How Emotions Can Influence Our Health

Letting go of feelings is a natural process which helps us stay connected to the Flow of Life.

Positive feelings feel amazing.  Many people enjoy expressing positive feelings for that reason.  It just feels good.

Feelings born in the tummy flow out freely when one feels good.

When negative emotions are involved the process of expressing them does not always seem as simple.

In order to express a feeling we first need to feel it, and many of us would rather not feel the negative feelings.  Instead we decided to suppress them, in hopes that we will never have to deal with them.  Some people get really good at suppressing all or part of their feelings.  This traps the feelings inside ourselves.  As more emotions are piled internally on top of each other we start to run out of room.  The emotions start to find other ways of escaping causing all sorts of mental and physical symptoms to their human.  We may find ourselves having to spend more and more energy managing the great collection of emotions within us instead of putting that energy into other things.
We sever our smooth connection to Life's Flow.  

We can not suppress our emotions all our lives.  Eventually we run out of internal storage room and they find a different way of escaping.  There are natural, healthy ways to release emotion.  Suppressed emotions can cause mental and physical strain to their human.

There is no need to panic...

Part of our life mission is to learn how to deal with our feelings to the best of our ability.

It is easy to start and we do not need anything special or expensive.

All we need to do is to start consciously feeling our emotions.  Even if we can not manage to stay present for what we feel in the moment a feeling is conceived, we can always revisit that moment later on, in a more comfortable space.

It is very helpful to accept that this process may not feel pleasant at first, 
but still to commit to a positive, new outcome.

A more in depth post on how to learn and manage emotions is right HERE.

In my personal life...

I feel most of my emotions start out of my stomach and rise up with my breath to escape through my head.  (Hence the illustrations.)
Maybe this happens differently for others.

Depending on my state of mind, body and soul combined, sometimes I would feel certain feelings get stuck on their way out; in my chest, in my throat.  Paying attention to how I feel in my body, mind and soul is a new practice for me.  Prior to this all my life I had other cooping mechanisms.  Suppressing emotions was one of them.  Eventually my stomach started to get "eaten" away by them.  Pretty much literally.  Many things in my body stopped working properly and I got really sick.  This was my encouragement to pay attention.  Which is what I am learning how to do now and slowly healing my tummy.

FEAR + DOUBT: Results Within the Thought Process

Before a conscious thought that could be expressed in words is born, my mind goes through an entire process of "pre" thinking. 

Playing with my thought process one evening, I was able to see the different stages that my mind goes through (within a millisecond) in order to get to a conscious, firm thought / conclusion.

The greatest discovery from the exercise was the realization of how quickly my patterns of Fear and Doubt enter into each equation!  I have perfected the pattern of inserting these two into almost everything that goes through my mind.

Which means Fear and Doubt affect almost all my decisions and actions!  
And; therefore, most outcomes! 

My mind tricks me.
Instead of calling Fear and Doubt as they are, my mind gives them other names depending on circumstance.
  Realistic  
    Sensible
      Responsible
        Committed
The list goes on...

 
Examples with Fear and Doubt:
  
thought:  Perhaps I can also enter into that art contest.
realistic reply:  Nope, look at all those awesome artists, there is no way you even stand a chance.

thought: Oohhh I want some tea with chocolate!
responsible reply:  Nope, that will make you fat and caffeinated and plain no good.

Thought Process with Fear & Doubt Inserted

GAME: How to Catch Fear and Doubt

Feelings are the answer.  I suggest playing a game with your thoughts.  Have a quiet space to just relax and watch your thoughts go by.  Think of something that makes you feel good.  See how quickly that feeling is interfered with.  The instant you feel your true happiness and excitement changes to something slightly more negative is the moment in your thoughts you want to revisit.

You might want to see what the interference with the feeling of happiness feels like. Sometimes you might label it, 'SADNESS', sometimes the feeling is too complex for words.  Just feeling it is enough. 

