Vitamin We #7: Loving Your Mirrors

Never Delete a Piece of Art

(2202 words)

Hello hello!

Happy June! 🥰

It’s getting way warmer in the Northern Hemisphere; here in sunny Hong Kong, we are constantly battling with “to air-con or not to air-con” at 34ºC with 75% relative humidity 🫠. And no, ice-creams or cold drinks actually do more harm than good according to TCM, but I’ll spare you with my unprofessional advice for now.

How’s life with you? Are you feeling more inspired to create as ideas are floating more playfully in the air with plants, birds, insects, and humans getting more lively?

This week, we are exploring a creative process that we’ve all been through - questioning “Is my work good enough?”

And since what we create are extensions of who we are, like a mirror🪞, then if our work is not good enough, then does that mean we, the creators, are not good enough?! (I’m sure this sounds VERY familiar)

🤔

Wait, what if, self-pity is actually a subtle form of pride?

What if, when we begin loving the Work-In-Progress of who we are right now (vs the future perfect self) and appreciating all that the universe has been conspiring to support us in becoming who we are today, we’ll start feeling better about ourselves?

“There is no failure, only feedback.”

Let’s keep creating 💪

- Ponny, Editor
together with Kelly, Pol & Deva @Women's entrance

Kelly’s ColorLab

A finishing line is human-made. Life is a cycle - look at nature 🌼🌳🍓🌕🌾🌬️

Feminine Feed

» Reflecting on personal traits, expressions, and energy dynamics that are less celebrated in our world today, but essential for our inner balance regardless of gender, and for us to build a peaceful world for future generations.

Compassion: In Merriam-Webster.com.

» Sympathetic consciousness of other's distress together with a desire to alleviate it

Kid’s definition:
» sorrow or pity caused by the suffering or misfortune of another

The word compassion itself derives from Latin and means "to suffer together.”

Compassion for others means to feel the pain as if we were them with a desire to help relieve that pain.

For people who have been through a lot in life, or for HSPs who are naturally more attuned to other people’s emotions, they can develop compassion for others quite naturally because they understand.

They have lived that life.

How about having compassion for OURSELVES?

Self-compassion requires us to do unto ourselves as we would have done unto others (yes, that’s a mirror version of the bible quote).

Like, would you say this mean thing to a friend? If not, why would you beat yourself up with such harsh, judgemental words?

So friends, speak to ourselves with kindness more often.

Listen to our thoughts and emotions without judgment.

Show respect when we talk to and about ourselves.

Accept us for who we are TODAY.

Story #2 below from Fia illustrates vividly how it plays out!

Feature Stories
»This is where we feature personal stories from creative souls every week! Feel called to contribute one?

Story #1: “My styles are a mirror of who I am”

By Emil G Music - 🇨🇦 Canadian Composer, Visual Artist, and Dreamer.

Dreamer by Emil

Music & Art are my way of projecting my dreams into reality.

My styles are a mirror of who I am, and who I would like to be.

My process always takes me on a journey.

I never know where I’ll end up.

I work on taking the emotion and feeling from my art and composing music to continue telling the story.

My art and music are inseparable.

There are always so many stories to tell as my art and music are an ever-evolving canvas.”

» Isn’t it true for every creative at heart? What we create, are our souls seeking expressions. We loooove multidisciplinary creatives a lot, so thank you Emil, for sharing your story, art, and music with us!

🎻🎹 Talking about music - Pol & Kelly added the sky of Barcelona 🌆 to Emil’s music and created this Instagram REEL:

Do you like it? Give us a follow on IG!

Story #2: “Never delete a piece of art” 

By Fia Lagerdahl - Botanical photographer with a focus on the otherworldly and small aspects of our nature.

Never delete a photograph, for one day you will have developed the skill needed to create what you envisioned.

Fia Lagerdahl

You are not good enough.

We’ve all heard those words for some time. See them in a comment section, or read them on our friends’ Twitter feeds. To have them directed at you instils the worst feeling in the world.

But some of us tell ourselves that too.

For years I saved images that I had visions for but never could quite edit them to show them. I struggled with lighting, didn’t get the colours right, and couldn’t make them pop. I saw what content other people put out and tried to hold myself to the same standard, operating under the belief that if I didn’t add something new, it wasn’t worth the space it took.

Eventually, I developed a mantra:

Never delete a photograph (this can be applied to digital/painted art as well), for one day you will have developed the skill needed to create what you envisioned.

But this mantra doesn’t help when you sit there, staring at your failed attempt, when the thoughts come crashing down; so what do you do then?

Take a deep breath and close your eyes. Think of all the bad thoughts that your mind tells you. How it’s ugly and not good enough. Then imagine yourself telling your best friend the same about their art.

You wouldn’t do that.

Instead, take a moment to reset before you regard your work. Try to find the good in what you have made so far, or look for what made you take the shot in the first place. Something to be proud of, no matter how small, before you put the image away for the night.

Many times our failures towards ourselves and our visions for a project come from a lack of experience and knowledge to work out what we want to make, and that is fine. This is something I often see among other artists that they berate themselves for their lack of knowledge.

Do not look down on yourself for that! We all learn and explore our creativity at different speeds, and there is no shame in meeting the limits of your current capacity. This is also why you should keep the progression you made on an image and put it aside for later.

Some of my shots have waited years to see the light of day, while others arrive on my desk the same day I take them. Some old ones will make it on there tomorrow, and some will wait forever. So try to save what you fail at and learn to look back at it as you progress, and try to regard your old work with fresh eyes on occasion. Take pride in how far you’ve come.

