I often feel that I should make art when its the right time, and everything is perfect and I know exactly what I am trying to do. But that limits my creative and puts restrictions on it. I recently made a short film for a class and found the beauty in creating just to create. allowing myself to make mistakes and just be creatively free. thank you for your video as I can relate to the ups and downs of being a creative

Was homeless a year ago, going on a 100 mile hike on Monday. Things can always change.

I hope you know that there are people, including me, who wait for you to upload. People who click on your videos as soon as they see them and watch them all the way to the end. You aren't just another youtuber, you are inayah, and you have an audience who loves you.

I hope this goes viral and EVERYONE remembers what they were passionate about in their youth. Even mundane things like being stuck in traffic would change if people remembered how excited they were the first time they drove. There is so much to be enjoyed, thank you for sharing your heart with us!

I took notes from your confidence video and everytime I lose my self and stop trying to achieve my goals, I read the notes and feel inspired again, and now I'm working really hard and I feel I don't need a motivation to work. So thank you so much 💗💗💗

Something about hearing that you can do what you want to even if you feel doubt and insecurity makes me feel like I can do anything I want. Whenever I feel stagnant, it's easy for the doubt to tell me that I've failed and that I cannot do it . So this mindset of doing things and trying despite your feelings/circumstances is really inspiring. Thank you so much for this video Inayah.

I can feel the genuineness in this. The guy you talk about is so right, I was an engineer and burned out and got laid off, and my confidence was shot. I was an Uber driver for a few years. I never wanted to do engineering again and considered other things. Somehow, all my energy got focused on building back to being a helpful person in society, i had to get back to that. I missed being helpful doing something that mattered like alternative energy. I finally got a new job after a lot of time looking, and it was perfect and I really thrived at it. I needed that break, it was vital. I also am a writer, and have found doing engineering is both rewarding and also allows me to not have to be creative during the day, I am sticking to standards and rules.

I started vlogging 5 years ago, and my channel picked up quite fast. The trajectory of my future felt so promising, and even though I didn’t know what would come next I just kept doing what I loved and saw my subscriber count grow twice every time I looked at it. Then, I stopped. I got busy, the pandemic happened, and a few other things. When I picked the hobby of filming back up I realized I had lost my momentum. It felt like I had let my one chance in life slip away and I could not get it back anymore. This morning, I saw there was a new (for me) feature when I press my channel where I can see both public and private videos on the app itself. I realized that the videos I privatized, some of which because they had a “low” engagement, actually had better engagement that I would wish to have now. Not to focus on the numbers too much, but I just realized I had taken for granted that community because it felt small in comparison to how it was when I was consistent. It was not small. I should have been grateful, and now I have lost even that. But this video has made me realize that I shouldn’t be yearning for what I had in the past. Rather, I should swallow my pride and keep looking and moving forward. It was a humbling realization honestly. I had forgotten why I started this channel in the first place. When I was consistent and was doing well, I was focused on my craft, and that I finally had a safe space to talk, to create, all on my own terms. When I started, it wasn’t about the views. I could have happily created private videos documenting my life. Lately, I’ve been focusing on the wrong things - I traded consistency for an attempt for perfection, I traded my passion for the sake of wanting more engagement, and I traded the community I had in search for another one. I have to go back to my roots and forgo everything else. Stumbling upon this video was the best thing that’s happened to my KZfaq journey in a while, and as I am going to do for my channel, I am writing this comment to myself - the most important viewer, fan, and critique of my craft. Here’s to measuring success based on happiness, not numbers.

