Tag: mindfulness

Reboot.

 

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(my kid is a master at the pause…and pause…and…you get the toddler point:)

excerpt from this blogger’s forthcoming book via Prodigy Gold Books: “Reframe Your Artistry,” on the topic of artistic renewal: 

Unclog this moment from aiming for something. Opens your beginner eyes. Embrace what is. From that angle, sparkles and shine emerge. If you don’t want to get that romantic, pause and see life through a child’s point of view which provides a similar state of wonder.

Otje van der Lelij summarizes the tale of a student seeking feedback from a Zen master in her piece titled, “Why Life Looks Better with Beginner’s Eyes,” included in A Book That Takes Its Time. The student arrives to the master with a head full of scholarly information and opinions for which he wishes to gather more knowledge. After a period of mindful listening, the master responds by sending the student away, stating “…Your head is so crowded with thoughts and questions that there is no room left for my answers. Please go away, empty your mind, and only then come back here. First create some space in your head” (p.100).

Go, my curious pupil. Like that Zen student, go to that open space. Sort out junk, dump teachers you no longer have use for, and erase rules that no longer apply. In your open space, be the artist that you are. Frame your creations off-center or however else you light up.

 

Breaking News: Open Spaces Soon Available.

Take a Pause and Apply Within!

 

Dedicating time and energy to pausing, we expand productive energy. I’m not saying think like this all the time or go on a permanent pause (though I hear silent or knitting or couples retreats are quite delicious). I’m encouraging carefully curated moments to pause from thoughts, feeling states, circumstances, and routines, in order show up, renewed for an artistic moment.

Grow permission and ability to pause. Trust in your artistry and the universe, let go of the rest of life for a set amount of time. It is okay, even, to let go of any thoughts and ideas that emerge. If a creative idea is worth dedicated, active time, the idea will resurface.

by honigjq

New Routine: Face Art Anxiety with a Beginner’s Curiosity

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depending on your outlook, art?

The primary key to unlocking your artistry requires pulling back the cozy comforter and making art. Show-up, pay attention, and make art. Make art, any art, make art. It’s not about getting rid of anxiety or curing it. For those who struggle with either more general anxiety or Art Anxiety, specifically, the primary goal for both involves learning to live with and give less credit to our anxiety, rather than anxiety dictating our lives. We also do not want to repress or reject anxiety because it will show up in other ways such as excuses or inauthentic gestures. And remember, whenever possible, turn off the mindless social media and memory chatter. It fuels unproductive anxiety.

Move toward your artistic side, right now:

  • Re-examine an abandoned project or a portfolio with beginner eyes. Add material to the old material you have neglected or forgotten about.
  • Set a timer for five minutes. Play around with scraps, clay, newspaper, or non-recyclable-whatever-you-haves (better as art than landfill), and see where your imagination takes you. Place less emphasis on defining your project, and instead – focus on showing up to art making; be playful, curious, and directionless.
by honigjq

Change Your Frame of Reference, Change Your World.

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Bananas, by Brenda Honig

Your mind might go in any which direction with art. Some see what is before them with an explicit lens. Bananas are bananas. However, with the gift of art: you may see way past the the surface (and come back again, to it, if you want).

This is a painting conveying bananas and to people open to the representational frames of reference it also conveys intimacy and sensuality. Representational frames of reference create a narrative. The narrative is a tango between the image, the imagination of the audience, and the boundless freedom of interpretation.

Be an explorer, let me know what you see. There is no right or wrong, again – to me – the beauty and healing power of the arts.

Today, I challenge you to create something that has surface meaning and infinite meaning and no meaning, at all.

by honigjq

Join the INTENT…

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View from my 1st and only hike (so far).

 

Very big into intentional living and thinking, lately.

The more we place our attention in the direction in which we intend to go – for the next minute, weeks, years, or lifetime, powerful energy awakens. Mallika Chopra, the elegant original thinker – and yes, the daughter of Deepak Chopra – developed strategies that follow the acronym: INTENT.

INTENT, as per her Living with Intent: My Somewhat Messy Journey to Purpose, written in 2015 and featured in adapted from in Time’s Special Edition on Mindfulness: The New Science of Health and Happiness includes:

Incubate: pause, quiet your mind to begin again, and ground into who you are, now

Notice: pay attention and recognize the surrounding world

Trust: confidence building through intuition and compassion

Express: share with the universe and create accountability

Nurture: cultivate and honor that growth is not linear; coping with ebb and flow

Take Action: show up, show up, show up (yah know, my familiar chorus!)

 

I am drawn to the way Chopra walks me through a process, so that an intent is less an abstract notion in the moment, and rather, evolves into a companion throughout the lifespan. Go forward, today, creating and inspired by INTENT.

by honigjq

When Art imitates life imitating life.

 

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Walden Pond, 2017

JOIN ME IN DOWNLOADING YOUR DREAMS IN THE COMMENTS OF THIS POST…

I had a dream, last night. I returned to a favorite spot – Walden Pond. This time, I arrived, alone and along an unmarked, previously untravelled path. I didn’t know I was there ’til I saw dark, brownish-gray water popping through evergreen and heard summer laughter.

The laughter turned to, “Oh, no,”‘s.

My lush path parted and I was right next to the other Walden Pond visitors. Now, I saw what they were looking at with both wonder and concern.

Giant rocks jumped out of the water, seemingly spontaneous and unprompted. It was interesting at first. Then, the rocks erupted more intensely and approached all of us visitors, pond side. I recall a moment to pause, thinking something deep within the pond is causing this rupture.

We ran for cover. I was the only one that knew the secret path. I thought of those I left behind. I thought of my selfishness. Soon, the only thing that I could think about was running back home to my partner and daughter.

