This category lists the blog posts that tell more about creativity, how to keep in flow, what’s blocking artists in their creativity and how to unblock.
Self protection is about discovering the toxic patterns that block your creativity, and how to protect yourself against it. In other words: how can you protect yourself against yourself? In order to be kind to ourselves, we have to be hard against the toxic patterns. Imagine that creativity is all around us, like leaves in the fall, available to every one. We just have to bend and pick it up. And often we just don’t want to bend, we want […]
Compassion seems so easy, except if it’s about compassion towards myself. Last week I was invited as panelist to goNORTH, an art conference/festival in Inverness in Scotland. My mind was full with all kind of duties and tasks. And I can go quite harsh on myself when I haven’t finished them all at once! It’s not the duties and tasks themselves that form a block to creativity, it’s how you deal with them. If you feel the need of more […]
Surviving as an artist requires you to be strong. I’m not talking about the cliche of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. That might seem cool or strong, but actually it’s not. It doesn’t help you to survive as an artist, it helps you to run away from it. True strength lies in facing the challenges that come your way. “The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy or […]
With the previous post I forgot to mention that working on abundance is a good opportunity to investigate your own attitude towards money and wealth on one side, and at the other side the concept of ‘enough’ and appreciating what you have. Connection is about connecting to yourself, your inner source. You can start with listening to yourself. This will help you to create a map of where you are, where you are coming from and where you want to […]
Oh, I love this one! I wrote about it before, in October last year. The feeling of abundance is only for a small part related to material wealth. It has everything to do with you, allowing yourself to take good care of you. If you try, you will discover that often it’s the little things that make life luxurious for you! Just take some time and think about it. No, forget for a moment about posh cars, juwelery and golden […]
When I was 19 I moved to Frankfurt and started to study Theology. I thought that the whole world is open to me, and that with age the possibilities will become more and more limited. Well, that’s the best way of getting old even when still young at age 🙂 Our own expectations, and most of all the expectations we think that others have regarding us, are the strongest obstacle in discovering our possibilities. We think that we have to […]
Part of your new identity as artist is integrity. It starts with being honest to yourself. And yes, sometimes that can be scary. When being honest to yourself, you have to admit that you are joining your friends into town for shopping, even if you actually would like to look for a quiet place to sit in the sun. Usually I’d try to hide the urge for a quiet place, hide it even for myself, and go with my friends, […]
Have you ever realized the power that comes with getting angry? I’ve been told to be nice, to suppress any feelings of anger. Even if I know, that in the end it makes me crazy. Anger can be used as a map, as a sign that tells you the direction you have to go or to avoid. It also gives you the energy to pursue. So as recovering artist, getting angry means that you are starting to unblock! So don’t […]
OK, now you are feeling safe enough to play and try things with your art, you can start to develop an identity as a creative person, as an artist. And don’t worry if it goes up and down. When you get a stronger identity, the doubts will go stronger too! Getting an identity as artists starts within yourself. How do you think about artists and creativity? How do your friends, family, colleagues think about it? Many think that you have […]
One year ago I was working with this great book of Julia Cameron: The Artist’s Way. She wrote it about 20 years ago already, and it’s still used by many authors. In all my 18 years in the live music business I’ve never heard of it. Are there musicians working with this method? Do you know? Anyway, I’ll start to write about all the 12 aspects of unblocking your creativity. It starts with gaining a sense of safety. Safety has […]
Research has shown, that 20% of the population can be categorized as highly sensitive persons (HSP). This percentage is valid for animals too! So there has to be a evolutionary gain in having a sensitive minority. I’m convinced that artists are even more sensitive than the average population. You have to be sensitive to colors and shape in order to make great paintings, or to sounds and rhythm in order to write great songs. Others are sensitive to odor, touch, […]
Oh yes, I feel can feel it too: being blocked to write a new post. And that’s while I have plenty idea. I even write a reminder to myself about it. Still, nothing comes out when I sit behind the computer, no new post for my blog. And there are many factors that can contribute to a block like this. If you write music, you will probably know a lot of them too. Being very busy is of course one […]
“Only Americans can combine those two”, said a visitor last weekend after the show of the American singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy. It was a great show. He knows how to combine great music and humor. And somehow the music gets better too by adding humor. But is it true, that only Americans can do it? What’s the secret? Humor obviously helps you as artist to connect to the audience, to involve them. And yes, there are huge cultural differences regarding humor. […]
Somehow the ‘universe’ doesn’t know the right timing. There are periods that I get really bored and nothing happens. And than again, like last month, everything happens at once. This must sound quite familiar to artists too. Right now all business stuff is good news! One of my artists, AlascA, just signed a record deal in the UK. Another Dutch artist, Lilian Hak, released her new album last week. And we just passed the deadline for applications for Conincx Pop […]
Showing off, bragging, telling about your talents – in the Netherlands it’s all seen as quite negative. In the USA on the other side it’s appreciated, you don’t get anywhere without it. I’m a bit stuck with the Dutch way. A month ago I developed this new model, 4-stages-of-fame, and I didn’t tell people about it yet. I want everyone to know, but I feel a bit shy. What if they don’t like it? Or worse: what if they do? […]