I love your videos so much, they reach into my emotions so deeply and there's so much honesty in your words, thank you

You just comforted my restless soul. Just like you, I've been feeling that way too and it worsened during the pandemic. Adding the rejection I got from my dream university that I've nursed for quite a long time and then being forced to settle in degree program that seems more 'practical' just overall made me feel like shit. At first, I thought I was gonna be fine with the degree I'm taking but as days went by and a new semester comes in, I just lost the sense of direction I was barely hanging into. There is prolly thousands of times I thought that I'm not cut out for this degree. I'd see my peers excel and it made me even more insecure than I ever was. There's this dark, seemingly bottomless pit of disappoinment and huge fear of failure in me and I just... don't know what to do. I'm lost. Paralyzed. And I know that I have to keep going and think positively but the more I try to do it, the more I feel like I'm lagging behind. People say life is not a race, but when the world moves around you and you're stuck standing there, you just can't help but wonder why you're being like this, what the heck are you doing. And as some sort of coping mechanism, I'd spend most of my waking hours daydreaming about my ideal self living in my ideal life. Unbeknownst to me, I've been setting myself up for more failure, losing my grasp of time, letting the day pass and once the night comes, I'm back on blaming myself for all the things I failed to do. Always and always. I'm in this unending loop. I'm a slave of my own mind. And it punishes me rather than rewarding me. Why can't it be a more benevolent master? Why can't I be the master? Then somehow I realized, maybe it was my inability to understand that things takes time. That I need to learn patience. That I don't get to have things and be someone I want in just a short amount of time. That what it only takes is for me to....take that one step. And then take another one. Step. Step. Step. Walk. I don't need to run. Just keep walking. If I ever stumble upon a hindrance in my way, I shouldn't let it stop me. Maybe I'll stay with it for a while. Process it. But I won't linger on it. I may take things and lose it amidst the walk. I may have to go through the cycle of learning and unlearning. Trial and error. It's tiring, that's for sure. And maybe at some point, it'll even make me feel that I'm not making any progress at all. But I'd like to still keep walking. I hope to still keep walking. It's a journey, anyway. And is it really a journey if it'll only take you a day?

I really resonate with your thoughts here. I spent 7 years writing my first book on and off because I didn’t know what I was ‘supposed’ to be doing and kept thinking the standard path (like getting a corporate job) was the the right thing for me. I felt embarrassed by the fact that I didn’t become an instant success, so much so that it kept me away from overcoming rejection and reaching out to publishers. In 2022 I managed to push past the fear and self-loathing and I entered a writing competition that allowed me to find my literary agent. I finally got a book deal last year and my debut novel Salutation Road will be out in February 2022 🎉

You may have already read it, but the alchemist is a great read and motivator to achieve your dreams and passions. It really helps getting over to the next step and believing in your passions , and believing there’s a reason for them. Thanks for another amazing video:)

I deeply, genuinely thank you for sharing these thoughts with us in a video, 'cause like that they had the possibilty to reach me at a stage of my life in which I have consciousness about the fact that It's been years since I sacrificed my inner artistic inspiration in order to conform to our society and the expectations it had on me. It probably happened when I started middle school (by now almost 7 years ago) and puberty hit me together with a bunch of many other personal problems and since that, even due to the pandemic, I literally lived razing my most spontaneous, creative, artistc side, aka I detached from my actual self. Strict perfectionism and my intrinsic desire to make others proud of me (the "need to be perfect to be loved") leaded me to accomplish what it was expected to me and to lock into my heart my truest desires (from what I caught from the world around me, artists could not really survive in the world and as a consequence I felt like I had to choke the artist in me to keep being loved), which I admit I even struggled many years to recognize back (my mind had sort of pretended that I was not really interested in those desires just because so I wouldn't have to really suffer due to the fact that I had stopped pursuing them myself, as if they didn't really matter so that it was not a big deal to leave them). But now that I rebuilt myself and made sure to grow the best way I could, taking care of myself, and passed those difficult years (personally and globally), I can look at myself and at last recognize that those desires and the little artist in me are still there. The artistic machine in me may be a little dusty but it will never rust for is intrinsic in me and is still there, still functioning, I had simply stopped using it. Therefore I can always go back to it and little by little "take care of my garden again", for nothing is ever said in life and art is part of me, so, why the hell shouldn't I be able to produce it again? Your words have been a boost and i really thank you for that. Although social medias are the biggest creativity destroyers, in this case i am grateful for they enabled me to receive your words from far away (kisses from the Italian west coast)

I’ve had so much shame surrounding this. Thank you for speaking so openly and eloquently abt a topic I haven’t heard covered before. It’s so affirming knowing I’m not the only one

This video hit my heart! I'm a college student and all the study things consume my time. I'm majoring in business but don't like my subject and know that it is not what I'm supposed to do if I want to pursue my dream. Thank you so much for sharing your journey.

