If you have a passion for the arts and for creativity, then you’ll likely know how difficult it can be to find your voice and your own inner light. So often we begin because we’re inspired by someone or influenced by something, and this initial experience can frame everything we contribute. From these early days which are half for fun and half completely serious, we choose our path and build on the things we know. On one hand, this comes to us for free, the creative energy and the mental frameworks for inventiveness flow like water. The desire is there and it’s within reach. But there is also a cost. A creative path can be a long series of trials that balance out the reward. When we mean business and want to take ourselves seriously as adults with a genuine place in the world, making our creative side compatible with the world so our story makes sense requires a lot of deep inner work as well as personal training.  

 

The most obvious thing we all have to go through is the process of getting extremely good at your skills. When we enter the marketplace, our skills must reach a threshold that far exceeds the average. We are expected to be in the top 5 or 10% to even consider ourselves something as a professional. I once played football with a lower league reserve player. You’d be forgiven for thinking that at that level, the difference wouldn’t be too much. You’d be wrong. Their football skills were far better than anything I’d ever experienced. To become this good, there must be a lengthy process of practice and learning. Imagine you’ve been great at something for years and your reputation is well known, in general circles. Now you must be a beginner again. Being open to this kind of training, when you already sum yourself up as pretty good, takes a dose of humility and an acceptance that good doesn’t mean brilliant. Getting over yourself and building your skills to a level that surpass the norm, without being complacent, means some deep inner work for most of us. This costs us in not only time but in emotional security, temporarily.  

 

Once the process is well under way and you can begin the work of a creative person, you will start to explore the inner world of intangible experience and bring it into the outer world through colour, sound, shape, aroma, taste, texture, and any other form of sense experience. Reflecting the inner world that’s often complex and independent from our external social structures means we need to filter all the elements we find tied in that we decide are not what we want to express. Manifesting the inner world of our imagination and our desire to spread messages means we will experience both shadow and light as we discover what lays within our own psyche. When we work in good conscience and a sense of responsibility, working through this and unpicking the golden thread from the rotten is humbling work. This is us we are exploring and our own flaws and biases we are ironing out. A lot of people find this incredibly difficult.  

A lot of common pitfalls in the arts are emotional. Being great at a skill to a level that’s rare and unique, like painting or writing, baking, or building, can mean we become so confident that we assume everyone respects us, likes us, and wants our honest opinion. We can forget that our words and actions have real implications in other people’s lives. Confidence can turn to arrogance which can express as narcissism. Soon, we’re throwing hurtful words around and walking around where we’re not invited, completely oblivious to the harm and distress we’re causing. I think we’ve all met people like that and at some point, as children we probably went through this phase, too. We’re great, aren’t we? Everyone loves me. My emotional and judgemental responses are part of that thing people love. It’s not true. Even if you’re brilliant at something or a lot of things, your personality is still something you control and should be brilliant at too. It’s great to respect yourself for what you’ve achieved and learned, remember that other people just get the face and trousers. The story is yours.  

 

When we have strong feelings about ourselves or others, either good or bad, these can put down motorways of reference that we can’t help but drive down. Ultimately, strong emotions can limit what we create, how we think, and what can be done with what we have. As well as delivering a sense of passion and drive that we require to be effective, when the sensation is negative and the thoughts hurtful to self or someone else, our ability to positively affect the world with our skills is drastically reduced. Cortisol and adrenaline just get in the way of our free-flowing idea machine when they have a miserable backdrop. This means that we end up having to do a lot of inner work to unroot all the negative and hurtful, creativity killing reactions that go on in our mind and biochemistry. It’s not like we can afford a therapist every time, so most of us just make do with the Copilot or some YouTube self-help channel.   

 

On the flipped side of this emotional pitfall is the effect of it happening to others by proxy. If you are particularly good at something, being connected to you can be a source of self-congratulation and personal one-upping that can make people behave differently around you. Relationships can be strained when your perceived aura causes others to act out of character to meet you at where they perceive you. All the while, you’re where you always have been, waiting to be seen for who you really are. This, too, can be difficult to handle and means we have a lot of inner work to do so we can meet this new challenge of having aloof or waspish people around you who think they’re doing the right thing.  A calm insistence on the truth without an argumentative tone is the only real way to deal with the self and others, when personal biases and assumptions begin to take the lead.  

