I Don't Wanna Dance With Nobody

In the past, I've felt as if being unhappy and depressed was the greatest things that could happen to me. I felt as if I could be more creative and I thought it was a way of attaining a certain percentage of attention. I know this may sound ridiculous, but before you think I'm totally weird, let me explain.

When I was about twelve, I adopted the idea that if I wanted to be a creative person, I had to become a tortured soul and live a life of misery and depression. I truly believed this theory because it seemed like all successful artists had gone through a period of great pain before achieving their best work. An example that comes to my mind for this is Van Gogh. He suffered a lot and yet his art is incredible. That is why I believed that art had to be filled with these deep emotions for it to be good.

What I didn't realize though is that emotions don't have to be dark to be deep. You can be extremely happy and be creative. Being depressed is not the key to creativity. Actually, it was what made me lose my creativity. This feeling of melancholia just made me uninterested in creating anything. I just wanted to stay in my corner and feel like a tortured artist just like Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo and Marilyn Monroe.

Another important thing I realized was that feeling sad takes away a lot of energy. A lot of energy that could be put into valuable creative ideas. Therefore, I believe the key to art is not to force an emotion onto oneself, but to express the ones we feel in the present moment whatever they may be.

Don't Wanna Dance - Mø