Play the song again

I remember in the late-90’s my family and I drove from Baton Rouge to Atlanta (~8hr drive) at night while listening to 1 song over and over again. It’s a really niche song you likely won’t know (Choppa Style by Choppa). Doesn’t matter. What matters is that we turned into the Borg for a moment in time and collectively decided that this song would rhythmically motivate us to our destination as we stopped for gas, as we switched drivers, as we fed the kids snacks and watched them dance along in their car seats.

We gave ourselves permission to indulge in that song just because. There was no particular reason. There wasn’t the societal status-quo police popping up in the window to say “well it’s customary to listen to a song only once but with permission to increase listening time to 3 rounds. After that, I’m afraid you must move on so as to not be considered weird, hence revoking 3 sense-of-belonging points from your driver’s license.”

In our little creative worlds of self-expression, we’re allowed to express. To repeat. To experiment. To try and fail. To learn. To integrate. To try again and succeed.

It’s Okay to Repeat

You’re allowed to repeat something over and over again until you experience the feeling of completion. Or fulfillment. People love to say how life is all about the journey and not the destination. In reality so many are actually racing to an imaginary destination. They want to live the dream, get the good job, buy the fancy house and car, and have the perfect kids. Then they can say they finally arrived at the destination.

What About the Journey

But what about the journey? What was sacrificed and still is sacrificed? What happens AFTER you arrive to your destination of material success, for example? You’ll start racing towards another destination.

See, the journey matters. Always did. Always will. What do people wish for on their death beds? More time with people they love. More trust in their intuition. More and better care for their bodies. The journey matters SO MUCH.

The journey is soul expression. You journey through life, body and soul working together or against each other, that companionship or tension being expressed in everything you do and create. And soul expression is just another way of describing how you creatively move through this life.

Repeating as Ritual

And that might be repeating a song over and over that lights up your soul and/or your physical body. It might be buying fresh flowers every week, a lil’ Prince circa Under the Cherry Moon or a 30th viewing of Love Actually or the MAC lipstick that makes you feel fucking good inside and out or the Paris café in the Marais that feels like home.

The repeating here, to be clear, is ritual. Rituals are like little gas station checkpoints along the journey. And deep, intuitive, energy-sensitive creative needs that repetitive ritual for:

• grounding
• creating a sense of belonging that works for them
• feeling safe enough to explore their out-of-the-box ideas
• serving as a thread that connects their actions together towards an end-goal

New isn’t better

In a world where instant gratification is now king, sometimes there’s a bit of internal pressure to do the new thing. To try the new trend. To do it how everyone else seems to be doing it. It must be better if everyone’s doing it, right? And if I’m being honest, this isn’t anything new. It’s a game as old as humanity itself. It’s about playing the game to feel like you belong. Like you can be loved. But it’s all a set up. You’re chasing that imaginary destination where the goal post is always moving so you never actually arrive.

Newness gets old and instant gratification keeps us on the hunt for something new which keeps us eternally dissatisfied and even more disconnected from each other. It keeps you from going deep into your creative thing unlike ritual which keeps you on the path of discovery, connection, and belonging.

What’s more, you weren’t born to belong and do what everyone else is doing. You, oh sensitive creative soul, were born to rock this life like you’re on stage at one of the first Coachellas. It’s not a path for everyone, though, so how do you know you’re the one who’s meant to go against the grain?

Honestly, I’ll have to leave that answer up to you. There’s no list of 5 hacks that’ll get you to understand your creative purpose at a deep and unwavering level. You have to truly connect with the deeper parts of yourself to find out. And that takes time.

That’s why I work with creatives specifically to uncover this over the course of 6 months in my 1:1 service, Creative Understood. It’s a private journey for creatives who are done borrowing other people’s formulas and ready to embody what’s actually theirs. If you’re tired of circling the same questions and feeling the bandwagon pressure, this is the kind of support that helps your own answers finally stick. Head here to apply to work with me. Until then, do that soul-satisfying thing on repeat as much as you need to. It’s your ritualistic portal into your well of creativity.