The Ability to Live with Discomfort

“Our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable.” ― Twyla Tharp

Dear Brave Ones, I did an interview for a podcast recently, Out of Grief Comes Art. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grief-dialogues-out-of-grief-comes-art-podcast-series/id1511213826

They were particularly taken with the idea that one could exercise and increase one's ability to feel uncomfortable. I have been doing this since I was young. 

I was so inundated with rules about how to exist in public, what to wear and how to act, and I was so overwhelmed by it all, I decided to see if the sky would fall in if I broke these rules. I started with simple things like not matching my shoes to my bag or my belt. After ruining quite a number of nice outfits, little by little, I felt freer to live in the world without relying on a strong set of regulations devised by my family. They seemed to think that these rules would keep us from some kind of ruin! 

I went from not matching to listening to and honoring my impulses in my acting training to doing this in my writing! Eventually I broke narrative structures and invented my own. Whether you want to do these things or not, I am happy to help with feedback, coaching and classes. But you may merely want to stop being hounded by your Inner Critic(s). 

The trick with Inner Critics is not to push them away, but to welcome them and try to find out what it is they are afraid of, try to understand them and what they are trying to do. Usually you will discover that they are trying to protect you. Putting your frustration on hold while you work to create a better relationship with your Inner Critic will go a long way. 

So start a dialogue. Introduce yourself - your critics may not know who you are or how accomplished you are. Let them know. They may be quite exhausted working to keep you safe all these years. See if they want to take a vacation. Let me know how it goes! 

Any creative activity can put us in an uncomfortable place if we let ourselves go there, and some of us feel that it's too dangerous to try. But how long are we willing to work on the edges of our discomfort? Brave Space is all about getting more comfortable with the discomfort of creation! So please come to Brave Space! 

In addition to Brave Space Wednesday and Friday, this week I will be hosting Brave Sharing on Thursday night 7/21! For $20 to raise funds for my show! Anyone can come and write from 6-7pm ET, talk about process til 730pm and then we’ll have sharing til 9pm. Let me know if you will join me! (Yes, you can just come for the part you want to come for.)