, right where you are.
It's important to note that not everyone will be deserving of your vulnerability. The person who is always tearing apart your creativity, looking for flaws and mistakes to highlight, may not be a sustainable source of feedback. Sure, they may help you correct a few things, but constant discouragement does not empower you to move forward in your pursuits with confidence.
Does Creativity Need Vulnerability?
Shame researcher Brene Brown says that vulnerability is the birthplace of creativity. Think of your favorite authors, artists, musicians, or entertainers. What would the world be like if they didn't embrace the terrifying prospect of putting themselves out there and risking rejection?
Sharing your true self with a small group of people can be overwhelming. Sharing your true self or a reflection of your true self with someone in the hopes that it reaches a mass audience takes an inordinate amount of vulnerability. When it comes to creative pursuits, it's highly likely that rejection will follow some of our first exhibitions of vulnerability. But as time goes on, and we've had more practice with vulnerability, we're more prepared to handle the inevitable rejection we'll receive from some. When we take time to practice empowering ourselves through vulnerability, we allow trusted people to help us shore up our self-esteem before we have to weather a rejection storm. And when we've cultivated vulnerable relationships, we're able to rely on those people for help when the rejection storm starts gusting.
Studies throughout the years have shown that highly creative people are very sensitive to emotions, yet also open to new experiences. A 2008 study in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin poses that intense negative emotions can lead to increased self-reflection and perseverance which can lead to increased creativity (isn't that encouraging?). So does this mean that rejection is good and spite can fuel our creative endeavors? Maybe, but we're going to take a different tack.
Being open to new experiences... sounds a lot like vulnerability, doesn't it? In fact, Thrive Global says openness to new experiences is one of six habits that actively embrace vulnerability. A new experience can go any which way. It can be good, it can be bad, it can be weird. You won't know until you try, and that means being willing to risk the experience being bad or risk the ways it could shake your self-esteem and confidence. Though scary, this risk is exactly what we go through when we offer our creativity to the world. This openness is what allows us to bring our individual creativity to the world instead of attempting to copy the creativity of others. That's not to say that we shouldn't be inspired by the works of others. But creativity is about expressing yourself, not trying to express for someone else better than they express for themselves. You're not trying to be the next Jane Austen, Mozart, Monet, or Beyonce. You're trying to be the one and only you, the biggest and brightest you.
In order to flourish creatively, then, we must regularly fight against comparison. “Comparison is all about conformity and competition,” writes Brene Brown in her book, The Gifts of Imperfection. While creativity might have some room for friendly competition, conformity is the antithesis of creativity. When we start thinking that our writing should read this specific way or our paintings or art should match that particular style, we start to set aside what makes our work individual. Instead, we may start conforming to the societal norm. Then, inevitably, we start comparing. And when we don't measure up to an inauthentic expression of our own creativity, we can quickly spiral down into the negative emotions and thought patterns that encourage us to give up instead of empowering us to push forward. Authentic creative expression can feel really hard when we are avoiding vulnerability.
Yes, vulnerability opens us up to rejection and criticism, but it also opens us up to affirmation and inviting others to celebrate the individual things that we have to offer.
Empowering Vulnerability in Creativity: Tips to Try
One starting place for empowering vulnerability is to find a person or group of people whom you can share your creative works with. A spouse or lover, a best friend, or a family member could be a good place to begin practicing vulnerability. Another place to start could be taking a class at a local college or finding a group of like-minded people who will support you. Online forums and platforms can be another place to practice vulnerable sharing of your work, but there's one thing to be wary of. Just as the anonymity might be the draw for you, there will surely be critics who will hide behind anonymity, too, and might be more harsh than people who know you as a person instead of just a screen name. If you encounter online abuse, several methods can be effective to diffuse the situation. Ignoring the comments is a go-to method, but you may also choose to inquire deeper into the critique. However you choose to approach it, just know that dropping to their level of name calling and personal attack is never efficient and could damage your reputation among other members.
Masterclass recommends checking out local libraries and community centers for creative groups and workshops. A local college may also have clubs or open workshops that non-students can connect with. For writers, various national writers' associations can be good places to start for general or genre-specific writing groups. If you can't make in-person meetings, some groups meet online using private forums, which offer all the conveniences of virtual meetings without the larger concern of trolls and less-than-helpful critics.
If the thought of sharing your creative work leaves you with debilitating fear, taking time to unpack your fear can help empower your vulnerability. You might fear rejection because it reaffirms your belief that you are not good enough, that you are bad at your creative pursuit, or that you have nothing to offer the world at large. Working on challenging these beliefs outside of your creative pursuit can empower you to step out boldly, knowing that your worth and value do not hinge on whether a person likes your work or not. It's a hard-to-accept truth that no creative work will please everyone. Someone will always dislike your work. It's good to remember that you do not do your work to please the hard-to-please; you do your work to please those who appreciate and admire it (and for yourself). You should always do your work because of what YOU gain from it. Haters gonna hate, you can't change that. But choosing to dwell on those who celebrate your work can remind you that you do have something to offer, something that people do want.
Thrive Global reminds us that cognitive restructuring or reframing can help cultivate psychological distance between us and our fears, providing alternate interpretations that help make our fears seem less believable. We can't control how people respond to our work, only how we respond to them. Instead of interpreting criticism as proof that we aren't good enough, we can choose to take it as valuable feedback to help us improve or recognize it as feedback from someone who wasn't the target audience to begin with. Battling fear is a continual effort, but one that every creative must choose to engage in day-in and day-out.
Journaling is an effective way to unpack and understand your fears. If you're not sure where to start, you might try one of these prompts:
Does this fear stem from real danger or is it imposed (by myself or others) to keep me from doing something?
Finish the sentence, “I am afraid of...” five times, then finish the sentence, “But I am most afraid of...”
If failure wasn't a concern, what would I be doing?
Use the iceberg method: first write about the situation that has triggered fear and your reaction. Next list the deeper feelings fueling your fear. Finally, list memories, personal beliefs, and future expectations that may feed into the fear.
If none of these prompts jump out at you, an Internet search can provide plenty of additional options to help you dig into the fear holding you back.
Finally, consider if sharing your work is something you truly want to do. Sometimes we create just for ourselves or for a small group of people. And that is OK. In a world where everything seems to require sharing, having something just for yourself can seem like wasted effort. Putting forth so much effort to create something just for yourself seems contrary to our society that values productivity and outward effort. But creating for the sake of creating is a perfectly acceptable pursuit that takes its own kind of vulnerability. Hold tightly to the things you create just for yourself.
If you determine that sharing is something you truly want to do, the next step is finding your “why” behind sharing. Is it because you have a message that you know resonates with people? Is it a message that will help others? Do you believe in the joy your creation will bring to people? Holding onto your why, and beginning vulnerability with people who will help extend your goal, will help you stay the course when the naysayers get started.
Vulnerability is hard because it means being open to painful experiences. But many of the greatest successes and the fullest experiences come after making the choice to be vulnerable. The more vulnerability is practiced, the easier it is to maintain. And once connections have been made through vulnerability, we are empowered to step out even further into our creativity, trusting that there is an audience waiting for exactly our creative brand.
For Further Reading:
https://www.vivatramp.co.uk/2018/03/how-to-overcome-fear-of-sharing-your.html
https://brenebrown.com/collections/a-courageous-approach-to-feedback/
https://athousandlights.com/brene-brown-quotes-on-vulnerability/
https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/daring-be-vulnerable-brene-brown