Try talking to the feeling too,
"Hi, who are you?  What are you doing here?  Where did you come from?"
Pause after every question.  Often the answer comes within moments.  Answers come in a variety of ways, not just words.  Sometimes an event from the past pops into memory, or a person's face or another feeling that is connected to something else in your life.  I would encourage anyone to follow these little clues deeper into themselves.  I am often surprised and thankful to find out where they lead.

It is a fun game.  What is there to lose?




After playing this game...

I tried following my thought process again, but this time completely canceling any negative influences.  Results were not only positive, but amazingly unexpected!!



Examples without Fear and Doubt:

thought:  Oohhh I want some tea with chocolate!
reply:  Why not?
thought:  Well I just wanted to make myself happier about the last thought of not being good enough for an art contest.
reply:  Just go for it.  It will be fun.

Thought Process without Negative Influence

I started to realize things about myself I was not consciously grasping.
Working with these new realizations I was able to improve my state of mind within moments!

Is this some sort of magic?

The Lions

An old painting sketch from 2012, found in my art supplies.  Took the time to finish what was half done and abandoned a few years ago.  A bit of the new and old combo.  Nice to have it finished.

The Lions

acrylic on canvas

11" x 14"

Going Backwards in Life

I have been working on self-growth and self-improvement full time for over 3 years now.  After a while on this path, certain patterns start to emerge.  One major one for me is the feeling of going backwards.  One day I may feel on a roll, making amazing progress in many aspects of my mind and life.  The next moment, I find myself facing a familiar dilemma from say 3 months ago and then 7 months ago and all my life it seems.  A dilemma that keeps reappearing in my life.  Something I felt and hoped would have been let go long ago, only to sneakily reappear a bit further on in life to make me feel like I am going backwards.

Situations like this are often met with frustration within me and then doubt of whether or not I am actually learning ANYTHING!

My fellow co-adventurers on this mission called Life.  If you encounter similar feelings and fears do not worry.  Here is what I have figured out and what may actually be working in your life as well.

We are NOT going backwards!  (Woo hoo!)

Some lessons in life are intricate and full of complexity.  Learning a lesson that Life has provided for us does not always feel "good".  Once we learn a part of it we feel relief and are able to let that part go.  This does not mean; however, that we have learned everything there is to learn from this lesson.  It is like a video game with levels.  Once we complete one level we feel great, celebrate, take a break.  Then we go back to conquer the next level in order to complete the entire game.

Life presents us with lessons level by level.  Once we conquer one level in a lesson sometimes we are given a break.  The break may be a minute long or a few months long, but eventually, if the full lesson has not yet been learned we are presented with it again some time down the road.  We recognize the lesson from our past.  We remember working on it.  We wonder; 

Why is this happening again?  
Am I going backwards?  
Am I making ANY real progress?! 

The lesson reemerges not to take us back to the beginning, but to pick up from where we have left off so we can continue learning.  Life is a great instructor!  It pushes us to learn, but at our own pace without overloading us to the extreme.

Some lessons are extremely challenging, yes.  But let us be honest.  Once the lesson is learned life becomes so much more amazing!

Under The Sea

Thankful to these jolly creatures and their bright environment!
Through the process of creating them I have learned some important stuff and was able to let many things go.

Under The Sea

acrylic on canvas

2.5' x 3'

Here are a few close ups.

And sometimes it's fun to take a peak at the process too.

 

What are you Doing? If God Ruled the World.

 *  In the following idea, the word God is used to describe a concept , but for your convenience please substitute any word you feel more comfortable with; Universe, Spirit, the Great Void.....  I also refer to God in the masculine form, only, because that is a traditional view of most people in the part of the world I live in.  Yes, God is probably not a man, nor a woman nor a plant.  As a matter of fact God could be anything or nothing or who even knows.  But for the purpose of illustrating this idea please pretend God is a He.  Thanks.

 


Yes, if God ruled the world completely, our lives would be perfect and beautiful.

Doesn't that sound nice? 

Actually, if you believe in God you probably believe that He DOES rule the world.
Wait then.... Where is our ultimate perfection?  Where is our total happiness and beauty?
 