I find your videos calmly motivating. It's not one of those vidoes where a ton of info is dumped on my head. And it's neither the kind of video where I'll feel worse after watching it. It's almost like talking to a self aware friend, someone who knows to be soft with both their flaws and mine. I love the way you love yourself and it motivates me to treat myself the same way too. Please keep doing these.

Right on time as always, the idea of having this garden that you kind of let die and are just starting to clean up again resonated so deeply/clearly with me, ive been "watering" my old interests/talents and planting new ones and just find it hard to get back in that "abstract" space where your creating just, effortlessly and naturally, but following along with your journey has reminded me it still flows with relative ease, it just feels a bit different now because we're not 16 and in love with everyone and everything, im still not sure exactly how it "feels" to create these days, but youre bringing some clarity, so thanks for that 😊 Also, do you meditate??

yes! thank you for this video it has come at such a great time to me. Literally just stepped out my comfort zone and read a poem at an open mic night after I haven't been writing since before i had my 2 babies in the past 3 years. Feeling so creative again and inspired. It's taken a long time to get here but here I am

I wouldn't have never thought you were this young. You're doing great. Keep it up, wonderful person!

just watched your "feel like it" video and now I'm watching this one, all while actually practicing guitar, a creative outlet that I've grown out of since high school. your experience and your wisdom resonates a ton, and building back a habit in my adulthood feels enormously heavy. mostly due to shame and doubt and fear. the way you articulate the silver lining of these kinds of experiences is inspiring to me in this moment in my life xx

"I am not some washed up loser who is making stupid decisions in life - I am somebody who is taking a risk to focus on the things that maybe are not paying off right now, but are so close to my heart. And I will go through the humbling experiences I need in order to prioritize that." I think I needed to hear someone who I perceive as "having some things figured out" say that. I'm taking a risk to build my business. I quit my cushy development job a year ago to focus on it. It's slowly starting to pay off, but at 26 I often feel like I'm meant to have more stability than this. I know I'm on the right path. But I'm also at a critical time, and my fear of the unknown is making me self sabotage by focusing on less important things than literally my first client's work. Even though it's going so well!!! I'll get back into it today. I need to KEEP taking the risk, KEEP prioritizing what I love over what is safe. It's make it or break it. Wish me luck :) (Thank you for your videos ❤️ They remind me come up for air and actually look around at what I'm doing, lol)

Thanks Inayah, your videos are always super soothing and mind altering and your authenticity is refreshing. You totally deserve this growth in the past months!

I think your videos speak to me so personally because I am seeing them at the exact right moment of my life where I am somewhat self-aware of things in my life but I just need to hear these words from someone else who's been through what I have been. I feel the strong drive to take better care of myself because I really want to be a pretty girl and feel like a pretty girl like you.

The timing its amazing,Thank you

i haven't even got into the video yet, but i wanted to say that I came across your channel like a lot week ago from the confidence is uncomfortable video and I have been loving listening to you on my way to work.

