{"id":672,"date":"2017-05-11T17:46:46","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T17:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/?p=672"},"modified":"2017-05-11T17:46:46","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T17:46:46","slug":"conversation-with-my-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/?p=672","title":{"rendered":"Conversation with My Dragon"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sure you are aware of your own \u201cinner dragon\u201d voice\u2014that negative, bullying voice that speaks to you sometimes, when you want to take a risk, or when you experience a roadblock or a setback.<\/p>\n

It can even come up when you experience success, when that\u2019s outside your comfort zone.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I was struggling to re-organize and clarify some concepts in my book, The Creative Heroine\u2019s Path<\/i>. I was getting nowhere, and I felt lost and discouraged.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a sample of the \u201cconversation\u201d I had with my inner dragon last night\u2014it\u2019s more like a monologue, because we hear our inner dragons\u2019 voices as our own:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a 2-bit, talentless hack who has nothing worthwhile to say.\u201d (That kind of exaggeration was a clue that I was in the grips of my inner dragon.)<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t do this. I\u2019ll never finish this book. And then everyone will know what a fraud I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mind isn\u2019t good enough. I have too many connected thoughts that lead to nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to let everyone else down. I\u2019m going to let myself down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI should just give up. I want to give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, I decided to reach out.<\/p>\n

I told my husband that I was struggling, and he reminded me not to \u201cabuse\u201d my creativity. (Don\u2019t you love it when others quote your own advice to you\u2014advice that you are clearly not following?) He told me to stop pushing it and let it go until tomorrow. It was good advice, to give myself permission to take a break.<\/p>\n

I also contacted a dear friend, a painter who reminded me that she attended my retreat and my 10-week workshop last year\u2014and she left both of them feeling inspired, with new connections, visions, and artistic endeavors. She asked what I was struggling with, and she offered to meet for coffee, to lend me support.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, you need your \u201cchampions\u201d to remind you that you really are talented and worthy, and that you have something valuable to say.<\/p>\n

So, don\u2019t wallow in the muck with your inner dragon.<\/p>\n

Reach out. And give yourself a break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sure you are aware of your own \u201cinner dragon\u201d voice\u2014that negative, bullying voice that speaks to you sometimes, when you want to take a risk, or when you experience a roadblock or a setback. It can even come up when you experience success, when that\u2019s outside your comfort zone. Yesterday, I was struggling to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inner-critic","category-support","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions\/673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}