Welcome back to, “Maybe It's Just Me.”  I'm your podcast host and founder and host of Creative Work Hour.

Our work on here are advancing thoughts about what creativity is and what it's not.

In the last two episodes I've talked about, “Go Where We Are Celebrated” and “Never, Ever, Ever, Ever Stay Where We Are Being Tolerated. In the S1 E10 finale episode, I give a primer in how to manage being tolerated in a way that saves your creativity if not at least some peace of mind.

What I want to pick up on now, is that even though you're learning and growing in your life and in your work, from time to time you may  have to put up with being tolerated for a time. As in, it is a first choice put up with it because it serves a higher purpose, one that reflects your values an integral part of who you are and an intrinsic part of your creative self.

Take this as an example. Let's say there are some special occasions, like birthdays, holidays, observances, memorial services or even the introduction of a new little one to the family and friends of the family.

It is your idea to participate because to do so expresses your value of being a part of the whole, more specifically being an aunt or uncle who shows your care for the new niece or nephew. Of course, your participation in the celebration involves that there may be some unruly friends or family members that may bring about the sensation of being tolerated.

So how do we take care of our creative lives while we take care of our other cherished parts?

Here’s the trick. You have to hold something back in a type of effort or giving savings account for taking care of yourself. No one is entitled to lucidity. No body. One musts to the allocation of resources for that.

If you want to play a part in a family, then simply account for the expenses of it, no matter whether you play the role of a hero or a scape goat.

This lesson comes in the shape of a the two-sided coin. On one side is the notion, “Go Where You’re Celebrated,” and on the other side, “Never, Ever, Ever Stay Where You're Tolerated.”

So take a running assessment of your values. Keep in mind that mileage varies. Pick your moments when family and/or friends are obviously most important, as expressed by in what ways and how much you participate. Allow the same build up care credits with you. Let the dynamics show.

If you are the one to always hold the line, and the other side disappoints time and again, you may have just solved the mystery to your writer’s block or your stage fright.

Let's fiddle with the outcome that may result in a creative obstacle –

You are present for your mother’s or step mother’s birthday, eh? Perhaps there was a great deal of baggage.  It's understandable. It happens to more people than you’d think.

Or perhaps it's your father’s or step father’s birthday and there’s simply too much history there?

I sincerely hope the ‘being tolerated’ scenario certainly does not apply to you. There are a myriad of personal obstacles that can throw a wrench in the creative monkey works. If your family is thriving, “huzzah!” Good on you. Don’t take any shit over it, because there is plenty in life that can bring obstacles. We will shine a spotlight on many of those in our next season of “Maybe It’s Just Me.”

You know, it's OK to give yourself an out a day off few days off if things have proved to be a bit much Your creativity will thank you for it your mental health will thank you for it the people around you who care about you well thank you for it I think you for it this weather and realize you're not we're kind of all connected and I'm thrilled that you were connected with me for my first season of “Maybe It's Just Me.”

Love y’all!

Let’s talk next season.

Bye!

Self confidence is built from blocks of useful self-awareness. Listen to this Part 2 to find out the flip side of, "Go Where You're Celebrated."

I'm not for everyone. You're not for everyone. It's cool. So it is safe to observe those around you. Be brave enough to recognize if you are the one being tolerated.

Welcome back to Maybe It's Just Me. I'm your host, Alexandra White. I'm also the founder of Creative Work Hour. So I'm all about living the creative life. And I help people do that every day in our online sessions.

Let's stategize how to safeguard ourselves or more quickly recover from burn-out. 

I'm Alexandra White. And welcome back to. Maybe it's just me. I've been doing a lot of different kinds of creative work with a lot of different people in different time zones all around the world through six time zones, but just in a single hour. So what is my first? Got a coffee. It's Andy. Spring's cup of tea in the afternoon with a biscuit. And what he means by biscuit and what I mean by Biscuit may not necessarily be the same thing. There's another thing that we do that is particular to musicians music editors or some of that ilk. We do a lab every day online that's called practice not perfect because screw Carnegie Hall. We just want to get back to it. Right. So it's practice not perfect. Today, a New Hivian (someone whose social media is on the HIve.io blockchain)  Her name is. I kid you not. This is so good. Zen pig. Can you believe that Zen pig was still available? Zen pig plays clarinet and she's come back to it after a long time. She's wicked good. And she's playing in this very cool, very cool church in in Pennsylvania with her brother, who is the choir director. They hadn't played together in a couple of lifetimes. And now here they are. She is the cutest thing. Sounds so good. And she is pulling talent out of God knows where to pull that off. It is amazing. Let me tell you what she did today. Rochelle. Played. A medieval piece, something that sounds along the lines of Palestrina and the dissonance. If you were so lucky or unlucky to spend time in a music conservatory or in the music halls, what have you. So we're talking that Elizabethan sound, right? And there's no waltz in that. Like it is just a 1-1-1-1-1 kind of beat structure. And she is just playing the smoke out of that thing and we're just doing it on Zoom. And I've got tears going and I've got hair standing up on my arms. It was just lovely. There's a post that I put in on a Leo thread (a microblog on Hive.io, Inleo.io) where you can see the four of us, Rochelle playing @gregscloud, @bitterirony and me all listening to her. And you can just tell that we are into it, we are into her, we are into the creativity. So what does all of that tell you about what the topic is today? The topic today. (I give you here at the end) is don't go it alone. You literally can do something you've never done in your whole life, or you can come back to something creative that you've not done or our really long time. And even if you are a soloist. Or a composer. You don't have to go it alone because we design these spaces to be the encouragement for community, the community that can just listen to you play a little ditty to say, I don't know, what do you think? Does this hold water? I went with a friend of mine, Joann Alfieri, I know her from New England and we met in London so that we could see this exhibition together. And it was the exhibition of the Rolling Stones. And what I loved about that exhibition is it was just like going back in this time or that time or another time and this part of the world. This part of the world or another part of the world. One of the first bits of the exhibition is we walk into the recreated Chelsea flat, where they all lived. If we call that living on the far wall. Was this built out flat. I mean, you could almost smell the dirty clothes. The rule of the house was this – You could sleep any time that you wanted. But if Mick was up, you were up. because the mews can alight and then go away. And you need witness to that. Don't go it alone. There are people who love you more than they can express, but they could hold space for you while you have your creativity, while you make a brain baby.

