Ever since childhood, I’ve been deeply committed to having my creativity in my life.

As a young woman freshly graduated from art school, I created a fashion and costume business, which was my dream. I was making a living as an artist and designer, and hanging out with artists of all kinds. It was fascinating and fun, and exactly what I’d set out to do.

But I was often invalidated and insecure about myself and my creations, and had the feeling that I wasn’t good enough.

When you give yourself the freedom to be exactly who you are, you have space.

When you allow yourself to take up space without having to explain yourself to anyone else, you have enough room to breathe and to be. You have the right to exist, and you know why you’re here.

You are here to learn who you are. This isn't anyone else's job, only you can do it. You have permission to make your own decisions without waiting for approval from anyone else, when you choose to be yourself.

It’s your spirit that makes it possible for you to stand out, and be uniquely you.

If you thought it was the attention from others that made you stand out and be seen – as in how many fans you have, and how popular you are, you may want to check again. Your popularity in the outside world can be very separate from the truth of who you are, deep within.

There’s no other like you, you are one of a kind – and when you find the courage to be the unique you that you are, you can create your true life.

You are made of energy. Every part of you is energy: body, mind, and spirit.

Your emotions, creativity, abilities, intellect, interests, and all the rest, are energy. There’s energy in everything you do, say, feel, and decide to have. You have a personal style that comes from your unique energy. This is your spirit playing and creating, and it’s one of a kind.

The way you communicate with the world around you has energy. Your creative expression, your personal taste, your relationships with others, your health, finances, you name it – all have energy. Every time you change your energy, you change your life. Change any of your energy, and your life changes too.

You already are one of a kind. All you really need to do to be different, to stand out in a crowd, is to be yourself.

This works even better if you can also love who you are, and own your own self image. ‘But who am I?’ you may well ask yourself, "can I really be myself?".

It’s your job to find this out. Along the way, others will attempt to help you do this, by telling you who they think you are. Most of them don’t really know, because nobody knows you better than you know yourself.

When that day comes, you might feel basically the same as on any other day.

Except you aren’t, something inside is different, and things have shifted for you, forever. You ordered it up, and now it’s here. You’re done with an old picture.

An underlying tone of energy that was inside of you as long as you can remember is suddenly gone. This feels liberating, in a disturbing sort of way.

It’s that time again. You’d think I’d be used to this by now, but I’m still hitting that old familiar resistance.

Big time change is here, again, and though I’m welcoming this one, it’s a bit nerve wracking. I know that if I allow myself to roll with it, it will get easier. Still, part of me is fighting letting go of the old identity I’ve been hauling around.

Trying to achieve or maintain a state of perfection can feel like being locked in a cage – one of your own making.

When you are never enough, or can never give enough, no matter how much you give of yourself, you may be aiming for a widely sought after, popular state of being, known as perfection.

In this fast moving world, it's a challenge to find space in which to have silence.

Silence is so rare nowadays that when a city dweller goes somewhere quiet and rural, what is often noticed first is 'how quiet it is here'.