I also graduated high school in 2020! I love all that you say about inspiration and art so much! Makes me feel I am currently doing the right thing.

this is such a powerful concept because if you believe in the journey, future setbacks will lose the power to take that away from you. I embraced this by deciding not to worry about whether it was true, but whether it was a more useful way to live, and that takes the edge away from doubt

your videos always come at the right time, and always from a place of grounded self-wisdom

I love having your videos in the background while I crochet ❣

you are such an inspiration thank you for giving us these videos

I literally cannot tell u how much I can relate to this video. I love your content please keep sharing

I'm in pharmacy college and remember in third grade I really wanted to quit and just draw and make it my job. But reality hit me, I don't know how to draw properly and I'm already in the middle of college and I can't just quit and throw my father's money like that. I felt guilty for it so I kept going and told myself I will teach myself art and balance them... Now I'm in fifth grade, my last grade, I will graduate in less than a month, planning to practice in a pharmacy then work there. Do I like pharmacy? No, I don't but it's a stable job. Did I learn how to draw and balance them? NO! I barely draw once in 5 months and still bad because there's no consistency nor learning anatomy or whatever ! I still did NOT sacrifice my dream. So I will find a way to do it both and actually draw and feeding my creativity. I know I can do it. I trust myself !

I wasn’t acting for half a year. Fears, insecurity and frustration got the best of me and I couldn’t take the rejection anymore. I switched to dancing and thought acting is over. But now I realize that I never stopped loving it, I just were too afraid to continue. There is still a lot of pain and trauma in me and I feel stressed and anxious about acting. But that also shows me how important acting really is to my heart. I will try to get into it slowly again.

i am so thankful for founding out about you, inayah. i am currently a teenager soon to be a young adult and these videos really helps me to shift and deal w the transition. i do not know what situation im going to be facing but i am sure it will test my belief to myself. 4 yrs from now i am a different person and i will make sure that she knows her purpose. i love how calm and casual ur videos are, it feels like we're friends giving out real life advices. i also love the small community you built here, very relatable and inspiring. do not stop the fuel inside you inayah! we believe in you

Thank you for this! I needed this.

Wow, I’m only a couple minutes in but realizing self abandonment is possibly I’m trying to chase “where you should be” instead of being there for the journey even if it changes paths, listening to yourself and being patient and wanting to know what you really need, instead of blindly going down one path. I feel like other people in my life didn’t look out for me or teach me how to, be curious enough to look out for me more fully like that, but I have to do that for myself too as an independent adult now.

Thank you for making this video! 🙂 Just recently, I've slowly begun getting myself into creative mode again, after years of feeling very uninspired. I also started writing a journal for real for the first time in my life, because I wanted to record that stream of thoughts I have in my head. I'm a software developer, 54, and my artistic expression was always on second rank, behind work, but I truly want to be creative and let everything out. I used to be very creative up into my 30ies. Somehow, ever since my mom passed away in 2005, a part of my creativity seemed to be missing. Occasionally, I still made music and other things, but my creative phase seemed to be over. I hope I'll be able to get back to it, and I need to keep working that muscle, as you put it. When I sleep, I often dream about alternate realities and sometimes the future, and once I had dream in which I created very complex-sounding songs (and I heard myself sing in them -- some of my music is actually from dreams), and I want to get to that phase where I'm able to create those songs, because they would be very novel to this world and perhaps be successful in some way. Our current pop music is somehow devoid of true creativity, and this needs to change. We need to get back to the point where music matters. And I want to contribute to that. I hope I'll be able to achieve that in my lifetime. For now, I'm only experimenting with musical phrases, but perhaps I'll get the right idea someday.

i really relate to this. i started video editing and making music videos when i was 15 and it’s so wild to me how similar our stories are. i was also so shy as a kid but one thing i was always confident about was my art. i felt like i looked back at my younger self and craved that motivation and belief in myself that slowly went away with the years. i did find myself putting all my energy into work because that’s just how it goes as you get older and now im slowly coming back to this acceptance that i no longer have to crave the past but believe that your already everything you crave and make room for new feelings, new emotions and new styles of art! i think one thing that i will always try to remember is the feeling of doing for the sake of doing. idk when i lost this feeling but i can’t tell you how much it’s helped me. the act of doing is freeing !

thank you for this, saved my life

Thank you so much for sharing. Of course I found this exactly when I needed too, my best friend and I are writing the fantasy story/novel of our little-girl-selves dreams -- and ive been SO stuck. I used ti LOVE writing ESPECIALLY fantasy, but approaching this project i was exhausted, frustrated, wondering where that child went. Your words have helped me more than i can express, im grateful to never be alone in my journey and my struggles :) sending you love, thank you again for sharing yourself.