 

The world is full of biases that we’ve been exposed to since we were small. A creative life is not immune from this. In fact, it is seriously affected by the general social image that the arts occupy in the civic imagination. The value of a thing and the worth of a thing are typically rated by revenue. For an artist, the worth and value are often rated by response, effect, and inspiration. This gives a sense that artists are wealthy or from a class that has ready money. Most of the arts do not pay well enough to make a living and they require becoming compatible with the side of the world that has money to hand. Prejudices and biases can be a real problem when communicating your passion and occupation, being fast to assume vanity, or not very good, or never going to make it, can become huge obstructions to progress. It can also be hurtful as statements like that imply deep personal flaws or inadequacy. Rather than exclaiming how dare you, which is what some might want to, just smile and move on. It’s not your job to wake every sleeping princess and every frog prince.  To combat the general impression that the arts are a waste of time and for people with lots of money, it’s important that you work hard to make your art pay as much as it can. That is if you want to do it as an occupation. Show that it’s a real way of life that works for you and lots of other people, too.  

 

It’s easy to say, difficult to do. Getting hard value from our arts is no easy task. Many an artist have gone mad or given up entirely because their lifetime of sacrifice and effort remains unrewarded on the outside. Ascribing our value according to the perceptions of others is only natural and to work through this, again takes a lot of inner work. Having the stomach to accept your reality of having little to show for mountains of work and effort without complaining is how we find the strength to build on our skills and rediscover our inventiveness. The ghosts of self-loathing and self-doubt can haunt us even in the daytime as complaints and accusations build up against a backdrop of silence and being passed by. Finding the inner strength to be solid and to have enough assertiveness with your emotions to dismiss those thoughts as unhelpful is a necessary lesson and if you’ve not done it before, takes a lot of practice.  

 

Creative people express a level of neurodiversity that means others often misunderstand or judge them for behaving or thinking in novel or unusual ways. Harmless differences are normal however with creative people, their capacity to be inventive means that differences might manifest more often. This can cause social issues in that others are not sure how to respond. Non-creative people or people who rely on set piece social dynamics will struggle to interact because they don’t want to misunderstand or be misunderstood. The opposite can also happen where we draw attention to ourselves as different and therefore a target for personal attack. Some people get a reward for hurting others and creative people often must be able to handle this more than usual.  

 

As our identity and our occupation blur at the edges, an artist can find this even more challenging. The act of delivering aspects of yourself and your imagination to the world as a daily routine means the difference between your life and your work can become hard to distinguish. Putting down a boundary is vital however the passion and drive doesn’t disappear just because you’ve changed the scenario. Thinking about and sometimes worrying about the work side of things is a constant issue that requires mental discipline to establish firm borders. The other aspect of having life, self, and work aligned in such a way is that any rejections we receive have the deep hurt related to personal rejection. It’s a part of our character that is being turned down, and when the people turning it down are close to you then it can be quite painful. There needs to be an inner process of learning to take rejection and accept being turned down by people you respect and like without being personally affected. This is why the boundary between work and life is so important. The narrative that focuses on your occupation and your rewarding work needs to take a back seat otherwise it risks being contradicted regularly. Save it for when you need a boost. 

 

Being true to yourself and expressing genuine inner realities into some kind of creative output and process means accepting the journey. It is humbling at first, as we uncover the gloomy aspects of ourselves and the limitations of our skills. What we find and what we lack are the things that define our work and it’s on both sides of our awareness. Getting our ideas to a point that becomes accessible and compatible with the world at large takes a real effort to work through improvements inside and out. We end up losing elements of ourselves to the process of growing up and learning new psychological mechanisms that bring out the side of us we need and rely on. Becoming the artist who can be independent and fully immersed in their trade means letting go of some of our more childish and imaginary aspects in favour of the hard, cold, and realistic. Creative people have vivid imaginations and often find themselves swamped in narrative that can’t be applied to the real world and original work.  

