Abandon creative guilt, ye who enter here.

Creatives love to play. Writers, musicians, artists – whatever.

We fall in love with words, melodies, colours – whatever your art – for the pure joy of making something through that artistic medium. I’m in love with words and music.

Somewhere along the way, we grow up, get more responsibilities and usually become more responsible, and put art on the back burner as playtime. Something we do for fun. When work’s done.

And when we get caught up in the day-to-day routine of work or school, we can forget to make time to play.

When we don’t make time to play we can lose our creative passion.

Kick your creative guilt to the curb. Don’t listen to it. Forget the guilt. You owe yourself time for your art. We appreciate how good we think a song is because someone – or a whole team of people – put time and effort into writing that song. We appreciate that epic novel because someone put time and effort into crafting every phrase. We appreciate that beautiful painting because someone spent time and effort painting every stroke.

Art deserves to be nurtured.

And then, you have a few minutes to yourself to write, play piano, whatever – and you might have a feeling. A little voice in your head telling you, “No, you’re not being productive right now.”

Here’s five ways to abandon creative guilt.

1. Forget about guilt. Guilt is judgment. And creativity is healing. Ignore the guilt.
2. Give yourself a few minutes of free writing time. Or playing time. Or painting time. Let yourself have a few minutes to create for the joy of creating.
3. Budget your time. If you’ve got an hour, or half-an-hour, or even fifteen minutes, force yourself to focus. No distractions. Set a timer if you have to. This time for creation.
4. CREATE! Sweat the feelings onto the page. Pound your fingers into the piano. Channel your energy into the brush.
5. Repeat. If you want results, you need to repeat the routine.

Creation can seem like a dream from another dimension.

But is it really worth your full attention?

Yes. Always. Bring your art back to love. And give yourself that time to create. And when you’ve got that time, lose yourself in the creative moment.