May I suggest that the loop hole lies in Free Will.  Each individual on Earth has Free Will.  Yet, we may not be using our Free Will in the most effective manner.

If you are like me, someone who missed the memo on the proper uses of Free Will somewhere along the line, consider the following.

Where are you right now in life?  Are you happy?  How did you use your Free Will to get here?  Have you even been aware of using your Free Will in life?  How can you use your Free Will to get to the next place you want to go?  Where is the next place you want to go?  Why do you think that is where you need to be?

Too many questions? 

Suppose for a moment that God gave us this life and has a magnificent plan for us.  All we have to do is work with Him and follow His Grand Plan for our life.  This is where Free Will comes in.  He gave us a choice.  We can work together and have a magnificent experience according to His Grand Plan or we can choose to work on our own and see where that leads us.

The second choice means that at any given time we could "cancel out" God's plans for us and take over ourselves.   Well that is what is happening.  We took over planning and running our lives so much that we turned into a society of DOers.  We DO it all ourselves.  We pride ourselves on how well and how fast we can DO.  We Do and Do, but without any idea of the Grand Plan in place.  Which means we are constantly guessing at what we should Do next.  Since we are not following the Grand Plan we are Doing ourselves further into Pointlessness and Confusion.   We Did ourselves into the situation we are in right now.


Well why would God not step in to help us then?

Because God is a respectable fellow.  He fully respects our desire and choice for Free Will.  He is not going to step in and push us out of the way.  Nope.  He will patiently wait until we ourselves decide to ask Him for help.  We need to decide that this might be the right time to stop guessing in life and return back to following the Grand Plan that was designed for us.  All we have to do is invite God back to help us along.

What?!  And give up our Free Will?!  Sounds terrible!

Let us consider.

Would you not give up your Free Will to live your ultimate Life?  No need to answer. 

We are not actually being asked to give up our Free Will.  On the contrary, we are encouraged to exercise it.   We must use our Free Will to decide to ask God for help with our lives.  We must use our Free Will to decide to Trust God, to entrust our lives with Him. 

Working together like this we will reach our dreams.

We Trust, and He Does the work.  What could be better?

Fork in the Road - Make the Best Decision Game

Ever get stuck in making a decision?  Just not sure which way to go?

Here is a game to help.
Start by playing with decisions that are not very important.
Should I eat this cupcake or granola bar?  
As your confidence grows, move on to more interesting decisions.
 

When in doubt of which way to go internally follow these 2 rules:

      1. Make your decision by following the very best, internal felling option. 

          Never follow fear.

      2. Use your thoughts after you determined which option feels best.  

          Otherwise things get confusing.

Every action is guided by a feeling.

This is the case even in those who are less emotion driven and more thought driven.  Ultimatly every action made by any person is guided by feeling.

Those more sensitive to feelings get more practice knowing and differentiating the waterfall of human emotion.

Following our own feelings should always lead to the best result possible.  Unless, there is already something unresolved within and is concerning the issue in need of action.

Here is an example so you can see what I mean:

To get to an important job interview John ponders about taking a shortcut through a rough area of town to catch his bus on time.  His mother's warnings, about the dangers of that area, ring through his mind.  John is faced with a decision to make.

The right decision is the one that feels more right, more exciting, more lively.  The wrong one feels off, wrong, fearful or any other type of negative.

Let us say poor John tends to think a bit much and succumb to making decisions based on fear. He feels a warm, loving, fuzzy feeling when he thinks about his mother's advice, but instead he acts on fear of missing the bus and the interview.  He follows Fear and jogs through the rough neighborhood just to get some unwanted attention on his way to the bus stop.  OR  John has always listened to his mother, and while he feels how easy it would be to stroll to the bus stop using a shortcut his fear of disobeying his mother (who says she is always right) stops him.  He takes the long, safe route just to see his bus pull away without him.  Is this not what happens to us when we feel fear, yet think we are making a reasonable decision based on thought?

Nothing Good can come out of following Bad feelings.