Here you will find one of my images that had to wait for nearly three years before I found what I wanted to do with them. Sure, I could take better shots now, given the opportunity, and I see the flaws in my execution at the time. But that doesn’t stop me from doing now what I couldn’t do then.

I encourage you to try it. Dig out your rejected old works and your not-quite-good-enoughs, and try your hand at them with the new skills you have learned since.

And take a moment to praise yourself as you would praise a friend.”

» Thank you, Fia, for such vulnerable sharing of your internal dialogue! It’s so true that sometimes the meanest comments come from our own inner saboteurs 😥

We love your suggestions of never deleting a piece of art! And for astrology lovers here, ☿️ Mercury Retrogrades, which happen 3-4 times every year, is the perfect timing to slow down, revisit our older work in the archive, ruminate on them, change our minds and explore new possibilities. The next one will be in late August 2023, so before that, just keep chasing our idea rabbits!

Calling for Stories - Fathers:

Does becoming a father inspire you in any way to embark on your creative journey? How did your dad influence you on your creativity? Submit your stories here!

Highlights & Happenings at We:

🌟 ICYMI: Deva & Kelly were having an inspiring and bubbly Twitter Space last Fri with our beloved Latina artist, Laura Santiago, Mexican graphic designer, illustrator & @notsodeadnft’s founder, on her creative leap of faith: 🎧

Don’t Miss Out 👀 

[Workshop] Productivity Hacks for Creatives -
Flow ♾️ Pomodoro Method

💪 Come co-work with us!

Date: 6th Jun (Coming Tue)
Time: 16:00 CEST / 10:00 EDT / 22:00 HKT

What to expect: 
Pol will be sharing his new-found method that merges FLOW principles and Pomodoro technique that boosts creative productivity!

There’ll also be a 20 to 25-min co-work session for us to experiment with it together - so please bring along a small task with you!!!

Wise Words from Book Mentors

» Book mentors = Powerful books that are almost as valuable as having a mentor IRL for your personal & professional growth

Okay, I’ll admit - This column that started off as my public accountability to finish reading one book per week is getting a bit heavy, so I’ve decided to pick shorter books for the coming summertime, which is more of an extroverted season. Win-win, right 😉?

Like this one:

It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be

by Paul Arden

(The above is an affiliate link that will generate a commission for Women's entrance, which we will reinvest in the community!)

As a kid, I was always fascinated by smart advertisements and commercials - I mean, how can these genius people package a boring product like shampoo into such creation of art with punchy messages, visual impact, jingles, storytelling, emotional arousal, and persuasion, and squeeze them all into a limited airtime or magazine real estate?

The author, Paul Arden (1940–2008), was a prolific advertising professional who spent 18 years in advertising and then found his Alma Mater in Saatchi & Saatchi in 1977, where he worked for 15 years.

3 Key Takeaways -

Idea #1 Your Ambition, Not Mere Ability Nor Talent, Is The #1 Key To Success:

He started the book with these sentences in big, bold text:

Nearly all rich and powerful people are not notably talented, educated, charming or good-looking.

The become rich and powerful by wanting to be rich and powerful.

Your vision of where or who you want to be is the greatest asset you have.

Without having a goal is difficult to score.

Then he continued, “Why do we strive for excellence when mediocrity is required?” 

In 2023, we can validate that there is a much bigger demand for mediocrity. That’s why we have AI’s mass adoption from writing to graphics to video and music creation because AI’s work is “good enough” 👻

His argument was, imagine a world if we could produce whatever we felt like with no restrictions; with the inborn nature of all creative people, we’ll rebel against these boring excellence - and will have the urge to make things bad, ugly, stupid or look cheap just to be NOT dull 😜.

Well, this explains a lot of what we see in the art & NFT scene - e.g., Why would people put ETH into a wallet that says “you get nothing”? 😅

P.S. This paragraph also brings déjà vu since many new-age spiritual concepts describe exactly this - It’s too boring to be able to create whatever we can think of instantly because all possibilities already exist; that’s why the “higher consciousness” creates the human body (physical matter), time and space as the limitations, so the “game of life” can be more challenging, thus fun to be experienced 👀 

Idea #2 Do Not Cover Your Ideas:

If Paul Arden was still alive, he would definitely love web3 :)

The problem with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually you’ll become stale.

Give away everything you know, and more will come back to you.

Ideas are open knowledge. Don’t claim ownership.

They are not your ideas anyway, they are out there floating by on the ether. You just have to put yourself in a frame of mind to pick them up.

Idea #3 When You Get Stuck, Draw With A Different Pen:

Different strokes for different folks.

Do you realize your handwriting looks different when you are using new stationery? It’s because you are probably holding the pen with a different muscle alignment.

The same is true for our creative muscles!

Finally, a bonus one:

Creativity is imagination, and imagination is for EVERYONE!

I’m not sure which age group you identify with, but I’m sure this pie chart stirs some thoughts!

Let’s stop the overthinking & obsessiveness about feeling “not good enough” - everybody does that - and it’s too boring!

We creatives can do so much better than that 😘

Thanks for reading this far - NOW GO PLAY!

Cheers,

- Ponny 👋 

P.S. If you have a minute, would you mind sharing with us how we can improve Vitamin We? Is it too long? too short? too whatever? Have a request? Simply hit “REPLY” and write us a sentence or two. Your voice matters. Thank you! 🙏