 

We might have uniforms or costumes, stage names, and manufactured personas, but when we express our creative skill in the world, we are exposing a part of ourselves that makes us vulnerable and open. To truly serve by bringing out our own inner truths and perspectives, our unique creative ideas, the pathway from mind to the world must be clear. By putting up blocks and twists and turns the thoughts get caught up, mistranslated, and contaminated with whatever else is going on. Through the medium of your art, the reality of your inner world is brought into the outer world by keeping the doorway clear. Finding this skill means learning to straighten the mind and quieten the thoughts so that the outward expression is given the space to thrive. It is hard and as we examine the narrative we allow, it often becomes clear that it’s biased and full of emotive inconsistency. Cutting it out is how we purify our creativity and make it as effective as possible.  

 

As you discover the kinds of things that present in your own thinking that do not align with your conscience and the ideal you want to reach for, others will mirror their own shadows in the face of your light. As a creative person, your new and interesting ideas are like reg flags to some people who insist on conformity and sameness. They can be haughty and judgemental, hurtful and demeaning, when you attempt to deviate from the norm in even the smallest way. Finding it in yourself to be confident and secure even when people who you may respect undermine your foundations, the confidence in your direction must be deeper than their shovels. Appreciating that people can be wrong about you and have their own defence mechanisms when made uncomfortable, it becomes easier to understand when you feel personally slighted by words.  

 

It is your responsibility to accept the truth about who you are and what your passions are. As we delve into our own inner world, there will be thoughts and feelings that come forward that do not represent who we are, hurts and traumas, funny biases, cruel ones, things that keep us safe from looking at ourselves in painful ways, and these all come apart like the skin of an onion. The soul of the individual is different, you owe it to yourself to complete who you are by working on your attributes, being honest about your passion and talents, and working to serve the world with what you’re given. This service mentality helps us to stay grounded when we hit rock bottom and the heights of success. We lose some of the pleasure of creating, the childish fun no longer serves us. The playful element gets in the way. Creating for the real world means we make real world experience that not only appeals to others but offers us a sense of artistic reward. As we build our character to become the people we need to be to make a success of it, we lose parts of ourselves that no longer serve us and that stand in the way of our progress. Other people might identify these parts of us with who we really are and they may not like the new version of us. We need to remember that this is for us and our family, not for people who like the younger version of you.    

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Standing out from the crowd is counter to our subconscious program. We are a prey animal as well as a hunter, so human beings have evolved to be safe and to stay part of the group. So, when we do something unusual or something that makes us stand out, we immediately become a target for would-be predators who need a target to focus on. In large groups, people are uninteresting and hard to reach. When you identify one person who has a good idea, that desire to be heard can be used and abused. This is a genuine reality, and many of us prefer to keep our heads down and carry on with what ever is given to us. Lack of confidence to fend off the predators can be a creativity killing sensation. We usually identify it as pride, shame, nerves, or some other common affliction. It can be whittled down to fear, in the end.
 
It's not just standing out from the crowd that makes creativity dangerous. There are many other problems that arise from this direction of thought. It all begins in the chaos of the unknown. To be creative or artistic is to push back the boundary of chaos and replace it with sensation, ration, likeness, and order. Painting a picture or writing a story takes elements of the infinite human experience and makes them solid and tangible, something everyone can relate to. Exploring this unknown darkness is courageous because we open our minds to the depths of our own imagination. A spiral of thought can carry us up, down, or away, with ideas linking in with symbolical meanings and loose translations that fit the emotional background.
 
Not everyone is able to create something useful or applicable from this depth of the unknown. It requires a confidence to continue and an instinct for the right direction when there are no maps or streetlights to help. Like an unchallenged landscape, the natural state of the chaotic and unordered human imagination is a huge story of choices and morality. The sense of being alive and enthralled with a story can be pulled like string from the swirling silo of personal inspiration. The art we create shows us the possible realities of mind and the metaphorical stories that connect and divide us. Manifesting a genuine piece of the world from a poignant or abstract idea that only previously existed in the mind is a huge challenge.
 
Like science, art and creativity make the world more tolerable and enjoyable, safer, and more fulfilling. Unlike science, in which the order of the world is used to make something useful, the arts take the chaos of the world to make something useful. In the sciences, it’s imperative that instructions are followed, and method remain identical throughout the entire regime. This is counter productive to creativity, in which subtle and major changes take place as the uniform behaviour. To apply scientific thinking to the art of creativity, the focus can be shifted from the individual to their process and habits. In this way, artists are often dehumanised and utilised for their textbook worth rather than celebrated as human beings who did something amazing. To be creative means to accept one’s fate to be objectified by many.
 
