Embracing Positivity Without Toxicity
While positivity can be a powerful force, it’s important to be mindful of toxic positivity. This happens when people dismiss or ignore negative emotions and situations, and instead promote the idea that we should always be happy and optimistic. Cultivating a strong peace of mind and finding balance as a creative professional can help us show up more fully in our personal-professional lives.
You’re not denying what you feel. You’re adding dimension to it.”
Eckhart Tolle
How To Find Balance As A Creative:
- Cultivate a positive mindset, but also acknowledge and process negative emotions in a healthy way.
- Set achievable goals that challenge you, but don’t beat yourself up if you don’t achieve everything. As creatives, we beat ourselves up enough.
- Find inspiration that uplifts you, but also allows space for introspection and reflection.
- Embrace failure as “failing forward” and an opportunity to learn and grow.
- Take breaks to recharge, but also allow yourself to feel and process emotions as they come up.
- Connect with other creatives who offer support and understanding within a mindful business community like CoMuse and helps us to recognize that everyone has struggles and challenges that we’re working through.
- Perfection is not the goal — creativity is. Experiment with new techniques to keep your creative energy flowing and accept that not everything will work out perfectly.
- Celebrate your successes, big and small, and also allow yourself to feel disappointment when the rubber doesn’t meet the road.
- Keep learning and growing as a creative, but also recognize that it’s okay to take a break and slow down when you need to. Hustle culture is a real thing and you don’t always have to be a participating member.
- Practice self-care to maintain your physical and mental health, and also allow yourself to feel and process negative emotions when they come up.
- Seek feedback from others your admire to improve your work and gain an outside perspective. Recognize that not all feedback will be helpful or relevant.
- Practice gratitude and recognize the good in your life; recognizing that life isn’t perfect. We’re all perfectly imperfect.
- Stay organized and on track with your projects and recognize that sometimes unexpected events will throw you off course. At CoMuse we use the “Creatives’ 80/20 rule” for time management. Stick to the schedule 80% of the time, and allow yourself to get knocked off or pulled away 20% of the time. This gives you flexibility to live your life with unexpected turns!
- Maintain a healthy work-life balance that allows you to pursue your passions and interests and recognize that as creatives, we are passionate about our work. Balance may look differently for many of us than it does for others in other industries. Honor your idea of balance.
Maintain A Healthy Balance As A Creative Professional
When you avoid processing and dealing with difficult emotions that you are feeling, rather than honoring them, it can lead to feelings of guilt, shame, and inadequacy.
Anyway, who is always happy? Striving for peace of mind is more realistic goal and can help you find balance as a creative professional.
