Put simply, what if practicing a creative pursuit is worthy because creating-for-the-sake-of-creating helps us to explore our essential humanness? This puts a whole new spin on making stuff without caring what it’s worth to others, which is a revolutionary idea for anybody who has struggled with valuing creativity and self-worth, or suffering with perfectionism and shame.

Practicing curiosity matters because for many of us, there is a powerful cycle between trying to change, hitting a roadblock, falling back on old strategies of avoidance, and resuming stagnation. Getting curious helps break that cycle, because curiosity can be described as the stance of withholding judgment because we haven’t got enough information yet, which gives us a real alternative to falling straight into self-critical conclusions.

Guilt, embarrassment, humiliation, and shame... We typically mix up these words as a catch-all, but the truth is they describe very different feelings.

Welcome to the new-ish year, where we are once again nearing the end of January, and many people are lamenting their well-meaning resolution to do things different this year (which only lasted days or weeks).