Although it’s possible to teach creativity by means of psychology, methods, history, sociology, and so on, the mental background for a creative person is something natural in them and cannot be replicated in others. Some of us have next to no creative ability and some of us have an excess of it. Creativity can be nurtured like a seed, but we cannot plant the seed. It’s a factor of genetics and early years nurture. Non creative people often do not want to be creative so it’s not necessarily an issue. It does become an issue when non creative people treat themselves as the standard and try to stifle differences in others. It’s important to encourage daydreaming and imaginative play during childhood so as they grow the adult can access the power of their inventiveness. 

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​Creativity is all about realising our desires. We want a result, we have some tools, and we use what we have to create the situation we were looking for. It’s a sign of creative intelligence to be able to do this, and many animals have the ability too. The process of telling a story via a series of processes that result in something new is not innate to humans, although complex syntax and abstract thought seems to be so, for now. The ability to achieve a favourable circumstance from what is available and within the rules takes the mind of a creative person unless a clear path is already laid out. Someone else’s creativity might be the answer, or else you’ll need to think of your own. Standing out from the crowd with an unusual solution can bring on new problems that we didn’t envisage or plan for.
 
When society or nature presents a problem that has no immediate solution for the group or the individual, a creative approach is necessary. Entire generations can go by without an effort to work through certain problems we face, however when artists begin to make these problems part of our regular language and imagination, society begins to tackle the issues. It requires the work of many people to tackle life’s big problems, but the problem of one person can often be addressed by that one person alone. A creative approach will help us to design a new and successful method that can be applied again. Before we have the approach, one must be invented.
 
This is where we separate the true inventive and creative people from those who just like to stand around in colourful clothes, making predictable statements. A creative and inventive individual will thrive in an environment where problems need solving and experience must be gained. An exhibitionist will want the attention even when there is a problem to solve, and the attention needs to be elsewhere. A sense of vanity and the desire to be recognised as a cut above the rest is not what people pay for when they buy art. They want something that works for them, not the artist. It can be difficult to bring yourself away from the wrong crowd, especially if social capital is at risk. To be able to work successfully on something new and inventive, we need to be free from the wrong kind of influence.
 
The marketplace is the theatre of successful creativity. Even if it’s a play, someone must buy it, invest in it, put their time into producing it, and then putting on a show. They’re not just buying the play; they’re buying weeks or months of dedication and work. To be successful as an artist or an inventive problem solver, we need to be able to demonstrate that what we offer really is worth the time, energy, and effort involved in applying it. Let’s say it’s a book, reading a book takes time, it puts images and ideas in the mind that were not there before. Is this a good idea? Is it worth money? These are the questions that the marketplace asks. Creative and new things are risky, because there is little evidence as to their value as an investment.
 
This is where standing out from the crowd is necessary, and the further out we go, the more likely we are to be noticed. Being noticed is a risk because we invite positive and negative interaction from the world at large, criminals, crazy people, buyers, superfans, the whole world. Again, the further away from the normal we go, the less likely that others will have a mental map of what we are for or what we do. To be able to recognise something as valuable or interesting takes an imagination unless it’s been previously stated. People with small imaginations find it very difficult to determine if something novel is a good or a bad idea. Some of us are completely blind to creativity and have no inner method of relating things that we do not already recognise. We need to be told exactly what something is and what it is for. When marketing creativity, it’s important to keep all these things in mind.
 
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Sanity is often used as a relative term. We define something as sane when it conforms to the various standards that we expect from something in its situation. The problem with creativity, then, is that to change the normal into something different, we run the risk of being judged as insane or just plain old crazy. The perceptions of the masses are usually the only difference between sanity and creativity, with the imaginations of those around us being the judge and final decision maker. If they can’t think of a way something is useful to them, or interesting in any way, then the result is often a bad reception. 