There we are, folks. This has been, "Maybe It's Just Me."

Hi,  I'm Alessandra White. And I'm coming to you with this little podcast that I like to call, "Maybe It's Just me." Today we're going to talk about "HALT and Inform."

Hi. I'm Alessandra White and we are back with Maybe It's Just Me. This is a little podcast that's brought to you in 30 bite sized pieces where I'm going to talk to you about creativity, the stuff that gets in the way, including how we get in our own way and how we can free ourselves up. Today, I want to talk to you about being stuck creatively and the kindness that's required to get it flowing again. Because being stuck, well, it's a frustrating experience, isn't it? And frustrating is a soft word. Four angry. Angry about being blocked at the goal of getting the damn creative thing done. It's a demanding ness that's characterized by that bratty kid with s that doesn't want to wait their turn. But sometimes the body, the mind and the muse doesn't want you having your turn yet. This has been one of those days for me. Now I'm recording this for you and it is 6:00 in the evening and I have been trying to get this thing done for 10 hours. So this is the perfect example. I've been frustrated. And then I just got angry. And at that point, I recognized my state. So I took a breath. I'm like, okay, let's just back off of this little. Let's dial it down. Let's use kindness. What does that mean? Well, let's pull patients out of the box, wherever that is. Because the patient gives you a chance to take time to attend. And to open one's hands on one's lap. To slowly blink. To let the eyes moisten. To let the breath slow down, to let heart rate decrease. And in so doing, we show up in a way that we couldn't do before when we were smacking around irritated that it wasn't getting done. But here we are. Less than 60 seconds has passed since I told you what time it is. And there's plenty of time left. There's plenty of time. There's plenty of space. Don't let it be stolen away from you by making it scarce. Let's try this. Instead, let's consider another great creative, the artist Agnes Martin. Agnes was a minimalist. And she also experienced her own history of mental illness. Sometimes she would break with reality. And the thing about being in a state of broken reality is you don't know which end is up. Literally, you don't know what's real and you don't know what's not real. But to Agnes's great credit, despite what state she found herself in, there was a ritual that she observed no matter what. Each day, she would seat herself before canvas. And she would attend the time and the space with it not knowing. Not knowing which thing was real, which thing was not. She would simply show the f up and sit. And wait and wait it out in the not knowing. Likewise, when we're stuck, we may not know what's what. Then when we do, we may irritatingly charge in there and find ourselves dead wrong, messed up. So I'm going to go straight to it. I double dog. Dare you? That's right. I jumped right to the double dog. Dare I double dog dare you to pick kindness over impatience. And to allow yourself to sit. And wait. For the thing to do to come to you the obvious next thing, and then allow it to compel you to begin. This has been the getting unstuck episode of Maybe It's Just Me. This episode has been brought to you with love by the community of Creative Work Hour. Join us any day at 3 p.m., UTC 10 a.m. Eastern. You can visit us at https://Lu.ma/CreativeWork That's Lima Uniform Dot Mike Alpha Forward slash creative work.

Welcome to Maybe It's Just Me. I'm Alexandra White and I'm the founder of Creative Work. Our it's a handcrafted creative studio that I've hosted in excess of 1000 times since 2021. I believe that good mental hygiene is easier to keep in check. Just by learning a few basics about what I call creative health. So I'm here in this podcast to share with you a few essentials to help demystify what it means to live a creative life, but to live one that is dynamic rather than dramatic. Today we will be addressing perfectionism.

Hi. I'm Alessandra White and I am back. Is your host of "Maybe It's Just Me." I recorded the trailer yesterday. I nailed it at one minute. Yay me. I also nailed it with a good old -fashioned piece of risk taking. It was only two words. It was only a 60-second clip. And yet those two words opened me up for a vulnerability hangover. Oh, my. It it's still rocking and rolling. So let's just talk about vulnerability hangover for a minute. You know, the shame, the dread because you said something and now you wish you could go back or do you wish you could go back? Are you proud of yourself? Are you ashamed of yourself? Let me tell you what a vulnerability hangover really is. It's evidence that you took a risk. And at this time of your life, you have survived some shit. Okay, so, you know, in broad strokes, your left, from your right, your up, from your down. So at this stage of your life, if you're taking well, calculated risk. You're probably on to something, so give yourself some credit and take the vulnerability hangover for what it is. It is evidence that you were one brave bear, that you took a chance on yourself. Because guess what? You're a very good bet.