In this go around John has practiced this game before.  While John loves his mother he feels that strolling through the shortcut is an easy and comfortable solution.  He does not fall under the fear that his mom may have placed into him and catches his bus without a hitch.  On the other hand, he may feel best about the loving, fuzzy feelings for his mother and decides to trust them.  He takes the long way to the bus stop.  He may or may not miss the bus, but he may have avoided a serious confrontation. 

John and his situation is fictional.  Of course there can be a thousand other outcomes.

Time goes on and we never know what might have really happened IF we made a different choice.  However, by following our best feelings we know we have made the the right choices because we followed the Good feeling in every situation.

What Can Change in 99 Days

August 1st, 2014 was the start of my 100 Day Reality Challenge.
With 3 intention to work with here is how it all turned out:

3 Intentions

Health

High & Positive Energy

My Purpose

A Regular Day Adventure: 90 of the 100 Day Reality Challenge

Today's video is my little autumn adventure to collect water from a local underground spring.

*WARNING*
   Barefoot walking, tree hugging and bike riding may occur.

Chakra Goddess Painting

My second half of this October is dedicate to self-focus. 
Of course that involves painting!

In July, during my 30 Painting in 30 Days Challenge, this little goddess appeared.

Elaborating on her, this week's project came out looking like this:

Letting Go of Blocks Concerning Responsibility to Others

This week, I experienced the letting go of a block relating to how I act towards people who in anyway may depend on me. 

Let us start with the positive.  I always want the very best for anyone that depends on me for any reason at all.  I take responsibility concerning others very seriously.  Too seriously it turns out.  So seriously actually, that I loose a lot of myself in the seriousness of it all.  I tighten up and lose a lot of my fun.  I lose my freeing connection to the Universe by being too concerned with details that may not matter to others as much as to me.  I want everything to be perfect. 

I have been asking for help in this area and my prayers are slowly being answered.  This week, with a few people visiting, I am noticing a lot of subtle thought patterns and physical tightening.  They led me down the path of discovering a different way of relating to people.

When I realized this new way, instead of feeling happy I felt pain, guilt, regret.  How could I have lived in this way?!  It is so unhelpful and counterproductive. 

No point of letting a good thing go sour.  Time to get back up.  I give Gratitude for finally being shown the blocks and being given the opportunity to let old patterns go.  I understand that I was doing the best I could at any given time.  I forgive myself and move on with Love.

Lesson in Duality: Light & Dark

It has been almost a year since my lessons on Duality have started.
This week's lesson came in a form of the following story, then a brief explanation and suggestions.  I am not suggesting this is right (or wrong) for you.  However, I do hope you enjoy the story!

The Man Who Wanted To See All The Good

 

The Boy was taught from an early age to follow the Light, because it is the Giver of Life and it is Good.  He was taught to stay away from the Dark, as it is Bad.  One day, when the Boy has already grown into a Man he had a thought.  He will stare into the Sun, the Giver of Life, to see All the Good.  Then his life will truly be perfect.

The Man who wanted to see it All stared at the Sun on the brightest day of the year.  He stared even though everyone told him to look away.  He stared and stared.  Minutes.  Hours.  They told him that his eyes will burn in their sockets and he will never see again.  Yet the Man kept looking up all day into the bright ball of fire in the sky.  

As the sun set, the Man finally looked away.  No matter where he looked, all he could see was the bright light of the Sun.  That night, when the Man went to bed and closed his eyes, all he could see was the bright light of the sun.  The next morning, the next week and for many years to come all he could see was the bright light of the sun.  

From that day on he was never in darkness, because he could not see it.  The sun shone into his eyes, no matter what the weather, no matter how high the moon was up in the sky.  The day the Man wanted to see it All and looked up to the Light of the Sun, he did not realize that without the Dark, there would be no Peace for him.  Without Peace, there would be no Rest.   

That is when the Man realized that the Dark is just as important as the Light.  

 

By going to one side or the other, one becomes imbalanced and unhappy; one cannot grow and cannot be at peace.   

