Here are the key takeaways from my interview with writer, editor, and creativity coach Emmeline Chang. Creativity is an opportunity for expansion and growth for women, an opportunity to take up space. We discuss the creative journey, obstacles to creativity, and the need for our creative expansion as women.

The Creative Journey

If you are ready to turn toward your creativity, the first step is to commit to yourself and your creative practices. You may need to uncover and recover from old stories that don’t serve you. Next, follow your delight and open space for play. Are you ready?

Creative Witchery: Working the Magic of Creation

Creative witchery is the practice of “working the magic of creation.” We are always creating. It is learning to live in a way that you are open to possibility and have the courage to create opportunities. Witchery is part of the journey: there’s even magic and subversiveness to the history of witchery. We come from a long line of women who were silenced throughout history; healers, teachers, writers, and artists. It’s time to reclaim our true creative power. It nourishes our own lives as well as those around us.

“We live in a time where we can claim our subversiveness and our power. If large numbers of women do this work, it feels stunningly life-changing and necessary.” – Bethany Webster

Common Blocks to Creativity

Common blocks to creativity stem often from fear, scarcity, or a sense of not being enough. Here are some examples of common blockages to creativity:

  • Fear of failure (I won’t be loved or I’ll be laughed at)
  • I won’t be good enough
  • Fear of success (if I really succeed, I will leave my mother or community behind)
  • I don’t have time
  • I don’t have money
  • It isn’t okay to be yourself
  • Stories about doing other things first (give time to your kids/partner first, clean the house first, etc.)

Guidance for Mothers

A common creative blockage for moms is not having enough time. This may be linked to stories about needing to clean, cook, fill in the blank for family first, but consider the impact.

“You may think that your biggest gift is to give all of yourself to your kids, but your biggest gift to your kids is being all of yourself all the time.” – Emmeline Chang

Creativity and the Mother Wound

In healing the mother wound, we learn the importance of mothering ourselves. Connecting this to the creative journey, we need to give our inner little girls the nurturing and celebration our mothers were not able to give us so that we can overcome fear and see that it is safe to create.

How to Start Your Creative Journey: First, Connect with Your Future Self

The path to creative healing and expansion starts with a commitment to yourself, to your future creative self, and a belief in your own excellence. Working from a state of “not being good enough” is a rocky landscape. The energy required to overcome your fears and self-judgment can hold you hostage.

“Commitment plus aligned actions equal creative expansion.” -Emmeline Chang

Emmeline recommends a daily creative activation meditation practice. Spend time with your future self—the version of you who already has what you want—and ask for guidance and support. Your future self may have insight into how to move beyond obstacles, give you the nurturing you need to excel, or give you the energy to say, “that is an old story.”

The Role of Fear in the Creative Journey

Fear is a normal part of creativity. It indicates expansion, initiation, and growth. However, fear is not inner wisdom. It is important to assuage or move past your fears, through discomfort, to listen to your true inner wisdom. An intuitive meditation practice may help.

“Feel the fear. It will come up but stay in action when it is there.” – Emmeline Chang

The Creative Journey Never Ends

While creative success can be ephemeral, the creative journey never ends. Instead, create a deep and loving inner world to support your ongoing creativity. With a loving foundation, you may support your creativity for lifetimes and find joy in creation itself.

The Creative Journey: Integration Questions

  1. What messages did you receive during your childhood about creativity? How do they conflict with your creative desires?
  2. What are three obstacles to your creative drive and activation? What fears or ideas are behind these obstacles? How can you change these subtle agreements to overcome these obstacles?
  3. Write a letter to soothe your inner little girl about her fears of creative expression and expansion. Convince her that not only is it safe to be creative but that it is essential to your being. Thank her for looking out for you. Ask her to step aside and maybe even become an advocate for you.
  4. Get in touch with your future self. Listen to Emmeline’s In Motion mediation every day for 2 weeks and inspiration arrives. Ask your future self for guidance on obstacles that may arise, how to overcome fears, praise, and even pathways to success.
  5. Make a list of 3-4 indicators for you to determine a “true yes” and a “true no” on your creative journey. (Think about physical feelings in your body, emotions that arise, etc.)

Resources

  • Explore Emmeline’s offerings
  • Emmeline’s creative activation worksheet and mediation, “Stay in Motion and Complete your Novel, Screenplay or Creative Project.”
  • Emmeline’s creative intuition worksheet and meditation, “The Simple Way Your Body Tells You What’s Right.”

 

About Emmeline Chang

Emmeline published and taught fiction, ran a writing and editing business, and now coaches creatives on the creative journey. Learn about her at https://emmelinechang.com/.