A date with intuition: Nurturing our connection to our inner creative voice

Many creatives will tell you their work is 'intuitive.' I believe there is a LOT of intuition involved in the whole creative process and in the decisions I make in business. If you don't feel you have 'good' intuition or your inner voice feels quiet, it may just be in need of some nurturing. We have to spend time with our intuition, practice showing up, and listening to it. How can we develop a better relationship with our inner creative voice?

Every so often, maybe around once a month, I get a burning desire to sit and sketch in a coffee shop. Sometimes though, it’s not a burning desire, sometimes it’s just an internal nudge “hey you should go do this”. Sometimes, I internally groan back “I really don’t feel like it”. Nevertheless, I pretty much always listen and I show up for the date with my inner voice.

For me, this means setting up a 'vibe,' whether at a cafe or at home. Put on some good music, have something to sip on, and grab whatever materials have been calling to you - that intimidating oil pastel, the old marker that used to be your favorite, crayons… Put the materials to paper and start letting ideas flow - whatever comes to mind.

Once you’ve set your space, you’ve done one of the hardest parts: showing up! Now all that’s left to do is dissolve the resistance. Just put the pen to the paper. Allow whatever comes to you to flow, without judgement. Browse through your saved instagram photos, your pinterest, your camera roll. Look around you, is there a cute couple in the corner of the cafe? You can start sketching your mug, your breakfast, or your go-to doodle. Sometimes I start with just scribbling wine bottles and wine glasses. 

When you show up for this voice often, it gets stronger. You begin to know when things feel “right” and when they don’t. You learn to trust your inner knowing as it proves right time and time again. There are many instances of leading with intuition in my personal life, but in my creative journey, it took a long time to free myself up to what I really wanted to do. When we don’t listen to our inner voice, we allow noise to clutter the soul.

I had always identified as an artist, but my art had no identity. I kept searching for my 'thing.' There were so many influences in art school; it was tempting to try to be cooler or to make my work deep and dark. My work wasn’t feeling “right” because I was doing quite the opposite of what my inner voice wanted. I wanted to make fun, cute stuff, work about positive things I wished to celebrate or manifest more of in my life. My inner critic felt like this wasn’t a good or worthy enough pursuit.

I felt like I had finally connected to something that felt very true to me. It was scary to do; I thought it was too simple, boring, basic, pinterest-y. But my inner intuition and my inner child were thrilled! It was so much fun to create and brought me a ton of joy to look at. I had to trust my intuition and ignore the critic.

The "windows views" series and “ Dreaming of a slow life ” all arrived the same way. Just a download that I felt, listened to, wrote it down, and then acted upon. With each of these ideas, there was a split second of “Ooh, really? That one? I don’t know, is it corny? Will people get it? Is that lame?” Build up a resistance to this voice. This is your inner critic and they are a big scaredy-cat. Practice letting go of that feeling and going more with the first instinct, the one that got you excited! Trust that it is a good idea, and that someone will connect with it.

Be sure to act quickly on intuition and don’t allow too much time between when you receive a download and expressing it. Often, you get a great idea, but you wait too long to act. The inner critic gets stronger, “Eh, it’s not that great of an idea. I’m not sure.” Off it goes into the ether until one day you scroll Instagram and think, “Hey! I thought of that,” but you didn’t act. Someone else pulling from the same collective cloud of ideas floating around got it and acted sooner.

The more we practice showing up, listening, and taking action, the stronger our intuition becomes. Our inner voice feels heard, cared for, and fully expressed! So, I invite you to take your intuition on a date this week and spend some quality time! I will set a date with mine too.

I'd love you hear about you first date or maybe the rekindling of an old flame! Comment below or connect on insta.