What is the relationship between the criticism you receive and the criticism you inflict on yourself? Why do so many people inflict daily doses of self-criticism upon themselves in neurotic ways, that is, in ways that are patently unjustified, unhealthy and self-sabotaging? To what extent does a penchant for self-criticism turn uneventful episodes of minor criticism into toxic, wounding events?

In order for you to live an authentic, meaningful life, which is the principal remedy for the depression creative people experience, you must feel that 1) the plan of your life is meaningful, 2) the work you do is meaningful, and 3) the way your spend your time is meaningful. These are three separate but related tasks, each with its own logic, demands, and obstacles.

The first key to handling criticism is the existential key. Until you decide that your path in life matters, that it is ultimately your responsibility to live by your cherished principles, and that you and only you can create a life worth living, you will have insufficient motivation to put criticism in its place.

In this series, adapted from my book Toxic Criticism, we examine the ways that criticism and self-criticism interfere with our ability to find our life purpose and live as strongly, passionately, and effectively as we would like to live.

Most of us would be quick to say that we are free to think just about anything and to express ourselves in any way we see fit. In reality, artists do a lot of measuring, somewhere just out of conscious awareness, about what is safe or seemly to reveal and what is unsafe or unseemly.

Interview by Janet Grace Riehl -
Eric Maisel: Even before you can make meaning, you must nominate yourself as the meaning-maker in your own life and fashion a central connection with yourself, one that is more aware, active, and purposeful than the connection most people fashion with themselves.

The goal of a creative mindfulness practice—the kind of practice that you really want—is not only the nonjudgmental observation of your thoughts but complete right thinking that leads to authenticity, creativity, and mental health.

Info on a series of podcasts on the Personal Life Media page "The Joy of Living Creatively: Tapping Your Innovation and Imagination."

An interview by Douglas Eby. In the Introduction to his book The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person's Path Through Depression, Eric Maisel, PhD writes: "Creators have trouble maintaining meaning. Creating is one of the ways, and often the most important way, that she manages to make life feel meaningful. Not creating is depressing because she is not making meaning when she is not creating." In this interview, he addresses some questions about topics in the book.

Book: Many creative people experience depression, because they are regularly confronted by doubts about the meaningfulness of their efforts. Theirs is a kind of depression that may need more than pharmaceutical treatment. Eric Maisel teaches creative people how to handle these recurrent crises of meaning and how to successfully manage the anxieties of the creative process.