Your Creative Envy is trying to help you.
(and you’re just ignoring it)
I was mapping out 2026, and something occurred to me: People say they want to be authentic so badly, but don’t often think that staying true to yourself will only work if you actually know what’s important to you. This takes experience. Time. Exposure. And that’s getting harder when everyone (especially in creative circles) is constantly telling you what to like, what to watch, what to listen to, who to be. Sometimes you think you want something, but actually you’re just trying to be liked.
And this is where Creative Envy comes in.
But let’s frame what Envy is before you start feeling uneasy and closing this Newsletter. And if this already feels triggering or uncomfortable, that’s normal. We’re conditioned to treat envy as a flaw instead of an emotional data. So we neutralize it, hide it, or dismiss it. But discomfort is trying to tell you that something in you is waking up.
Envy is an emotion that exposes an unmet desire. It arises when you see someone embodying or achieving something you want for yourself. Its function is to clarify your own aspirations. In the creative context, a GPS disguised as discomfort.
Even though social media suggests a thousand things a day, envy only moves what belongs to you. If we had to summarize: the algorithm shows you options; envy shows you your truth.
Most people treat envy like something shameful, but it’s actually one of the most honest signals in your creative life. That sting you feel when you see someone else’s work, style, or achievements? Don’t be afraid to say hi (to envy), that’s your own desire asking to be named.
It only becomes toxic when you deny it or try to copy the surface rather than understanding the structure beneath. If you slow down and get exact, envy becomes a map. Maybe what you want is a more responsive audience, a braver voice or a clearer identity. Or simply someone’s creative lifestyle.
Envy always reveals the thing beneath the thing.
But when you suppress it, when you distract yourself with more trends, algorithms, entertainment, “aesthetic goals,” scrolling, or even overthinking… that’s when you suffocate your creative life without realizing it.
We’re wired to avoid pain and discomfort. And we use everything around us (social media, content, productivity) as soothing mechanisms.
All of it can keep you numb enough to avoid looking at what you actually want.
I realized how much of the “hook” culture online is designed to keep you dumb, reactive, and distracted (let’s say… a kind of creative autopilot). Truth is, if I didn’t need social media for my work, I wouldn’t be on it. But it is a tool: one that helps me reach people I’d never meet otherwise. People who think critically, who crave depth, who don’t want to live off dopamine hits.
I usually take December off social media, but this year I tried a small experiment beforehand to see if I would go MIA for sure this month. I took a week or so off from checking socials as much (and no posting at all), and I’ve got a lot of insights. Significant ones, some that will help me peel all those layers that you are fed, you want or not, if you’re on social media for work. Taking a break sharpened my beliefs, values, direction, and what honesty actually looks like in my creative life.
A lot of them can be terrifying, some of them you think: “maybe in the next lifetime”. But it won’t make me stop enjoying creativity as much as I can. And sometimes honesty looks like this: acknowledging your envy, naming your desires to yourself, owning what you want without shame.
Owning the want is the unlock.
The moment you can finally say, “I want that,” you start making the small, repeatable moves that make your version of it real.
And since we’re closing the year, this is the perfect moment for that kind of honesty.
It takes guts to look at your creative self without filters. It takes willingness to face what you’ve been avoiding. But that’s the work that shifts you into the person you want to become in 2026. And whenever you want to change and grow again.
If you need a place to start, a tool to reflect deeper and get honest with yourself, I created the Shadow Workbook (for creatives) for exactly that. And let me tell you, it’s not for the weak. It will show you as much (or as far) as you’re willing to look into your desires, fears, and patterns shaping your creative life.
I built it from both sides of my world: my years working across different creative fields, and 14 years of being in therapy, supported by a whole lot of psychology and human behavior study. Those two areas together are what make this workbook so direct, practical and confronting in the best way (with 50 prompts divided in 5 sections).
If you’re ready to look, it will meet you there.
🎄And as an early Christmas gift, it’s 50% OFF for the next 48 hours.
Instead of 27€, you pay 13.50€: basically the price of a Domestika course (no shame, but this one won’t leave you stuck at “Class n.2”).
Click here to dive in.
or use the code SHADOWXMAS50 at checkout.
Time will pass anyway. Use it in favor of your creativity.
Thanks for reading,
Yoli