Honour every aspect of yourself.  

 

The Light and the Dark within you, have been balanced  beautifully to create YOU. 

We live in a world of Duality; therefore, we cannot escape the Light, nor the Dark.  There is Light and Dark within each and every one of us.  Often, we are taught to fight one of them.  When we fight we do not accept.  If we do not accept, there cannot be peace within us.  When we fight we try to be someone else and are not accepting our own being. 

Dark and Light are not good nor bad.  They just Are.  Having the Light and the Dark within us is the way it is meant to be.  This delicately built-in balance is the perfect formula which makes us who we are.  It is when we are imbalanced that things go wrong.    Fear will get in no matter which way we imbalance ourselves.   Hence we will not be living as our true self.

The suggestion is to Stop fighting the “bad”.  Stop reaching for “good”.  Just Be, the way you were meant to be.  The way you were born into this Black and White world.   

Once you stop.  

Once you accept.   

That is when things will truly be balanced.   

And you can live your true life.

 

 

 

Who is Causing this Havoc

On a trip to a near by little town for brunch my friends and I stopped by the lake to take photos.

We noticed a couple trying to get a large dog into the back of a pickup truck.  They would open the back door of the truck bed, guide the dog in and close the door.  Moments later the dog would jump right back out onto the street and into traffic.  His tail would wag and he would do a couple of happy circles as if laughing at the couple, before taking off towards the nearest bushes.  We watched, giggling, as this happened a couple of times more before the dog ran away further into the bushes.

I wondered if this was how everyday in this household was like.  It looked like a lot of work.

The couple have obviously had enough and simply walked away.  We quickly understood that this was not their dog.  They must have seen him leaping into traffic and tried to put him back into the truck without much luck.

Animal lovers that we are, we stood watching.  The dog can be seen in the far distance squatting in the bush, doing his doggy business.  He was there for a very long time and we waited.  Once he was done, he galloped back towards his truck.  The back door was closed.  He could not make the jump back in.  He started to panic a bit and backed into traffic.  Here my partner was quick to react.  He ran towards the truck and opened the door to the bed.  A whistle got the dog's attention who happily jump back where he belonged. 

Turns out that this dog was not misbehaving after all!  He just didn't want to soil his human's truck.  He even knew to do his business out of reach of everyone.
It was us who misunderstood.

Petting the dog's head "goodbye" I noticed the name of his collar.

Havoc.

Getting Away from FEAR by Breaking Through LIMITS

My last post was about finding Courage.  Those few months that it took me to acquainted myself with Courage taught me a lot about Fear, Self-Set Limits and reaching Love, Peace, Joy.

My Guides told me this story:

Before diving into water one might make sure that the water is deep enough and no obstacles are hiding just below the surface.  When the jump into the water is made there is trust that the water will catch and then spit you back out to the surface, to fresh air.

Sometimes we jump from higher ground than anticipated.  We sink deeper than intended.  We realize that our breath may not be enough to last us.  We start swimming faster up towards the light, the surface.  The closer we get to the surface the more our lung hurt, craving air.  Our lungs start to feel more and more uncomfortable as we reach closer to the top, but this doesn't make us reconsider.

We don't say, "Wait a minute.  Let me try swimming away from the light and see if that makes my lungs feel any better."

We know naturally what to do.  With the help of the water pushing us up we strive towards the surface.  The first gulp of air feel sweet and victorious.

So why do we give up so easily when it comes to our Fears?

Often we are drowning in our Fears.  Sometimes the closer we get to penetrating our Limiting Beliefs and shedding our Fears for good, the more we resist and try to swim towards the bottom instead.  We swim deeper into the Fear.

You will know you are coming close to swimming out of Fear when it becomes almost impossible to hold on!  Commit and strive to get out of it.  Let the Universe support your ascend into the sunshine of Love, Joy and Peace.

Talking with the Full Moon and Finding Courage.