A creative genius is someone who uses their creative intelligence to improve the lives of those around them in a substantial way. This could be scientific or artistic with both venues offering great audiences who eagerly await the new and novel idea. When we use our creativity to change something in a way that makes a difference, we run a genuine risk of making things worse. This is the line between insanity and creative genius, where the result really matters on how we are remembered. 

The reason creative people are tolerated in society when the risks are apparent is that creative process is the way human society progresses. The act of making little changes to a process or design is akin to evolution making little changes to genetics through cross-pollination and mutation. The cross-pollination and mutation of human thoughts are the driving force of creative change. This form of reverse entropy is a reflection of life’s very own principle of maintaining a chemical imbalance in order to carry out necessary functions that exceed the energy required for homeostasis. The overflow of human energy is then used to produce a variety of changes and adaptations that will be tested according to their worth and their immediate surroundings. 

It has been shown, especially in art, that a profound madness can become a funnel for astounding creativity. The paintings and poetry of the mad are popular now and have been for generations, with crazy ideas and insane perspectives and interpretations taking the lead over our usual humdrum and bourgeoise thoughts. Richard Dadd, Edvard Munch, Vincent Van Gogh, Louis Wain, and many more artists are well-known for episodes of insanity. Even science figures like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein are known for having problematic mental health. Genius and madness are often linked. In order to have a ground-breaking idea that shifts the rules of how we go about our lives, we need to have an element of creativity that most others do not.

Madness and creativity have a link in the phenomenon of apophenia. This is a type of psychosis that results in seeing patterns and hallucinating because of seemingly unrelated causes. A creative mind will naturally draw correlations between loosely connected principles in a sometimes playful or sometimes observant manner. This can become a form of madness when the patterns and imaginations become irrational and counter to the everyday functioning of life. It can result in the subconscious mind becoming closer to conscious thought, with dreams and non-sensical images making their way into the rational consciousness, affecting the way we feel and think. Prone to suggestion and control, people who suffer from serious apophenia can be a risk to others and themselves. It has been shown that apophenia can also be a precursor to psychosis and schizophrenia. 

​The positive side of this kind of mental process is the ability to unify concepts and principles into accurate and rational sets. By showing how one thing relates to another in a way that doesn’t follow the traditional route of thinking, creative people are able to draw correlations between subjects that are often seen as different. For instance, Isaac Newton was able to determine that an apple falling from a tree and other such everyday things like this are related to the movements of the Earth around the Sun. He even proved it. Amazing, right?
 
To achieve theories that utilise several seemingly unrelated factors requires the ability to hold multiple perspectives at once, sometimes ignoring conflicting ideas that each one traditionally holds. It is in the letting go of the conflicting ideas and finding another way of thinking about something that allows the pattern to be completed. By bypassing the known facts to prove them insufficient we can be seen as insane, by the way we deny what can be shown to be seemingly apparent. The apparency of a thing is often related to the way we think about it rather than the thing itself. It is in the shifting of perspective that new things become clear and old ideas look outdated.
 
Creative people are inherently rule breakers. They look to see what can be changed and they work to show it can be done. A sense of challenge and reward can be a driving force in breaking through given boundaries, obeying a gut instinct that something is possible rather than listening to the social consensus is what makes creative people pursue their ideas. When we break rules as a habit, we can often appear to be either insane or completely unsuitable for anything. The madness of not following instruction and thinking to cut corners or find new avenues is counter-productive to most processes in the modern word. It's important to be able to maintain an element of conformity when it matters, even if the creative mind is continually offering advice.
 
The frame of mind that looks for creative solutions is not always available. It is heavily determined by the mood. Because creativity is linked to the dopamine reward system, the individual’s mood can be a limiting or driving factor in their ability to be inventive. The problem solving and correct result forming reward that the mind receives during creative action is related to the idea of novelty and repetition. Both factors work together in a feedback mechanism to build on one another. This process of novelty and repetition gives rise to new concepts and practice at the same time which results in brand new creative ideas and skills.  
 
People with an active limbic system are often prone to mood swings and uncontrollable emotional lives. Although possible to manage this backdrop to life, the limbic system seems to have a mind of its own and paints the perceptions a variety of colours depending on how it is operating. This part of the middle brain is related to subconscious thought and is the source of most of our emotional response. This means that creative people are exposed to the sways of up and down emotions, especially if the reward system is active at the same time. To be rejected as a creative person can lead to a big down sensation and to be accepted can lead to a dramatic up sensation, both of which are detrimental to the next level of productivity.
 