i feel so seen and heard. thank you for your sharing

you have no idea of how much these videos help me and how much i enjoy them. but as much as i love them, i also miss your little vlogs where you would show us bits of your days and meet your friends. anyway, just know that any type of content coming from you ks gonna be amazing. thanks for it! :)

f3ck you just expressed something that has been so blurred in my mind for so long. thank u💖

Thank you for these videos im a younger person but i watch your videos so i can learn from you to be wiser and strong minded as i age😊

God this girl is so beautiful

I never leave comments, but I’ve never felt so seen by a KZfaq video that I had to. I’m going through the exact same thing right now- it took me a while to get comfortable expressing myself creatively, finally did it and realized it wasn’t so scary, was picking up lots of momentum with it (success and confidence) and then boom!! Got a “serious” career type job that took all my creativity, time, and energy. I was financially independent and so excited about that, but my creativity totally fell to the wayside. After two years giving my everything to that career, I recently quit for my mental health and creativity. But now, at only 23, I feel “washed up” in the career world because I left a pretty established career job, so I feel like I’m “starting over” if I do any other less “serious” job, AND now I don’t have any more momentum with my creative life….so I have to start that over too. It’s been such a depressing place to be in, especially dealing with the loss of confidence in sharing the things I used to be so excited about. At such a young age I feel like people look at me like I’m crazy for feeling the way I do. So thank you for this video, I feel so seen! I love your videos and what you do, something about your style just tickles my brain. You inspire me like no other creator on this platform! :)

Couldn't relate to a video more, at this point in my life. Thank you for sharing your story.

Doubt is the difference between confidence and arrogance. All things within you are a part of you and must come into balance. Even as I type these words, I struggle with inspiration myself. I used to create music almost nonstop. Now? The last thing I created was over three years ago. Still, my curiosity has led me to other things that have expanded my mind and understanding, so I just accept that it's part of the process. "God's plan," as it were. All I can do is take each day as it comes and do my best to "ride the wind." Great video!

Similarly, my mum was persuing a painting career before me and my sinlings were born. And she's been a part time highschool teacher ever since. Her father was a successful painter - and she certianly could have been too. So I understand you. And she has done well to maintain that balance since she commonly gets to teach in art classes. And she is working on creating the space and time to get to making her own art. So it does take a lot of work to balance practicalities/responsibilities with passions, but it definitely pays off.

(I know it's not inherently wrong in any way but I'm sure at least to some degree I probably am a minority here) BUT, as a guy, I've been really enjoying your videos, it's helped me a lot with my own self-reflection. What you're particularly good at is expressing the thoughts/feelings that we all collectively experience but often feel ambiguous or intimidating when we want to express/resolve out loud what to do or how to go about whatever issues we're trying to overcome. Thanks for all your personal insights, I'm sure they're helping heaps of people.

Excellent video! I appreciate your voice on KZfaq and relate very much to you- much more than to most male creators.

thank you so much, I really relate

wow i am going through the EXACT thing! i feel you💜🥹

Thank you for this video❤

I love you my inspiring bestie

You’ll always succeed ❤. Thanks for sharing the wisdom. If you’re a young artist in America, just relax. Meet people, actively seek knowledge be humble have fun and enjoy the ride

I love this video ❤

one russian poet to the question “how to get out of poetry bottom?” answered “write, write and again write! and also read, and also live, truly live! going beyond limits!” i agree as full. everyone has their own live and own going beyond, and its something new every time. now im completely focused on staying myself alive. if its some work, creative points, talk to someone or a walk for get some good coffee. see ya!

