Freeing ourselves from rules and made-up limitations

What an absolute eye opener when you start to see the rules that were once invisible to you steadily unravel.

My creative jewellery business has been a huge part of my life since my early 20s and I have built some interesting views around my work and about myself over those years! And without question we all unknowingly let these views trickle into day-to-day life. Lately, I’ve been reflecting and quietly noticing rules and regulations that had crept in from past experiences, acquired views and presumptions. I’m learning to free myself of it all (and perhaps now’s the time for you too).

I had found myself in a tedious place. I’d go round in circles unable to move forward with ideas. Trapped. Procrastinating. I’d made up rules about types of materials I could or couldn't use together/ cost of materials / my niche / what people may or may not like/ want from me, the list goes on…And steadily over the last few years an annoying drip of self-doubt and irritation started to flow into each day.  Thanks to the internet and a bombard of ‘suggested’ social media posts, I had relentlessly been told in various ways that the business side of my creative business was by far the most important part, the only part that mattered. I had a jewellery collection at the time that took off and was doing exceptionally well, the business side of the collection’s success took over, I was giving it my all without time for creative space. 

It felt like I was almost drowning at times with constant information being thrown at me, not knowing which to implement first, which to ignore. The noise from a culture of hustle had well and truly seeped in. A confident, established award-winning jewellery designer & maker started to not feel as inspired and as a result not as confident as she used to…

Once I started to notice the noise, I also started to view things differently and began to remove myself from it.

The one thing missing from this relentless information? The part that has soul, the part that fuels it all - the reason why I chose this path as a career: passion, enjoyment, creative freedom! With so many rules and so much ‘fear’ based content and advise where does creative flare, designing, exploring, experiments and fun (heaven forbid) fit in?! If there are so many rules and so-called musts, surely my creative business is no longer creative at all - just a business without meaning or substance.

I’ve had to trust and believe in my own instinct again over time, look back through what I’ve achieved and know and I understand now that the reason why I have been running a successful business for nearly 18 years, is the same reason why I have customers who have bought from me time and time again and it’s also the same reason that I've had the opportunity to write multiple tutorials for crafting publications (which is often something I seem to forget!) - I have always known deep down what I am doing, who I am and what inspires me. The peace and gentleness that brings is what it is all about.

There’s a welcome slowness. I can let go and begin fully indulging in the creative process without fear of judgement or of something going wrong. Go back to being myself, an excitable and enthusiastic designer & crafts person again.

I think at the core this is where my jewellery collections stem from, it's more about reflecting a feeling, having that trust and inner belief in yourself, letting your true self-shine, quietly and without the need to be loud, perhaps this is the soft inner confidence we’re all secretly searching for?