This means that creative people need to maintain a healthy sense of distance from their work and the rest of their lives, especially when in the thralls of public acceptance or rejection. When the whole spirit is entwined in the outcome of a body of work that’s taken emotion and intellect, and a diagnosis of madness is given, it’s vital to keep this apart from the normal everyday things. If the opinion goes the other way, then it’s also important to not let the high of acceptance bring about a sense of entitlement or superiority. You may have noticed this is not easy for many highly successful artists and intellectuals.
 
But not all creative people are mad or are even prone to appearing so. Many of us are quite capable of getting on in the world and feeling fine about doing so. It’s not creativity on its own that leads to susceptibility to mental health issues. There is a triangle of influences at work that results in memorable characters and ground-breaking works. The combination of a creative mind, the ability to see and pursue new perspectives, an unusually high IQ, to be able to see and understand concepts that most others are unable to, and a predetermined element of psychoticism, work together to create personalities that excel not only in inventiveness but in being remembered. 

Creativity is about finding new ways to look at things and then acting on them according to the novel thinking. Metaphors and flow-charts can be created that guide us through processes and progress, images and stories can be created to apply knowledge across universal circles. Courage is about action, moving through the anxiety and fear by stating your ideas, acting on them, and speaking up when needed. We solve problems by being creative and the right solutions take account of the whole situation. The way forward is directed by the reality of the entire situation and the limitations that it applies. A goal can be in any direction provided it lubricates healthy society and culture. Resistances and frictions are the opportunities for creative input and novel ways of taking responsibility.
 
It takes courage to be able to look at the whole situation and not just the situation from your perspective. Other people will have their own versions of the story and their own ideas about what the end results should look like. The behaviours and systems that result in the situation will be rooted in a dynamic and shifting consensus that always needs to be addressed. It may feel like our views are the ones that are important because of the way we think about them however society is a complex system of many people who each have their own direct reasoning with an equally as vibrant passion for their experience.
 
Because of the possible conflicts of interest and ideal, it’s important to be confident and know your intrinsic worth. Being spoken over and dismissed is a possibility and you need to be prepared to address this calmly and confidently. A creative solution may require new methods of communication and expression that speaks to others in ways they recognise and can respect. The same works for us, too. We may conflict with the interests and ideals of others and be a source of friction and resistance. Understanding the reasoning for their ideas can be difficult if we’re passionate about their antithesis. Because society involves the fluid working of diverse groups, it’s best to look for the logic and ration in their argument and then using that to make your point sound more valid. We need to address the light of it and not the shadow of it as its hardly ever our intention to cast the shadow even though it’s inevitable.  
 
Everyone is a human being with a distinctive history and set of mental pictures that define the way they behave and the things they aspire towards. We all have our own pain points that cause us distress and we have reward senses that help us achieve personal success. These things vary from person to person and community to community. Because we don’t necessarily think and feel in the same way it can be difficult for us to get the idea someone is trying to portray. This means we must be available to humanise situations and accept the rich tapestry on offer rather than tick a box or simply deny relevance. If it’s relevant to them then it’s relevant to the bigger situation they are a part of in equal measure. It can be brave to let go of our predispositions and allow ourselves to validate another person’s point of view.
 
The grey areas are where the definition between what is right, or legal, and what is wrong, or illegal. Right things are affirmative for the culture of the situation and legal things are universal fail-safes. What is legal may not necessarily be right for you or your situation, so these areas become grey in that there is no clear guidance. We need to make space for these grey areas and confront them with our positive attitude towards growth. Each of us has a line drawn that defines what is acceptable and what is not, the combination of these lines needs to manage to stay parallel with the majority without overcrossing the minority and cutting them out. In social dynamics, no lines can be drawn but methods and language are necessary areas of creative collaboration.

