Jacob the Artist on Artistic Power

It's so easy to give our artistic power away to oblige our partners or console our families. But if the choices we make rob us of too much of our private time, if they deprive us of our joy or our inner peace or prevent us from expressing our creative gifts, then ultimately they are violations we are perpetrating against our own souls. These violations do not affect just us in negative ways, they affect all those around us. When we don't take care of ourselves because we are trying to make others happy, we build up resentment toward the very people we are trying to please.
The Right Question "Am I standing in my power or am I trying to please another?" allows us to stand in our power and to be clear about our priorities. If I choose to ignore myself when I am in desperate need of my own attention, I will resent those I have deemed more important than me. Even though I might spend the day trying to be happy and pleasant, underneath I will feel angry because I have made a choice that depleted me. This underlying resentment will inevitably come out no matter how hard I try to deny what I feel.
We set ourselves up to lose every time we give away our power and minimize the importance of our own needs. Many people I work with truly believe that they don't matter. They think it's okay to abandon themselves as long as they are making someone else happy. They tell themselves that they are strong enough to withstand the neglect as long as it's in the name of making someone else happy. Or they tell themselves that it's their job to be the sacrificial lamb. This is often what we were taught when we were young, and it sets us up to violate ourselves and play the part of the martyr. Each time we ignore our own needs to please another, we disconnect from our own ability to love and nurture ourselves. Please remember that pleasing another is not the same as caring for another. The important thing to realize is that we can't really care for another if we do not first care for ourselves. By consulting ourselves to see whether the choices we make come from a place of standing in our power or one of needing to please another, we are forced to confront the subtle and not so subtle ways in which we violate ourselves.
This Right Question will support you in reclaiming your power in every aspect of your life. You may feel that you have your power in some areas of your life, but certain people and situations are bound to come along that will temporarily blindside you. It is precisely at those moments that I invite you to remember to breathe deeply, check in with yourself, and ask yourself this important question: Am I standing in my power or am I trying to please another?  From my teacher, Debbie Ford.