Good stuff, thanks for sharing, I've been having trouble with this

thank you. You brought me to believe in my vision again. I´m greatful for you.

hiiii, so I really usually don't comment but I really want u to hear bc u probably will be happy to hear it :)) So basically I've been feeling so low lately, so I went on yt earlier today to search for something comforting, Then I clicked on a video and in the suggested videos there was u, so I literally listened to so many vids back to back while I was getting ready for this event that I didn't even wanna go to, cuz I felt so insecure. But listening to u while getting ready and watching u arrange ur bouquets was so comforting and healing. I appreciate every word you have uttered. Please stay true to yourself and stay happy and healthy! Really wish u the best

“ And Margaret walked around the Streets about And Then she sat down, and she thought to herself, and she walked there, SShe Unconciosly Stream

I LOVE your videos 💘

could you please make a video about how to deal with toxic family?

Love the video keep going

I see you from Venezuela, i dont know how arrive here, but was beatifull, your words. Thanks

These days i'd get a job like a Jovem aprendiz in a new city and I'm in a new School too I feel like I'm gettin in to the adulthood like I'm really a teenage girl but also a young adult cuz now I have a job and I relate with what you say in the beginning Not long ago I spend my whole day doing collages and journals and being bored for dont have nothing to do but now I need to control my time and I can't spend time doing this things cuz I have other things to do and all my creative and inspiration and all force I used to put in my art is being directed to these things I feel like I can't do my art again cuz now I dont have time and energy to this It's so annoying and sad

Sameeee 😢

Do you think you would ever want to start a podcast? If so you definitely should, you’re so inspiring to me and i just love listening to you talk lol

💓

omg were talking a about my favorite subject! Arrrrtttt

Problem is I don't have any dreams to chase 😭

very concretely, practically speaking, i've noticed it just takes me a while to get into the right headspace every day, like my neurotransmitters need a bit of time to get into the right places. that's why i always wake up feeling sort of out of it, dissociated and not sure about myself, but i just need to power through and trust that things will fall into place, literally, if i just start going about my day. then at same point during the morning, it's like a switch gets flipped in my head, and i start seeing everything clearly again, and i know that i can do anything i set my mind to within the limits of my situation. i think of it like a candlestick graph. on the smallest timescale, there are a lot of ups and downs and chaos and movement, but when you start to zoom out, you will see that over the long term there has always been an upward trend, and all the little ups and downs were just necessary to reach that upward moving average. as long as you can sense that upward momentum over the long term, that's all that matters, and it gets easier to ignore the momentary volatility.

Great video

💗💗💗

You are so beautiful girl 😊

❤

There’s a video by a guy named “This.” on how to be funny. He elaborates on the brain chemistry of failing and I think if you’re creative enough you might get some nice perspective on doubt

you look so like lady gaga esp in a star is born

i hope you can make this a source of income for yourself, i really look forward to your success. :>

15:00 🫡

Does this girl speak with Vocal Fry tone?

Hi inayah. Youre my sister now

Don't forget about the Palestine case #FREE PALESTINE

🫂🤍

Where’re flowers?)

I recommend either yoga or meditation practise, you cant talk your way there, talking will only further condition you somewhere but it will only lead you somewhere else never really solve the problem. mind has to find stillness and get away from the me, the identification of the thought processess, go in to nature! go on retreat!

No one taught you to be an attention thursty histrionic

This video found me at the perfect time as I am currently struggling with those very thoughts of doubt in my creative self. Ive been wanting to start a business of my own with things that I create like hand painted apparel and paintings, but have found myself sitting in this sort of purgatory creative block where I start to think I’ll never be able to get it going and succeed in it. And I haven’t been drawing like I used to, which has made me feel like my quality in art has gone down. I appreciate what you’ve said in this video so much and am taking it to heart, because it’s really helping me to realize how I’m not alone in this way of thinking and that I am where I am meant to be and will get to where I’m meant to be in the future :’)🤍

thank you for this. i feel so seen 😭🫶🏼

Just know that you inspire so many people ,including myself your word really do come from ur heart and I really do feel it. Thank you so much I really needed to hear this at this moment in life where this is a transition and uncertainty surrounding that thank you so much from the bottom of my heart💕🫂