Hi. I know how you feel. I’m quite a bit older, but not too much wiser. It took me a Master’s degree in education and several years of realizing that I am NOT a teacher, although the kids and parents and administrators loved me. I too have a creative streak. At 25 I was working in the theatre, best job I ever had. I also love to write, sadly, until this June, I had not published anything at all since I was 25. I let life and others guide me and my path.
Chin up. Your current job supports you and you can carve out a small niche for yourself to release your creative tendencies. Maybe go back to school for the arts at night. It won’t be easy. Trust me. I am 48. I just launched my positive psychology blog in April, and I am in school learning to be a life coach. Hopefully I will be certified by the end of November. I am submitting a bunch of my original prose, poems and short fiction all over the place, trying to get my name out there. I’m not only reading again, but reviewing other author’s books on my blog and elsewhere. Before I expire and retire from this earth, I plan to publish an anthology of my poems.
You must learn to face your fears, and go with your gut instinct. Being stuck is never a good place to be, nor is the feeling that we are doing a job in order to survive. There is a difference between surviving and living. You have some hard choices ahead. Believe in yourself, be mindful, and the truth will come.

A dance instructor I had once talked about learning how to accept that were you were, which foot or position you were currently in, was the correct position from which to move from.

Obvious right. I mean it’s not like you can magically shift weight onto the other foot without shifting your weight to the other foot. The only place you can move from is from the position you are in and so that position must be the correct place to be in for whatever comes next.

Yet how many of us get stuck by the thinking that where we are is not the right place to move from. (Even as we move)

You might argue this is a matter of semantics and or form of positive thinking but I don’t think it is.

By accepting the reality that you can only move from where you are and so where you are is the best place from which to move creates space to move more freely.

I know this realization does not help in answering the question of what the next move should be and look like. However when I accepted this truth in my dancing whatever did come next tended to be more graceful. Without the tension I was creating about being in the wrong position the next position flowed as part of the dance and music I chose to dance to.

Have you thought of getting back into one of your creative activates as a form of alchemy/Zen practice?

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Peter.