Artistic driven people feel called toward an artistic pursuit and have a unique path in this life. The calling may be generalized or laser focused, but it always entails the need to create and explore. A life purpose that relies on imaginative connection requires that the person find a way to filter out the negative voice from the outside world, and often more importantly the damning voices from within. Creatives still have to live in the practical world, and their minds seem to come equipped with a special feature that allows them to move between creative and mundane, between fact and fiction when necessary. This tends to bring about moodiness, swings from highs and lows, and a tendency against falling into the trap of negative emotions has to be guarded against. The antidote to this is to bring the focus back to the specific calling, to recognize the voice of that calling and to listen to what it is saying.
Listen to your inner voice: learn to recognize your calling, for it is actually calling you. When you hear the call, start walking in that direction, nurturing it whenever and however you can. As your mind floats out into the greater realms of the universe, make sure part of you stays grounded to the earth, to the people and places you care about, and to the practical considerations of life.
Motivation: Those with a true artistic calling are motivated by a task, rather than a reward. Doing the work and exploring the process is more gratifying than reaping the end result. Of course, as human beings, they are still subject to ego and also still need the connection of an audience and to attract influence and praise.
Lessons to Learn for Artistic Driven People:
- Develop self discipline, a way to focus energies and keep plugging away at the work when it is difficult, painful or when no measurable outcome seems apparent.
- How to develop, encourage (and sometimes just fake) the confidence needed to cultivate an audience and develop the network to present the work.
- A specific vision and an all-encompassing desire to enact that vision can lead to the shadow qualities of perfectionism, like fault finding, harshness and a general demeanor of inconsiderateness. Learn to be compassionate, and to respect the callings of others and where others are on their own journey of development.
- Insecurities can lead to pettiness and jealousies that ultimately separate you from the world and also separate you form the artistic flow.
- Many artistic people find they need a spiritual practice that works to keep them grounded, both in terms of maintaining that solid connection to the earth but also to keep the energy flowing. All of the energy generated by the accumulation of ideas can stagnate and lead to depression and feelings of self doubt. Meditation, physical exercise, gardening, or any number of other things can become a disciplined spiritual practice that helps those with artistic callings stay flowing.
Artists Spiritually Seeking:
Artists want to find kindred voices in navigating the creative experience of life. They want to keep the spark of creative source/inspiration present in day to day existence. They want to feel that the calling that is controlling them has a purpose in the world and the broader universe.