Sometimes, I wake thinking, our dreams are vivid allegories.

by honigjq

Begin again.

 

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How do we begin again?

It’s a time of year, and arbitrary energy, and an opportunity (sometimes in disguise). For some, it is an understandably brutal challenge. We crave the familiar before we crave new and challenging breakthroughs.

I have been absent from, for instance, writing for this blog for a month. I took a pause to work on a children’s story. I find that returning, I am aware of resistance. The pause did me good, of course, but in this moment – all it seems to have done if remove me from momentum.

Ah, then I think of physics. That bottled up pause turns into a pop. Discomforts are merely a cue that what you do need is reawakening. The New Year is exactly the time to take stock of what has been neglected and to begin again, fresh, in this moment.

Don’t you dare skip ahead, too far along, toward a destination. It’s easy to compare when thinking how ridiculous it might be to plan the next holiday season other than imagining the possibilities. Like next holiday season, imagine, but do not predict. Instead, redirect energy into the small ways you can experience magic and purposefulness, right now.

Begin again. Every subtle movement counts. You have to begin somewhere.

And back to physics, yeah, there’s that classic principle: “A body at rest will stay at rest…”

So, ever so gently, wake her back up.

by honigjq

Make Art, Make the World a Better Place!

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Artistic Frames of Reference

Explicit ideas: a literal thing, concept, person, place, or time

Representations: seeing more than literal meaning

Points of view: characteristics of the creator or audience (I.e., age, culture, gender, period in history, and education)

 

Imagine if variable frames of reference could be applied to religiosity. Maybe humans could better co-exist? You could have your opinions and I could have mine. You could have an explicit frame of reference and mine could be representational. You could see Christmas as the birth of Christ and I could see it as a day off from work to exchange presents and share food with loved ones. And we can hug out our right to our point of view. Without forcing singular realities, flexible frames of reference make us a less judgmental world from the inside out.

by honigjq

Refrain, Respond, Repurpose. Art as friend to the Universe.

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cigarette in sidewalk snow, boston, ma 2009

 

Mindful art making expands our eco-awareness. The conscious choices for our art making, now, mirror the same choices I try to practice regarding the natural and material world that we all share.

Take a walk outside. Locate a displaced object or slice of nature.

Before doing anything else, PAUSE! Be with whatever you have selected to get to know  more fully. Allow the natural inclination of things – impermanent, imperfect, and incomplete – to be noticed and embraced.

Practice quieting the volume on unrelated thoughts, other places you need to be or what should happen next, and allow yourself to be with this memory, picture, or object for a minute. Go ahead, with steady breathing and a lengthened spine to welcome fresh energy, elevate your awareness. In honor of all ways of life, I invite you to join me – as I try to do myself, about once a week – to reflect on the natural state of things.

Elevate awareness of what you have chosen to notice through your senses and lessen distractibility. After pausing choose from the following: refrain, honoring things just as they are; respond via an original point of view through conversation, journaling, poetry, essay, memoir, or storytelling; or repurpose the thing into a hybrid thing.

by honigjq

Imperfectly Perfect: Mindful Art Making

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Like Wabi-sabi’s regard for imperfection, mindful art doesn’t try to put a glossy or forced spin on anything. The aesthetic, if practiced, may have healing and invigorating properties. Imagine a singular charcoal stroke pressed across repurposed newspaper. Imagine songwriting with improper grammar and catchy rhymes. Imagine chipped sculptures of lost civilizations. Imagine bodies moving in sync regardless of size and shape. Every time we take actions into the direction of noticing and then surrendering to what is, reframing negative judgments into something honored, we rewire our beings. I believe we also dust off cultural edginess and arbitrary judgments. We shift into compassion and empathy generally, and acceptance of ourselves, specifically. Mindful art frames our angle on beauty more broadly.

Daring to dream, regard for mindful art may also be a global action that could heal an overstimulated, fatigued world. Compelling? Sure is. Nature is one of my favorite sources for mindful art. Are you aware of or value its authentic states? For instance, is there a difference when you walk through the woods rather than a manicured Italian Garden that you’ve paid admission to see? Is one really more valuable than the other? Applying a mindful artistic lens, I propose not. Yet, one is more typically viewed as majestic or artistic. If the Italian Garden persists as the essence of one’s aesthetic, well – that’s all fine and dandy. However, I wish to expand your angles on nature, like angles on yourself, shifting into equal regard for polished and inherent states. Think of your local woods as a representation of you, yourself, as a natural muse. Just as nature may be: overgrown, thorny, dark at times, yet lush, so may you be. Awareness of who you are, organically, and where you situate, now, you’ll access a complete artistic toolbox. Fuller awareness expands artistry from the source. YOU are YOU, WOODS are WOODS, and both are bold, beautiful collections of things.

by honigjq

Find Your Artopia

 

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I prefer the imaginary places. Maybe that is apparent to you after reading my philosophical blah blah blahs.

My mind longs to go to places to which neither plane nor train can transport.

I imagine kindness as a core currency and what makes us different makes us beautiful. Thoughts of global compassion fire me up. Imperfection is sexy. And I hope these angles come through as distinct elements of my art making. For those elements are true to me and therefore belong to my true art making. Every artist will be different, as will every artistic moment or decade in a true artist’s life.

But what makes mindful art original is the awareness of the creator to be able to identify their personal, community, worldly, and imagined sources. With such awareness, narrow aesthetic values inherently erode, replaced by broader options, because no two people, no two places, no two moments in time could ever be the same.

If you are aware of what it is you like or what is unique to you, act on that impulse regularly. In time, those with appreciation for similar impulses will gravitate toward your work. Your audience may grow. But start with you, you are the base and the original audience to please.

by honigjq