Creative Empowerment: 6 Steps to Shape Your Life

You create your life as an artist uses color. There is no experience that you cannot change. In this miraculous life you are given the gift of a creative being. And with this gift that is your birthright you create your reality according to your beliefs. It is your creative energy that makes ...You create your life as an artist uses color. There is no experience that you cannot change. In this miraculous life you are given the gift of a creative being. And with this gift that is your birthright you create your reality according to your beliefs. It is your creative energy that makes your worldly experience. The only limitations to what you can create are within the beliefs you hold.

You create your life through the inner power of your being. This creative power is, and always has been, within you. Affirm this magical power of beingness and use your creative abilities with understanding abandon. Honor your self as you move through your life and create your experiences.

Trust in the destiny and the state of grace in the person that you are. Even if you feel lost at times or have difficulties trust and believe in your powerful ability to create lemonade out of your lemons. Trust your inner self. You can't go through life not liking, rejecting or even fearing who you are and expect to grow spiritually and creatively. A life filled with rich color, beauty, energy and fulfillment begins with a very simple and important step. That first step determines which road you travel, what you create, for your life experience. Will you create your most delicious imaginings or will you create struggle and disappointment? If you want experience what you long for, what calls to you as a creative being, then that first step must be one of affirming who you are as an individual, your truth, personal boundaries and passions.

You make your own reality. You choose the colors, the textures and the artistic style that is the canvas of your life. You are constantly dipping your brush into your palate, the colors of which are based on what you believe about yourself, the world, and other people. How you arrange those colors on this metaphorical canvas are also based on these same beliefs. If you don't like the image you are creating, you must change you colors and arrangement. Using the same color arrangements over and over again that create what you don't like over and over again will never produce the creative expression you are reaching for.

Your beliefs follow you and shape your experience. Period. If you believe that you don't have the talent to create anything new and innovative, you won't. If you believe that you have to have money to make money, you'll never make any money if you don't have any right now. If you believe critics who tell you that you just don't have what it takes to make it then you'll never make it. Belief systems, the egoic programming that runs you (or what I lovingly call the Inner Critic) loves to be right. So, it is constantly on the look out for experiences that prove the belief that is holding you back. And where it can't find evidence, it will create the experience in the form of self-sabotage.

If you think that you might be running some of this buggy programming and have affirmed that this Inner Critic holds the power to create your life experience instead of you it is time to debug and disarm the thoughts and beliefs that aren't working for you. Here's a little formula that will help you change the colors of your life experience.

1. Be mindful.

Notice the thoughts and beliefs you hold. Notice that self-talk chatter. Pay special attention to thoughts that limit you in any way.

2. According to Whom?

When you identify a statement that undermines what you want to experience ask, "According to Whom?" Who, specifically, made this statement? "They" is not an answer. If you accept the source, whatever the source may be, as the definitive authority without question then you have turned over your power to that individual or thing. In any area of your life where you have let go of your personal power you will find struggle and dissatisfaction. Period.

3. Is it True? How do I know it's true?

Ask yourself if the belief is true. Do you know, with certainty, that this belief is true? Absolutely?

4. Look for evidence that supports the opposite of this belief.

For example, if you believe that you have to have money to make money look for evidence of people who started out with nothing and amassed fortunes. If you believe that you'll never make it at whatever you aspire to do, look at all the people who have made it. If they can, so can you. The difference between someone who has made it and someone who hasn't is the knowingness and firm belief that they would make it. It's really as simple as that.

5. Create a new belief based on this new evidence.

Based on the new evidence that you have found that proves that the old belief you held isn't absolute and isn't really true. Reframe the belief into one that supports you. For example, lots of artists have become famous, successful and rich. I no longer believe that as an artist, I'll never make any money.

6. Who would you be, what would you have, what would you do without this belief?

Imagine what your life would be like without this belief. How would it be different? How will you feel? What would you be doing? What will you have in your life that you do not have now? You can be, do and have all that you imagine by letting go of the beliefs that are holding you back from that experience.

You can use this formula to examine any area of your life that is not working for you. Explore the beliefs that are creating the experiences that you do not wish to have. Create new beliefs.

What colors will you paint on your canvas of life?

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." - Henry David Thoreau