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This is my blog archive. My new writing lives on Substack.

Prescription to heal a creative share hangover
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

Prescription to heal a creative share hangover

It's unavoidable if you're a person who share your creativity with the world. You share something with certain hopes and those hopes get smashed down. There you are, being all brave and you get no credit for it.

Common symptoms include sharp embarrassment, diffuse pain a little here and there, overwhelming shame, distrust in your creativity, an urge to delete your work, strong longing to hide or run away and sudden lack of self-confidence. 

Let's have a look at the treatment!

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For my birthday, I wish to grow as a creative
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

For my birthday, I wish to grow as a creative

This past weekend, I turned 28. It was a great birthday, with chocolate cake and sunshine. But I still have a wishlist, and it's not the regular one. It's a wishlist for what I want for this 28th year of my life. And the only one who can make my wishes come true - is me.

So here's what I wish for - and what I'm generously giving myself.

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Why we shy away from giving our creations a real chance
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

Why we shy away from giving our creations a real chance

Opening an Etsy shop is one of those things. You know, like starting a blog or sending out a book proposal.

It feels like a milestone. It's a start of something, something that could potentially be big. Or not big at all. It could be significant, or entirely insignificant.

Therein lies the fear.

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Books can change your life (so I'm starting a book club)
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

Books can change your life (so I'm starting a book club)

If it wasn't for one book in particular, I might never have started this blog. 

Maybe I'd eventually started a blog, likely a different blog, but that book gave me the idea of doing a Fear Year. And so, I started to share the adventures of facing my creative fears last year. Which then lead me to understand how much my mindset had been holding me back and what a huge difference some good strategies can have on your creative life.

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The world wants to know who you are
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

The world wants to know who you are

I've not always been myself. I've neglected parts of who I am and hidden my true self from the world. I've feared showing up as I am, because being rejected would hurt so much more if I was truly myself.

When I started this blog, I knew I wanted to be honest.

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What I learned from taking a creative break
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

What I learned from taking a creative break

At first, I didn't want to take a break. I had so many plans, so many dreams, my 2017 laid out in a spreadsheet. I didn't have time for a break. 

But it's when we feel like we don't have time that we need a break the most. 

I tried to ignore the little voice in my head that kept whispering that I needed to stop, to rethink and reconsider, but I couldn't.

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Finding the right idea
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

Finding the right idea

It can be hard, this time of year, if you're searching for "the one".

Everyone else seems so happy, so in love, and your life is suddenly kinda grey in comparison. You dream of bumping into it on the street, chuckling awkwardly and getting a cup of tea together. You look a little bit extra around you, wondering if it's out there... 

Whether you'll also find the idea that is right for you.

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Your goals should help you, not haunt you
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

Your goals should help you, not haunt you

I have a confession.
I didn't follow my own advice.

In fact, I did the complete opposite of what I think is best, and I had no idea I was doing it.

To tell you this story, I need to back up a few weeks and tell you what happened when we went into the new year.

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Attention, this is your creativity speaking!
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

Attention, this is your creativity speaking!

It seems that a burst of self-doubt has adjusted our course. I'm doing everything I can to get us back on track, but I need your support in this. 

If you could stop second-guessing me and let me do my job, that would be very helpful. Can you do that?

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Read this before you break up with your creative project
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

Read this before you break up with your creative project

Your beloved creative project, the one you were so pumped up about, the one you dreamed about, has transformed. Where you once could barely keep your fingers away, you now have to drag yourself. It takes some time for you to accept it, but it's ever so apparent once you do.

You've fallen out of love with your project.

How could this happen? You were so good together. 

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The four steps of beginning a creative project
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

The four steps of beginning a creative project

To begin something, whether it's a creative project or something else, rarely happens in one moment.

Beginning is a process and it's a hard one. There are so many moments when it can end before you get past those first steps. So many thresholds you need to be brave enough to step over.

Let's look at the four steps of beginning, and what we have to do to not get stuck halfway through the start.

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What I learned from one year of facing my creative fears
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

What I learned from one year of facing my creative fears

The idea of facing my creative fears during 2016 came out of the realization that I would never create unless I dealt with the reason I wasn't creating: fear.

When I set out on my Fear Year, I didn't have a list of fears and I didn't plan my year. I trusted that fear would show me the way forward, and it did.

This is what happened, and what I learned from it.

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Take the leap and learn as you go
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

Take the leap and learn as you go

December was a month of opening my art shop and selling something I'd made for the first time. 

It was also a month of wrapping up the year, looking forward and giving myself some much needed rest.

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A collection of moments from 2016
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

A collection of moments from 2016

2016 was my Fear Year, but it was also a year filled with creative moments big and small. I'd like to highlight a few that I especially want to remember.

Both happiness and bravery happens there, in the small moments.

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The fear of selling
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

The fear of selling

To sell is scary. There's the responsibility and the risk of messing up. There's feelings of turning into a one of those super-salesy persons you hate. There's the fear that you're creativity isn't worth paying for.

Let's have a look at the fears that come with selling, all fears I had before I opened my art shop. These are fears turned into objections that can keep you from being able to put your creativity out in the world, if you're not swimming in money and can give it all away.

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Do all the little steps and let go of the rest
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

Do all the little steps and let go of the rest

November was a month of finishing the draft of my novel and really starting to take my art shop from idea to reality, working through all the little details that needed to be in place.

November was a month of launch jitters and struggles with perfectionism, but also a month of big milestones in my creative journey.

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The making of an art shop
Elin Lööw Elin Lööw

The making of an art shop

Opening a little shop on my website has been an act of turning dream into reality.

It's saying yes to a tingling idea, to a longing tugging my heart.
But it's also saying yes to learning to do things I've never done before.

It's giving my dream a chance.

This is what I've learned about the process from idea to reality.

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