palace of possibilities
The concept of the Palace of Possibilities can be the foundation on which you build your mindset on.
In recent months I have been doing some questionnaires and polls with women in the art world, regarding the main issues they face in making decisions, getting work done, finding balance, maintaining relationships, etc.
The number one issue that keeps coming forward is ‘the fear of not being good enough’.
The fear of not being good enough is very real, in the sense that it is on almost every artist's mind. So, it wasn't a surprise to me that it came out high on the different lists.
But is it real? Who will determine if you're good enough and how do you measure yourself? Do you compare yourself to others? Do you let others bring you down? Do you believe in your own abilities?
The fear of not being good enough can stem from core beliefs you have developed about yourself because of your education, your environment, your experiences, opinions of others, etc., and the deeper those beliefs are rooted within you, the harder it will be to overcome them.
The first step to dealing with this is to be aware that you have this fear. As soon as you realize it is there, you can ask yourself the question: is that fear justified? If you find that it is, and you are absolutely sure, the solution can be as simple as you going back to the drawing board, the dancing studio, the stage, the sewing machine or the typewriter (?!) and practice your craft. If you find that it isn't or you just don't know, you can start to try and figure out how this core belief was created, what event(s) sparked it, which other issue is related to it, which situations reinforce the fear, etc., and the following concept can help you make a start.
The Palace of Possibilities is a concept that has been developed by Gary Craig, one of the founders of EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques.
For me this concept represents AWARENESS and HOPE:
“We all live in a Palace of Possibilities. It is an ever expanding structure, filled with awesome rooms that are loaded with achievements and joy. These rooms are open to everyone, although most of us only visit a few of them. It's not that we are barred from any of the rooms. Rather, it's that we choose to dwell only in those rooms within which we are comfortable. Somehow, we don't "belong" in those other, more expansive rooms. They are for others. They are for richer people and more privileged people and people with more talent than us. We stay within the familiar - OUR COMFORT ZONES - and don't venture beyond the walls (limits) of the rooms we have chosen. Why? Because our CANS and CANNOTS are written on those walls and we obey those dictates as though they were real. They are reflected in our careers, our incomes, our relationships, and even our self image. In fact, there is scarcely any part of our makeup that is not affected by what's written on those walls. The words on our walls are metaphors for our self talk, of course. They represent the attitudes, opinions & beliefs that we have accumulated over the years. Many of them are hand-me-downs from other people like: our parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, religion, peers, books, TV and an endless list of other "authorities" in our lives. Upon inspection many of them are laughable. Nonetheless, they still seem to have a hold on our progress. We all have different words on our walls. That's why we appear to have different limits. Your limits are different from mine because the "truths" written on your walls are different from the "truths" written on mine. However, they are not really "truths" at all. They are just the guidelines we have adopted for getting through life … AND … many of them are fictions. They are hand-me-down beliefs that were written on our walls by others and we have been dutifully obeying them ever since. This doesn’t have to be this way.”
Going back to me saying that this concept represents AWARENESS and HOPE for me:
- you have to be aware of the fact that you choose to only enter certain rooms, what is written on the walls of that room, and who has written it. Only if you are aware you can try to enter a new room or, change the writings on the walls that you bother you.
- knowing that there’s an endless number of rooms with endless possibilities and that they are open to anyone, plus the facts that you can change every ‘cannot’ into a ‘can’ fills me with hope.
Find more about the Palace of Possibilities in this document.
Karen 😊