Artists are sensitive beings who are often not raised in ways to promote our creativity. Most of us have been so conditioned to conformity that we don’t know how to shift gears back into our inner child, our purest state of being. When we wanted to explore as children, we were stuck in a chair that was built for the size of a fetus and with the comfort of a stick. We sat under blinding flourescent bulbs and never learned about the night sky. We were silenced by the screeching of the chalk boards. We were looking for a smile, a laugh, a hug and often gave up on it because we weren’t being fed anything but rubber soyburgers. When we got caught dreaming bigger dreams, we were yelled at and told to listen to the humdrum of today’s lesson. It created a chasm in our spirits. Do not what you wish, do what you’re told.

We must fix that chasm. We must allow ourselves to break the machine, which lies deep inside each and every one of us. We must destroy the programming they worked so hard to create. We must no longer submit. We are computers running software that we must simply remove. We must make our foundation strong again, impermeable to the outside track of other people’s misery. We must heal our pain, so we no longer attract the pain of other’s.

It’s important before we talk about how to fix something that we must fully understand how it became broken. We must measure our success by the means that we got there. We must look within to the damage that was created in the vastness of our souls and repair what has been done. We must fully begin to love ourselves.

We are so conditioned to give our power away and as creative people that can lead to the most terrible of consequences. In the great void, we search for the answer in someone else. We feel separated from source, so we ignite a quest to find a link to god some other way. We all feel alone and scared because life lacks the answers that actually are hidden deep beneath the baggage we cling so tightly to.

We seek mentors and authority in any way we can or we rebel against it. Either way, we seek nothing from our true source within. We must not go to our minds. We must seek in our hearts for its wisdom is greater than any thought we can bear.

There’s a deep danger when we seek outside of ourselves to other people. We put them on a pedestal and they fall and crush our dreams. We deify and glorify them without checking our internal gut. We can’t even check our gut because our fears are clouding its shouts of reason.

Before we surrender to another, we must submit to our own creations. We must realize what we have bought into. We must self explore. We can ask questions and we must, but we must not buy all the answers or we pay heavily. We must cleanse our part and our paths, so we can be very clear. One mans message for himself that healed him, may harm you.

No one can truly take our power unless we grant them permission and full access. No one ever deserves full access to your treasures for they are yours and yours alone. You may share your treasures, but no one should sit where they were born.

One of our world’s favorite actors stated that his greatest key to success was recognizing that he had become a part of the Hollywood machine at a young age. He was 14 and he hadn’t gotten work for over a year and a half. Adorably, to his dismay, he thought his dreams were over. He realized he was tired of being told he had to be “on”. He was going to castings with a copycat smile and hairdo to match. With his silly, artificial grin he’d say in his most mustered upbeat fashion, “Hi. I am GREAATTTTT! I am having such a good day! I looooove Biology.” He realized that he began to almost loathe himself and he knew he became a product of this cookie cutter industry. That’s when he started to rebel and be himself. He said Screw It! He evoked different reactions from different people. Some loved him; some didn’t and assumed he was a punk kid. Now, he’s one of the greatest artists of all time. He learned at a young age to be authentic and to serve no apologies for it.

In life, people have formulas to create success. Major industries, such as film and advertising, do extensive research to determine what works and what doesn’t. They know who to pitch to and how to sell. If you try to act outside of their success principle, they don’t like you. This is what absolutely stifles creativity and expansion. When a genius comes along with a new idea, the big wigs lose their marbles and revolt! It doesn’t fit the formula, we won’t make money! These formula fruckers are writing the prescriptions to promote our addiction to consumerism and forgotten why they are here on Earth. We are here to push the boundaries of our limitations. We are here to push past the formulas to assured success. We are here to go beyond success into limitless potential. We are here to create greatness by doing what has never been done.

They spit out the same romantic story with a different lead, making stars even as dispensable as yesterday’s toilet paper. Many of the young starlets are messing with their faces so much they look almost identical. It’s startling and it gets us nowhere. The tucked old ladies of Beverly Hills are starting to look like the space alien sisters of our newest teen idols.

We have to rise against the desire to belong and conform. We must learn to love our quirks and differences. We must love ourselves so we begin to value and admire those differences in others. This is how we end separation and war. We start at home and we start now. We were born artists so we could weave our own interpretation of life and dreams into the world. To bear our souls and birth our imaginations, not to conform to others ideas of what is beautiful or possible. We were created to create things beyond practicality or belief. We were born to shift the consciousness and to challenge people’s perceptions. We can only do that by being true to our dream and ourselves. We will only do that when we surrender within and no longer seek out. Remember, be authentic and serve no apologies for being you. Then and only then, you will see your art take form and transform the world around you.