Belief in Ourselves, or Believing Ourselves.
Do you have belief in yourself? Or, do you believe yourself when you are repeating some unhelpful or critical inner dialogue? This post is one of a number I will be writing over the next few weeks on how to support your artist mindset.
I’m a member of a few art groups on social media. I have been noticing quite a few conversations about how people experience themselves in making their art. People post about their successes and also their struggles. Often the struggles seem to be about mindset. What I mean by this is anxiety about the work, what people might think, fear of success, risk taking or being seen are just a few examples of how our personal psychology can interfere with the process of art making with ease.
Psychology and Art
As a qualified psychotherapist in my other work I’ve long thought how important personal psychology is in making satisfying and authentic art. Part of the training to be a therapist means years of personal therapy. As a result I think I know myself pretty well these days, and I have been able to work through a lot of my insecurity, self limiting beliefs and confidence issues over the years. When I first started painting I was struck, and I continue to be struck, by how important the psychological process of art making is in making authentic work. I think because the experience of art making is deeply personal and revealing of self the experience of art-making intensifies and heightens our psychology in ways that other types of activity doesn’t.
Believing Ourselves: The Unhelpful Mindset and How to Work With It.
Fear and anxiety: Fear and anxiety are such common experiences for people. In our evolution they were responses to danger and to keep us safe. In modern living we often have this response to more everyday activities. One of the common patterns of thinking and feeling in anxiety states is to overestimate the “danger” or impact of the things we are feeling anxious about and to underestimate our capacity to cope with it. Therefore some simple reality testing is a very helpful way of reducing anxiety. By reality testing I quite literally mean checking the basis – the evidence – for the fears and anxieties we hold. This is a cognitive approach where engaging our thinking in a positive and self supporting way can assist in assessing the action or activity we are anxious or nervous about. Taking regular time to relax and de-stress is also very important as this will make us generally less susceptible to an anxious response.
Comparing to others: When we compare ourselves others we can diminish ourselves . Finding something in another person’s work we like or are inspired by is very different to making ourselves not ok in some way because we think we are not as good as the other. It’s useful to check in with ourselves when we are making comparisons. To ask ourselves the question – am I inspired or am I making myself less.
Unrealistic expectations: having unrealistic expectations or seeking perfection are ways that we can be not support ourselves. The trouble with unrealistic expectations or perfectionism is that we can set the goal so high that we never actually begin. Or we get so lost in the process of trying to be perfect that we lose contact with the overall aim of what we originally set out to do. Sometimes good enough is the thing to focus on.
Critical inner dialogue: listening to the critical inner voice. Our inner critic can be loud sometimes. Whilst sometimes well-intentioned (See my post for more on this) our inner critic may hold us back . Working out an effective strategy to deal with your internal critic is another useful positive artist mindset approach.
Self limiting beliefs: beginning a process of recognising what beliefs you hold that are unhelpful is an important step in self awareness. Knowing your learning edges and how to work with the aspects of your psychology that have the potential to hold you back is another aspect to consider. Self limiting beliefs can be across a whole range of areas. Here are some examples I have come across in my therapy and coaching work. It’s not ok to be a success, to think for oneself , to have feelings, to be important, to be creative, to belong, to be seen. These beliefs can hinder us in many unseen and unexpected ways. Once we know they are there we can be more active on our own behalf in ensuring they do not derail us from our goals and set about changing and updating them to positive attributions.
Belief in Ourselves: Self Supporting Mindset.
A self supporting mindset is as much about knowing ourselves, our edges and limits and how to work with them as it is about changing aspects of self.
Confidence: Confidence helps us to risk, experiment and play. Whether this in the making of our art, in the selling and promoting of our art. Developing ways of building confidence is hugely important. An immediate and simple suggestion is to keep a journal, or record in a way which suits you, of every success so that you begin to account your achievements. This is one way of supporting your confidence, and when you feel uncertain read it to boost your confidence remind yourself of the positive evidence of success.
Self knowledge: knowing ourselves, our learning edges, strengths and how to self support. Self knowledge helps us to recognise what might be difficult. What are the things that might hold us back. Once we have this knowledge we can take action on our own behalf and make arrangements, maybe support or resources to help us get what we want.
Vulnerability: being willing to be vulnerable with ourselves and others. We are more likely to have support if we can be open and honest about what we need, where our learning edges are and the things we need help with.
Responsiveness: paying attention to ourselves and what we need to support ourselves. Then taking action, being responsive to ourselves by problem solving.
Potency: being potent on our own behalf. Different to power which can be misused potency may mean doing things with energy and vigour. Being effective and resourceful. It might also mean keeping agreements and commitments with ourselves and others. Holding our integrity.
These are some of the ideas I’ve found helpful in my own personal development and that I use in coaching. What have you found helpful in supporting your artist mindset?
Interested in learning more about my coaching? Contact me to arrange for a free 20 minute chemistry check. Or want to meet me to chat about these ideas? My next exhibition is at the Octagon Centre, Pavilion Gardens, Buxton, on Saturday and Sunday 20th and 21st October.
Contact me to book a chemistry check.
I wanted a comparable arty phrase but couldn’t come up with one, so sticking to the knitting it had to be. What am I talking about? Being focused and keeping with a plan, or how I have gone about building an arts business.
My focus was and is my art. I want to paint. Workshops and coaching are great and I love doing that kind of work. But for now because I am an emerging artist with, as yet, a fairly small audience of interested people I need to focus on making work. Continuing on this path of exploring and developing my authentic voice, now that I have found it, and getting that work out into the public. I decided that people would be interested in my workshops and coaching organically from seeing my work, my posting on social media, and my writing and talking about art and creativity. So, that’s what I have been doing and it has been paying off.
