creativity | Liz Cirelli

Daydream Believers Podcast hosted by Liz Cirelli

Am I good enough?

30/07/2017 by LizCirelli

art, blog, creation, creativity, daydream believers, determination, focus, guidance, insecurity, Liz Cirelli, mentorship, podcast, realisation, success, truth

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Big dreams, big visions. Most, if not all of us, have them. But why do seemingly so few of us see these dreams come true?

There are of course myriad reasons as to why, but for this post, I’m going to focus on the concept of being ‘good enough’.

A lot of us get stuck on our projects because we either want what we deliver to be as good as it can be, or we don’t consider ourselves to be good enough to put ourselves out there.

Of course, we all need to deliver material that is going to be pleasurable for our audience to receive, but we must not let ourselves get tripped up by this concept of everything having to be perfect.

Perfectionism is in itself a form of egoism – but I’ll be talking more about that in a few weeks!

So many times I’ve not taken action on something because I haven’t found the perfect way of delivering it, or I’ve felt that I wasn’t good enough to do it just yet. For example, I stopped singing for 10 years because I thought my voice sounded horrible and that I couldn’t sing properly. It’s taken me that long to gain the confidence to start singing again.

In thinking along these lines, I decided to really tap into the main reasons that we feel, or act like we are not good enough to pursue, or become involved in some activity that vitally interests us.

Lets look at some of what I believe to be, the most relevant reasons that we do not feel good enough to pursue our passions.

We have been through most of our lives being told by others that we must follow a certain ritual, or believe in certain ways before we will be socially acceptable to others.
We have listened to others who are critical of us in ways that are not conducive to our growth or progression. This type of criticism is usually delivered to us to deliberately stop us in our tracks. If we listen to this pessimistic view, we allow it to have authority over us – and inevitably it holds us back in pursuing our goals and passions. Don’t get me wrong – good constructive criticism – the type that helps you become better at what you do – is vital, but non-constructive criticism that is meant for no other reason than to put you down, should be discarded immediately!
We have not bought into ourselves fully and completely. We have been told that we were good by others, but deep down inside, we just do not believe that it could be true about us.
Throughout our entire lives we have handed over our personal responsibilities to some type of authority who has dominion over us. This causes major conflict within ourselves, as we think we know what is best for us, but the authorities inside our being are always telling us this is not the case.
We are not listening to our inner voice. Our inner voice, the essence of who we are in the physical world, is , or should be, our perfect guide and counsellor. Too often, we do not listen, nor respond to what that inner voice is telling us. Therefore, the conflict begins.

These are a few reasons to think about in the coming days, weeks and months. We can, and should always be, the captain of our souls, and the masters of our own fate.

How did I get over my feelings of not being good enough? By continuously and tirelessly working as hard as I can at my art – and by reaching out for support.

I now work with an incredible music production mentor, Gary Gray – who not only identifies and destroys the lies that are holding me back, but also offers me incredible tuition to help me grow and develop my skills as a music maker. I do my singing practice every single day, and I spend countless hours in the studio – learning, experimenting – and doing so with patience, perseverance and with pure, pure passion.

The more familiar we become with our art, the longer we spend honing and nurturing our craft, the more our confidence grows. And as our confidence grows, so the feelings of not being good enough dwindle.

It is time for us to realise our full potentials, and begin to listen to ourselves for a change, and never to the outside forces that choose to hinder our progress!

These posts exist to provide you with the knowledge, inspiration and motivation needed to pursue your dreams. If you’d like to have your say on what topics get covered AND have your questions answered by me and/or our expert guests, simply join our community on Patreon. We really look forward to welcoming you to the family!

The true nature of creativity

02/07/2017 by LizCirelli

Blog, Podcast

blog, creativity, daydream believers, ego, Liz Cirelli, passion, podcast, truth

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I’d like to talk about where our creativity comes from. I’m a spiritual person, so relate to the world in spiritual terms.

I believe our creativity is a gift to us from the Divine and that we’re all creative. But for some, their conditioning and resulting thought patterns have become so dense that they have totally lost touch with their inherent creative nature.

