024: The artisan's lens: transforming paralysis into creative flow
Introducing reframes that could revolutionise your creativity
There’s a moment, suspended between intention and creation, where everything hangs in the balance.
You’re considering what you want to create and feel the weight of possibility pressing against your chest. The blank page (or canvas) stares back at you, not with invitation but with judgement; not because you lack skill or vision but because the lens through which you view your work is clouded. This lens is obscured by fears, expectations and the residue of your postponed dreams.
What if I said that this paralysis isn’t a problem with your creativity, but a problem of perspective?
We live so often trapped on the other side of the window, looking at our work every day through the same obscured glass. This window bears the fingerprints of what you see as your past failures, making every creative act seem fraught with stakes so high that it feels wiser not to begin at all.
But perspective isn’t a prison sentence, or a bell jar. It’s a choice.
The gallery of alternative views
Imagine for a moment that your creativity is on display in a gallery—and that you’re both curator and visitor.
Each frame that holds your work offers a different way of seeing, an alternative story about what you're creating and why it matters. You’ve spent so long standing in front of the same frame—the one marked ‘This Must Validate My Worth’—that you've forgotten there are other vantage points entirely.
Let’s explore this gallery together.
When we walk over to the far wall, we see the legacy frame. Stand in front of it and look ten years into the future. From this distance, what does your current project look like? The creative work that feels loaded with pressure is different when viewed through the lens of the body of work that, by then, you’ve accumulated.
Through this frame, permission emerges. Not permission to be perfect, but the permission to be present: to show up as you are now, knowing that mastery is a conversation, not a destination.
The playground of possibility
Now turn to the frame of playfulness, where the angle of the light falls differently, casting everything in the warmest light.
Here, your creative work exists in the realm of ‘what if?’ rather than ‘what must be.’ What if this project is just a reason to spend time with materials you love? What if the only success metric is the satisfaction of your own curiosity?
Through this lens, the blocked project transforms into a playground for exploration. The half-finished novel stops being evidence of your inability to commit and becomes a fascinating experiment in how your stories want to unfold. The abandoned painting starts to offer clues about what fascinates you.
In the playground of perspective, failure becomes impossible because every outcome teaches you something about your relationship with creativity itself.
The cathedral of service
Next, make your way to the service frame. In this place, your work is illuminated not by the spotlight of self-scrutiny but by the golden glow of contribution. What if your creative expression existed not to prove your worth but to offer something valuable to the world? What if your unique perspective—the very combination of experiences, insights and vision that makes you hesitate—is exactly what someone else needs?
Through this frame, your creative blocks reveal themselves differently. The fear of judgement transforms into curiosity about connection. The paralysis of perfectionism yields to the urgency of generosity. Your work stops being about you and starts being through you—a vessel for something larger that wants to emerge.
The laboratory of liberation
Our gallery tour ends at the experiment frame, where the impossible becomes the inevitable.
What if failure is impossible? What if every creative choice you make leads to something valuable, regardless of the outcome?
In this frame, your hesitation to share work dissolves because every response becomes research, fuelled by curiosity. Your tendency to abandon projects mid-stream transforms into discernment: a deep understanding of when to pivot and when to persist. Your fear of not being ready becomes excitement about what you might discover in the process of becoming.
The choice that changes everything
Standing in this gallery of perspectives, you begin to understand that your creative paralysis hasn’t been about a lack of talent, time or opportunity. It’s been about forgetting you had choices. That the way you frame your creative work determines not only how you feel about it but how successfully you can complete and share it.
The perspective you choose becomes the reality you create. The frame you select determines the story your creative practice tells, not just to the world, but to yourself.
Your creative work is waiting, not for you to become someone different but for you to choose a different way of seeing what you're already capable of creating. The canvas hasn't changed, but the light falling across it can.
Which frame calls to you? Which perspective could transform your relationship with your creative expression from a burden into a gift, from threat into opportunity?
Choose one. And notice how the simple act of shifting your lens begins to dissolve the paralysis that has kept your truest work waiting in the wings.
Love, Rachel
Community inspiration
Given this week’s metaphor of creativity as a gallery, it’s fitting that I choose to shine the spotlight on Sara Riccardi—an art historian and art history communicator, who creates public events that aim to share art and art history with the broadest range of people.
Sara is a member of our Creative Courage Circle. She’s the founder of Art Across, which brings to life the history of art and has at is mission the belief that art should be for everyone. She’s also a PhD candidate in the School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University, in which she explores the possibilities of what art communication can look like.
Sara’s talks and education events—both in person and online—are rich journeys into the world of visual art. They’re a real process of creative discovery, both for her and her audience. I recommend you check them out!
On Thursday 24 July (6.30pm UK/ 1.30pm Eastern USA), Sara will be my guest in our Stories of Creative Courage series. Tune in to find out more about Sara and the distinctive expression of her creativity and how she encourages the creativity of others.
Creative inspiration
Reinforce your sense of choice, and broaden your perspective, by trying these simple exercises:
Choose your own frame
Each morning as you contemplate your day—and what you want to create—spend two minutes identifying which frame you're currently viewing your work through. Ask yourself: “am I looking through the window of 'This Must Validate My Worth' or am I choosing an alternative frame?”
Just identifying your current perspective gives you the power to consciously choose one that serves your creativity better.
The ‘future self gallery walk’
Write a letter from your creative self ten years from now, looking back at your current project. What would that future you say about the work you're hesitating to start or share today? How does it fit into the larger body of work you've created by then? This exercise activates the ‘legacy frame’ and can help reduce the pressure of a single piece needing to define your worth.
Memorable quote of the week
There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.
—Aldous Huxley, English writer and philosopher.
What’s next in your creative journey?
As your guide into creative courage, I'm here to help you transform those invisible blocks—the fear and shame that live beneath the surface—so you can express authentically and freely.
Here's how I can support you:
Make an appointment for a virtual coffee (free). I hold 3-4 slots every month for a 20-minute chat so we can either get to know each other, or reconnect. This is for everyone! Perfect if you’re curious about meeting new people and making, or deepening, connections.
Book a 30-minute Creative Breakthrough call (free) to gently uncover the exact fear or limiting belief sabotaging your creative expression so you can finally share your work with confidence
Read my manifesto for creative courage (free). Follow my story in serial form about the core principles of my creativity, my journey into creative courage and why I founded Wordplay Coaching.
Creative Courage Circle: an ongoing intimate group for deep creative healing and mutual witnessing, so you can express authentically without feeling alone on your creative path. Please contact me to explore this option.
Bespoke 1:1 Creative Transformation journey based on the principle of finding your Essence process. This entails 6 months of personalised integration work to embrace your hidden aspects and create from your complete authentic power.
This is such a brilliant blog Rachel! I’m thinking a lot about Creative blocks and openings and these different perspectives are wonderful.