Creating When You’re Misunderstood

If you’re human (and, please, don’t tell anyone if you’re an alien — I’m not sure our society is ready yet!) then you’ve experienced the feeling of being misunderstood. Has it happened only once or twice for you or been a lifelong struggle? When people do not understand our creative work, it is so easy to feel misunderstood. Why keep creating if the audience is uncomprehending?

Ask yourself why you want to create. Do you create to respond to something  inside of you? Or do you create to make the work that flows through you in your dreams? Work that is unique or unusual can take awhile to be appreciated. Work can be seen by an audience that doesn’t have the context to resonate with it. There are so many reasons!

Try not to let yourself dwell on those feelings of being misunderstood. Your creation lives, and that is a celebration! And if worry about how your work will be received means you are delaying making the work, keep telling yourself: until you make the work, it is not possible for it to be judged. Keep telling yourself: the work is living inside of me and wants to be given to the world.