We were created – so it makes sense that we have the ability to create inherent within us. We can create physically, in that we can create new life. We can also create energetically and mentally – our thoughts are our creations. We create our reality by way of the thoughts we chose to entertain. We are all creators.

So – our ability to be creative is a gift from the Divine. It expresses itself through our creativity – and in doing so, rejoices. Simultaneously, in allowing the Divine to express itself through us, we are also giving it glory – and if we were all doing that, imagine how magical this world would be…the Divine intelligence that creates us, does after all, only want the best for us 🙂

But…just as the Divine rejoices in us expressing our creative gifts, so there is an opposing force doing its best to prevent us from expressing these gifts. It does this in different ways: it tries to convince us that we’re not creative at all, it paralyses us with fear – and it also corrupts our dreams and turns them into ego-based desires. This force wants to keep us trapped and disempowered – because it needs our energy in order to survive. Yes, vampires do exist – just perhaps not in the way they have been presented to us by Hollywood.

When I began looking at things this way, it changed everything for me. It made me more determined than ever to follow the call of my heart – to live out my role on this tiny pale blue dot we call Earth.

I’ll be talking about the fear thing in next week’s broadcast, but for this week, I wanted to hone-in on mistaking dreams that come from a place of pure passion, with desires that come from a place of ego.

The former is what we should all be concentrating on manifesting – this is what will enrich our lives and the lives of others. Some refer to it as a ‘life-purpose’. The latter must be recognised for what it is – a grasping for recognition because we are unable to fully appreciate ourselves. We are not here to manifest fast cars or fat bank accounts – if they result as a by-product of you pursuing your dream from a place of pure passion, great – but then remember it is your duty to be philanthropic with your blessings and use them to help others.

Music has always been my passion, but it used to be a very ego-driven thing. I wanted fame and fortune, but I didn’t want to work for it – and I got very angry and resentful when I didn’t get what I wanted.

I also used to very much follow ‘the path of least resistance’ theory, whereby if things seem a struggle, one should interpret it wasn’t meant to be. However, herein lies a dichotomy because we do need to work hard to turn our dreams into a reality.

It has been a struggle for me to follow my dream of doing music full time. I often felt like I was dragging a huge boulder up a never-ending hill and a lot of the time I questioned whether this was in fact ‘what I should be doing’ – because it was such a struggle.

But once I was able to drop the desires of the ego and follow my dream from a place of pure passion, magic started to happen. I started to work hard. Really hard. And willingly – joyfully even. The more I persisted, the more confident I became – not just creatively, but also as a human being. I felt more complete – I felt more of my true essence coming through – and with each step forward I took, doors opened.

I felt less fear. Not just surrounding my creativity, but generally. Long-standing health issues faded away and life began to take on an entirely new energy and feel.

So – if you feel called to do something, but it feels like a struggle to do it – my advice to you would be to go ahead and do it. Sacrifice whatever you need to in order to fulfil that desire, because the fulfilment of that desire will not only heal you on a physical level, but will also bring you amounts of happiness that are almost inconceivable.

In doing so, you are also sending out a tiny ripple of positive energy into the world and universe.

Our dreams were put inside us by a higher intelligence that knows what is best for all of us. It is our duty and our responsibility to follow our dreams, no matter how challenging the journey may be. And it is imperative that we do it from a place of pure passion.

Me and my creativity

11/06/2017 by LizCirelli

Blog

blog, creativity, dreams, fear, Liz Cirelli, music, overcome, struggles

Music. Even when I see that word, or hear it – or speak it, it sends shivers up my spine. Music is my air, my water – my sunshine. It always has been. And yet it’s taken me decades to pluck up the courage to pursue my life-long dream of doing music full time.

I’ve wrestled – repeatedly struggling with fear. The usual suspects: fear of financial lack, fear of judgement and of course our good old buddy, fear of failure. These fears were all compounded by doubt – a lack of confidence in myself, a doubt as to whether or not I was ‘good enough’ or ‘capable’.

My passion for music is unquestionable, but for a very long time ego-based desires shrouded that passion in a craving for fame and fortune, making my motives selfish and ego-driven.

