lovely vacation with family, refreshed and beginning again
Getting back on track is within reach. You already have the tools: YOU and THIS MOMENT. Stop ignoring them. Pema Chodron (2009) highlights in her book, Taking the Leap, that the power of “pausing very briefly, frequently throughout the day, is an almost effortless way to do this,” and essentially propels us back onto a meaningful path (p. 13). Pausing is a verb, I like to tell my clients. There is a deliberate action. I pause. In the pause, if we are open and fully show up, we move into discovery with curiosity rather than judgment or immediate reaction.
The next time you think you’re stricken with artistic blockage or trapped with only snobby teacher voices to keep you company, dig just a wee bit deeper. Do just one subtle thing at a time. Become aware: notice the space and time in which you are situated plus identify thoughts, feelings and sensations. Swallow water and take a few deep breaths, then choose what inspires you to create in this moment. Connect with your tools. Apply yourself and the tools to something purposeful. Let go. Move along. Show back up. Repeat. It is now safe to unlock the limbic seatbelt, roam around uncharted neuropathways, and accidentally bump into new artistic approaches.
We cloud ourselves with unproductive messages, most of which fall under categories like expectations, memories, and judgments. These are responses to the past, future, or other people’s standards and have little to do with who we are, right now. Think of the past, future, and someone else’s point of view as art pollution.
Art Pollution: Rigid beliefs over intuition
Mindful Art: Playful and inspired by our true self, nature, or available materials
Art pollution gets in the way of healthy art making. Instead, seize whatever you have, now, in fresh ways. Look up at the ceiling or observe nature. Regather a sense of what’s going on with your own being. Combine compassionate ways of noticing and experiencing your world to dilute art pollution.
Maximize this unique point in history to create art-whatever! Mindful art deserves more influence than anything that a particular school of thought or social trend provides. Mindful art means that it is authentic (ie, from a pure source of personal experiences, honest physical states, or natural phenomenon), and it is inherently beautiful by association.
Moving right along deserves to be a natural part of one’s day.
Treat your art and your anxiety with that same attitude. Instead of emphasizing any one opportunity, rise to many little ones throughout the day. Instead of fixating on a rejection, redirect into authentic creative energy, for you. Instead of entertaining the critic inside your own mind, lower that volume, and dance to the beat of your body exactly as it is.
We cannot grow our artistry if we do not give it time, space, and compassion.
Fumble, get back up. Change happens, reinvent. Obstacles are assumed, spontaneously problem solve. Fully embrace your art making by showing up and pay attention in a mindful way.
Thinking about jumping? Believe in yourself (when you’re ready).
In the spirit of taking risks, following through, and being true – my intention this week, join me as I – JUMP! That’s right, one word this week, JUMP.
Merriam Webster (love to look up definitions, don’t you?), well, Ms. Merriam defines jump, “to spring into the air.”
Jump made me reach for an elixir with fresh, idealistic-twentysomething-grad-studentyness. So, I skimmed back through my Maxine Greene’s Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts and Social Change and opened to page 14. Maxine Greene is a New Yorker’s NY’er, I suppose; part academic, part artist, part avant-gardist, part anarchist. Most any page in her masterpiece is quite quotable. Page 14 she wrote, “It takes imagination… to perceive openings…”
The…here she refers to as imagination in young people. But I like to think … holds space for anyone with young at heart capabilities. She goes on to encourage teachers and students alike to consider energy that honors what can be taught as well as that which is interpreted and perceived from a fresh angle. Even as I summarize her concepts, I can only own my own personal reading of her material…and goodness knows I’m so locked inside my head, so in love with being in love with being off the mark that I’ve either misrepresented her here, or perhaps I have offered her to you, exactly as she has asked…somewhere in between a lesson and a rebellion.
This week, digest an audacious intention: Jump in whatever direction, then go up and down and all around, and flow with the momentum. It will set you free.
Reminder – catch podcast episodes, share art, and continue the conversation on the Reframe Your Artistry Facebook Page. Also, accepting submissions for art inspired by mindfulness practices via email to reframeyourartistry@gmail.com
And please, free yourself to JUMP into whatever scraps or creative energy you are drawn to today and this week. Frame yourself just as you are…that is beautiful.
Go forth, find something from your past or some scrap at work or so-called trash that swam into your yard. Below, inspiration from my Grandmother who once stitched together napkins from her native country to form a table linen in her new world. Then, I took the linen and used it as the covering for my chuppah. What’s next?
Reframe Your Artistry 