Knock off the Negativity

Los Angeles can be a tough place for so many reasons, but one of the main reasons for me is that I sometimes get so caught up in what I don’t have, and how incredibly far I am from my dreams that all of the creativity is just sucked right outta me until I’m dry and bitter.  Well heck, that’s no way to live and that’s CERTAINLY no way to be inspired or inspire others.

So how do I maintain my creativity and a positive attitude among all of the struggles?  Like an AA enthusiast…one day at a time.  I find that if I just focus all of my crazy thoughts into something creative for even 10 minutes a day, I don’t lose myself or feel that dreaded sense of uselessness.  Come on, we all feel it.  No artist can say that monster doesn’t rear his nasty little head now and then.  You know, the one that says, “what the hell are you doing?”  Challenging you and making you feel insane for thinking you could really make a living doing what you love. 

But one good way to shut that voice up is to do something that stimulates your humanity and starts the creative juices flowing.  Sometimes a 20 minute walk will do it for me, or reading a chapter in a great book, or calling someone you know is lonely, or writing in a journal, or brainstorming a new script idea, or working on a scene whether I perform it or not.  Anything to get the positive feelings back into my thoughts and the negative ones kicked to the curb.  I admit…some days are easier than others.  The great and sometimes annoying thing is, we control whether we allow ourselves to go to the dark side or whether we pull out our Lightsabers and fight for our positive, creative thoughts.

~PL&C~