This suited me just fine whilst I was living the life of a relatively unconscious human being. I was selfish – and was for the most part, quite happy to manipulate people so I got what I wanted. And I was good at it. But, what goes around comes around – and life eventually served me a well-deserved slice of humble pie.

I started taking my previously neglected spiritual life a little more seriously and began seeking the truth. In doing so I added a considerable amount of discord into my desire to pursue a career in music.

My quest for truth inevitably lead to me unravelling my own story – and as I began the search for who I really was, I began to face some hard truths about myself.

I started to feel that pursuing a career in music was selfish – that I should be doing something more worthy. Something that would help others, rather than satisfy my own selfish wants. Of course I felt this – I had developed enough awareness by now to make the painful realisation that my desires to pursue a career in music had been selfish. Yes my passion for music was real and pure, but my motives had been totally driven by my ego.

For a while I put music on the back-burner. I pursued a life as a yoga teacher and massage therapist because I thought they were good, wholesome things to do. I promised myself I’d do the music in my spare time, but the reality was it got neglected. I loved teaching yoga and giving massages, but there was sadness in my heart.

I couldn’t put my finger on what was causing this sadness though. I didn’t make the connection back then that it was because I was neglecting my passion. Then in September 2015, my heart spoke to me so loudly I realised in an instant what was causing it to be sad. It was like lightening running through me. I HAD to do music.

I realised that music has always been my life-long love. I also realised that my biggest fear was the fear of dying not having achieved my life’s purpose. In that moment, all fear and doubt paled into insignificance, and I made a promise to myself to give music everything I had.

Since then I’ve been focussing on music and only music. I’m working super hard at it. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever worked this hard in my life! I’ve achieved a lot in the last 18 months, but I’ve lost count of the times I felt like giving up over that period.

For the first year money came in in fits and spurts, so of course my fear of financial lack was doing its best to make me do an about-turn. No. I had done enough work on myself by now to not allow my fears to rule me, so onwards I strode.

There is no doubt about this: I couldn’t be doing what I’m doing now had it not been for the amazing support network I have around me. Family, friends – they have all been – and will continue to be – the wind beneath my wings throughout this journey. And faith. Faith has been my cornerstone. Without it I probably would have given up.

In fact, in a serendipitous turn of events, providence sent me Gary Gray – my incredible music production mentor. Having him to guide and support me – and to hold me accountable has been like wind to wild fire. Gary, I know you’ll be reading this – so thank you so much!

Sure, I still have moments when the doubt tries to make a return. I still have moments when I can feel the fear trying to figure out a way to creep back in. Yes, the wrestle is there – but when we wrestle there has to eventually be a winner.

Getting to know how the forces of doubt and fear operate within my mind – and learning how to circumnavigate them has been so freeing for me. It’s what finally gave me the clarity and courage to listen to my heart.

Being honest with myself about my ego-based desires was equally freeing. By acknowledging them, I was then able to chose to let them go. Letting go of them then allowed my pure passion for music to shine through, which then enabled me to follow my dream of doing music full time, knowing there was nothing selfish in it. It is simply what I was born to do.

Our darker tendencies do not disappear but rather, through the careful cultivation of awareness, we slowly come to realise that we are able to make a choice. We can chose to not be ruled by ego: fear, doubt, frustration, despair, selfishness – or rage. We can choose to follow our true passions – our dreams – what we were born to do.

Having the faith that the right doors would open for me when the time was right gave me the strength to keep going when I felt like giving up. When you are pursuing something from a place of pure passion without any of the darkness of ego-based desires attached, magic does happen! The power of your focus makes it so.

Add into that equation commitment, determination, humility, resilience and perseverance and you become practically unstoppable. The only difference after all, between those who make it and those who don’t is this: those who make it never give up.

I hope this inspires you to go out there and follow the call of your dreams.

Thank you so much for coming here and taking the time out to have a read. If you’d like to get early access to all my blog posts, musical output – and get access to my coaching community, please join my Patreon page by clicking here. It’s where all the action is happening! You can sign up quickly and easily and as a patron, you’ll receive some really lovely rewards. Big love, Liz.

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