The story towards Courage started on a grand swing bridge in the middle of New Zealand rainforest on February 15, 2014.  I was sitting bundled up in the middle of the bridge, on a bizarrely still night.  A tea candle was holding space with me.  Above hung a beautiful, Leo full moon shinning down on the forest.

Leo is my zodiac sign, and hearing of this full moon I ventured out into the forest to ask for guidance and see what happens.  My life was about to undertake yet another major change and I wanted to make sure that this was right, that all will be ok.

I prayed to the Moon, the Universe, my guides.  I sat in silence, watching the moon and the dark around it.  I laid down waiting for the answer.
And it came!  Out of nowhere  it actually came!

All of a sudden a voice in my head said, 

"If you were a character in the Wizard of Oz, you would be the Lion."   

 

Immediately, I found that funny.  Of course I would be a lion.  I am a Leo after all.  And here I was sitting under the Leo Full Moon.  Then it hit me.  The Lion in the Wizard of Oz went on that journey to find Courage.
Is this what you are trying to tell me Moon?

Am on a journey to find Courage?

The answer came as a clear, "YES".  There was a timeline.  I will need to find my Courage in 3 months, starting in March, ending in June 2014.

Now I was getting nervous.  In order to to find Courage, won't I need to experience Fear?  This didn't sound like everything was going to be all right.  This sounded more like everything is going to be terrifying.  Yet, the magic and beauty of that night gave me so much support and confidnce that I found myself yelling into the darkness,

"Bring it on!"

So it began.  In March, I arrived back in Canada with a bit of savings and a strong desire to live in a town I have only previously vacationed in.  I followed what felt to be all the cues.  Yet, money was becoming scarce, permanent accommodation hard to find and work looked almost impossible.  My partner and I lived unknowing of what was going to happen from day to day.  We feared about having nowhere to go soon and nothing to eat.  The only hope that kept me going was that the Universe had a great lesson to teach me and that this experience was coming to an end in June.

The Universe delivered!!!

Every time we were completely stuck, somehow a lifeline would appear to make us go on for another few days.  After a while we had to give up on worrying, because this attitude was not helping at all.  We summoned our Courage.  We kept following the signs, praying and waiting for the little miracles to appear and get us through to the next day.

By the end of May 2014, we found a great place to live and I got a job!  We started June in our new suite with a pay cheque.  It was another miracle!

These 3 months tore everything I thought about myself to pieces.  They changed me to be a more understanding and loving person.  They humbled me and taught me how to look at the world around me with fresh eyes.  They taught me how to be brave.

This is when I found my Courage.

Super Power of an Empath

My Super Power

Which super power did you want to have as a kid?

Which super power would you want to have today?

Flying?  Xray Vision?  Shooting lasers out of your eyeballs?

As a little kid, the power I most often dreamed of was the ability for my conscious to step into someone else.  I wanted to be able to experience the world completely from another person's perspective; their thoughts, their feelings, their wishes...... everything.

Whenever I would find someone who was interesting to me I would put my energy into them.  I would concentrate on their movements and imagine what it must be like for them at that moment in time.  This was such a fun hobby that this game continued on as I grew.  I played so often that eventually it just turned into an invisible pattern that ran automatically behind the scenes for almost every single person that came into my life.

My ability to pick up other people's energy enable me to successfully stay away from those who could potentially hurt me.  In high school and college, I was able to avoid boy trouble, bad bosses and nasty teachers.  Friends would ask me how I knew, but to me it was natural and I wonder how they didn't know.

My ability to quickly pick up on other people's feelings would result in others trusting me with their secrets and their challenges. Often my suggestions would be helpful to those who entrusted me with their personal stories, but always I was the one to help other be heard.


Today I know that my guide to how I associated with people was the first impression of their energy field.  However, growing up I had absolutely no idea of this.  At parties, I would slip in unnoticed, observe people around me, see where the "safe" people are and move towards them.  If someone who was having a bad day would come in contact with me, I would get very uncomfortable, put up a wall and put them on my 'no good' list immediately.  My super power was not 100% accurate, and I did not understand that back then.