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​We are all unique, not one of us can be completely likened to another. Another person is another story, another background, and another vibrant patchwork of experience that shapes who they are. If we speak up for ourselves and our perspective, we’re usually not acting as a spokesperson for our demographic, but as our own voice. When a person has a view, it’s their view. It’s not the view of their skin colour, their sexual preference, or their age. When we get used to the idea that there are no inherent patterns we can stereotype then although the workload increases exponentially, the validity and reach of what we do will be a lot more precise and a lot less confrontational or abrasive.
 
It is often human nature to make guesses and assumptions based on what we know from seemingly similar situations. Sometimes this will happen to you and your experience and input can be side-lined in favour of a textbook version. We all know how hurtful this can be, when our senses are overwritten by others because they would rather believe in an intangible archetype, or their own personal experience based on a completely different story. If you’re watching the Matrix and you see the same cat you know they’ve changed something but if you’re watching Tom and Jerry, you know it’s something to do with the mouse. Seeing the same cat twice has many meanings, and the things in real life are just as diverse in their meanings. We need to have the courage to listen and validate everyone’s own experience of meaning and symbolism as these things directly affect the way we feel and our ability to work together.
 
When we work together towards a common goal of progress and peace, conflict resolution and easier living methods, those in our group are our allies. They’re not mirror images of ourselves. In national politics, allies don’t get involved in the internal affairs of their counterparts. The laws and systems that go on within each allied nation are their own business and only soft pressure is applied across borders. People are like this, too. We are allied with those around us who work towards a common goal. We’re not charged with governing them but with helping them create a joint vision and action plan that considers their unique style and ethos.
 
 It takes courage to work alongside unique individuals towards a common goal. At first, we know nothing about each other and nothing about what each other want to achieve. This is frightening to accept as not knowing is a source of real anxiety. Having the courage to start at the beginning and assess exactly what needs to be done from the start via a setting that comes from a different backstory requires time and patience. It might be easy to assume that we want the same things as other people and other cultures because we feel strongly about it. We imagine the other people sharing those feelings. Feelings are based on experience and history as much as right and wrong so it’s not possible to fully know what someone else will perceive when given new ideas. We get the job done better when we have the courage you start at the very beginning and accept not knowing.
 
When designing future process and output, whether it is artistic or not, it’s important to speak your true voice. In the same way we must humanise others and accept their experiences verbatim, the same can be said for yourself. It might be easier to lean back on common examples and well-known statements that point at your situation but when we find our own words and describe our experience and desires for ourselves, we can uncover unique and particular elements that so far have been in the blind-spot. Stating our own needs and moving towards them via the existing framework is sometimes a challenge. The world was designed by others with their own individual needs so aligning the various systems at play to achieve your own goals challenges the experience others may want to rely on.  
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​Toxic safety is where we settle for something that is unhelpful or contrary to our goals and objectives but provides stability and security. We can be working for a company that doesn’t listen to your needs or has a culture of aggressive motivation that can cause stress and depression if you’re not suited to it. The opposite may be true in which your organisation relies on self-guided and mature objectives and open concise communication where you would prefer a more hierarchical and assertive style to work with. The organisations and the cooperative groupings we work within are not always the best place for us, it requires a lot of courage to break from this and go out in search of the better option. Knowing our virtues and demonstrating them at each given opportunity will result in a compatibility with those who are likeminded. Standing up for what you believe in, and vocalising concerns, is frightening for most of us.
 
Courage is about bring brave and working through the sense of fear and anxiety. It require a stable and grounded mindset with enough time to address fleeting sensations that stand in the way. We need a slow and steady walk towards the objective with a guided and open-minded approach. Unifying the whole to produce a clear vision and direction everyone can agree on requires putting the information in place and giving people the opportunity to address it from their own perspective. Being able to play our part and then sit back while the community takes in our input and responds in their own time means letting go of the immediate desire to move forward. We need to remove the blinkers and see things from the bigger picture. This can be frightening as suddenly the scope of our purpose is extended by a large degree however the opportunities and available directions mean this mindset provides the best chance of growth. Creativity uses the ingredients available and makes something that is viable to all viewpoints, either as an address to an issue or a solution to one. We need both if we are going to solve our problems and discovering them on a holistic scale means taking a selfless and impersonal systemic approach as well as listening to ourselves and taking our own experience seriously. You need two eyes open, one to look outside and one to look within.

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