by Martha Alderson
The daily sacrifices made by our essential workers inspire you to want to express your support. The members of the Black and Brown communities standing up for justice generate in you the desire to raise your voice. Watching the evening political news, you feel on every level of your being that the status quo no longer works. Today, more than ever, you’re eager to tell your fearless truth and speak up, speak out, and shout back. But … silenced by fear, you don’t. You worry about retribution. Scared of ridicule. Frightened of violence, pain, repercussions, being viewed negatively, not fitting in, the unknown.
The Pandemic & Current Unrest Are Attempting to Wake Us Up
When we hold back from telling our fearless truth, we live a life of regret. Keep quiet, and our lives become small. Give into fear, and we relinquish our power. Sit back, say and do nothing, and let others take action, we’re part of the problem. Being apathetic serves no one, especially not you. We have a moral obligation to speak up and be heard. To live a successful life, we’re asked to own our truth.
Momentous Time
Free your voice, your pen, your paintbrush, and your actions to better the world. Every form of expression is valuable. Discover what is true for you and courage will follow. When you make your focus not about you but on a cause you’re passionate about championing, defending, advocating for – the options are endless – you lose your fear. Now is the time to face your fear, and tell your truth regardless of the consequences. Our words have the power to change the world.
Offensive vs Defensive
When you’re ready to add your voice to the hash tags trending on Twitter, write an op-ed, share your opinion on social media, don’t simply focus on what is wrong. Blaming others is easy. Life doesn’t always have to be one group against another. I’m right and you are wrong.
War is offensive and defensive. You go on the offensive against someone, and you’re immediately asking for a defensive reaction. We’re never heard when one party is defending itself against someone else. Our commitment to relationships means we don’t separate and divide but connect and bring together.
Solutions Not Blame
Move beyond blame to solutions. What we need now is creative thinking, innovation, new ideas, improvement, advancement, and originality. Focus on what you want to see come alive at a fundamental level. Then, rather than speak out against something, instead state, write, paint, and stand firm for what you want and believe in.
Transformation
I’m not saying any of this is easy. Yet, challenges offer us the opportunity to further our spiritual and emotional development. The only way we grow and change is not when we keep quiet and do what everyone is doing but when we stretch and dare ourselves to confront our fears. Doing what brings up dread, uncertainty, and doubt leads to transformation. And … proves to you just how brave and tenacious and powerful you really are. We get what we want when we tell our fearless truth. The key is to start, and then not to give up.
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Beginning at the intersection of creativity and spiritual wellbeing, Boundless Creativity: A Spiritual Workbook for Overcoming Self-Doubt, Emotional Traps, and Other Creative Blocks views obstacles and challenges and lessons as created specifically for each individual person to advance meaningful growth. The spiritual purpose of creating is to challenge you to express yourself with no doubt or fear, which I’ve been able to do with my historical novel Parallel Lives A Love Story (coming August 28, 2020). We all ache to be seen and heard for our true selves. I wrote Boundless Creativity as a journal-guide toward creative expression and inner confidence and peace.
MARTHA ALDERSON, MA is known as the Plot Whisperer for her best-selling The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master. She writes novels for readers, plot books for writers, and most recently Boundless Creativity: A Spiritual Workbook for Overcoming Self-Doubt, Emotional Traps, and Other Creative Blocks for anyone looking to enrich their lives with more creativity and inspiration. Her other books are Writing Blockbuster Plots and Writing Deep Scenes (with Jordan Rosenfeld), The Plot Whisperer Workbook, The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts, as well as several ebooks. Her latest novel PARALLEL LIVES A 60’s Love Story is now available for pre-sale. She lives and writes in Santa Cruz. Marthaalderson.com