This February, brought with it the gift of understanding.  For no particular reason, I got super sensitive to everyone!  Every time I would get into a certain range of a person, their feelings would jump over to me and I felt taken over by their emotions.  Going grocery shopping was an adventure on its own with so many people in the vegetable isle.  It was like being in the middle of a sic fi movie.

My emotions were all over the map, depending who's presence I was graced with.  It was exhausting and exhilarating.  To be truly honest, this did made me question my sanity a bit. 

Luckily during that time, I was working in a serene setting with not too many people around me most of the time.  My coworkers were my unknowing guinea pigs.  To them I am grateful!!  Sometimes I would feel so guilty for spying on their private emotions that I could not bring myself to look at them.  However, after grounding, blocking, praying and grounding some more I could not change what was happening and had to ride it out.

Today my emotions are back to "normal" levels.  Out of that experience the realization that the super power that I wanted as a kid did become reality for me to a certain degree.  For the most part now, I have a choice whether or not I want to step into somebody's energy field.  This gives me time to ask permission and get to know a person the way they want to be know.

I am so thankful for this fun super power and am learning more about what being an Empath might hold for me in the future.

I Found My Purpose in Life!!!!!

I've been looking for my "purpose in life" for a loooooong time.  Now I realize it has already been a part of my life.  No need to search.  No need to "get on track".  This feels so freeing.

These are my new life guides:

  To go on Adventures.

  To do all kinds of Wonderful Things.

  Forever.

In my video for The 100 Day Reality Challenge I talk about how this all came to be.

On To The Next Challenge!

Lilou Mace has been very inspiring to me for over a year now.
www.youtube.com/user/liloumace

A month ago, her co-created venture called The 100 Day Reality Challenge came to my attention.  At first, I was hesitant.  One Hundred Days!!!  Can I ever commit to something for that long?  Starting August 1st I decided to find out.

My intentions for the next 100 days are:
Health:  mental, physical, spiritual and emotional.
Energy: learning new ways to keep a higher and positive vibration
Purpose:  move towards what I am meant to do in this Universe

It's only day 5 and I am already seeing results and having fun.  Maybe 95 more days will not be too bad.

Check the challenge out and see if it might be something that will call you one day.
www.cocreatingourreality.com

30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge. REVIEW.

These 30 days of painting have proven to be not as long and hard as initially expected.
Mental note:  Expect things to be easy and fun instead!

Day 1.

My intentions were:
To Create Without Judgment.
To leave perfection and criticism behind.
To move towards being artistic while feeling good.
To play and have fun.







Day 30.

Instead of pre-planning my daily paintings and using precise images that I have previously sketched, I slowly switched to painting from whatever entered my reality.  Everything inspired me from a picture, nature or an image in my mind's eye.




Letting go of the Self Critic felt freeing.
One moment thoughts would come to mind like;
     "You can't."
     "That looks terrible."
     "Even a turtle can blend colours better than that."
Then I catch them and let that critical voice go.  The changes are immediate!  Happiness levels go up. Creative energies flow through.  The results in the painting are amazing. And to make everything better the painting comes out faster!

I now work towards applying these skills to not only art by my daily life.
Who needs that Constant Critic anyways?!
I banish thee!

30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge. DAY 30 !!!

I may have been 6 or 7 years old when Monet and I first met through an art book which illustrated photos of his lily ponds and lotuses.  The images were love at first sight for me.  His compositions were so beautiful that I never dared to paint a lotus until tonight.  Since that day, somewhere deep inside me, I held a belief that lotuses are never to be painted again as they will never look as beautiful as Monet's. 

Twenty years later, I was introduced to the idea that a lotus is well loved all around the world.  This mystical flower holds many meanings in different beliefs. 

Last week, I strolled through a local gallery shop and noticed beautiful paintings of lotus ponds by a local artist.  They inspired me.

Today, for my final daily painting I created my very first lotus.
To me it symbolizes; Beauty, Rebirth, Enlightenment,  Fortune. 

Thank you for viewing my month of painting fiasco!