Have you ever noticed that when something unexpected happens, or when you take action unexpectedly, that you feel your heart racing, your stomach tightens, your sense of self feels vulnerable? That’s a good thing. It’s an opening for more possibilities to enter your life.
That’s what was happening to me when I painted the picture above. I had just quit a job to devote myself to painting full time. It wasn’t a well planned move, nor was it rational. Throwing caution to the wind, this painting turned out to have the feeling of being free from the sensibilities I wanted to be able to finally overcome. I had finally given full reign to my emotions instead of “having to”, “should”, “must”, or any other fear based thoughts which had kept me from surrendering.
I’m finding that creativity depends on being vulnerable. I have been writing these blog posts without any plans. I pick one of my paintings to inspire the words and ideas I want to share. It’s a lot like, when you want to spark your imagination, just go to the dictionary and pick any word. That word will take you to unexplored places in your heart.
Creativity also depends on change. If you aren’t mixing up things, you grow stagnant and what you do becomes boring. An artist or writer or anyone else wanting to create something new always needs to find that one spark to motivate them. You don’t have to put your whole life in jeopardy to accomplish what I did with this painting. You can prepare yourself beforehand by making friends with change in your life, to let go of all fear by opening up your heart to trust that Divine Providence will step in to guide you, and then begin.
So what if this time you don’t meet your expectations? Do it again. Allow mistakes because sometimes those are the tidbits of the light that takes you in the direction of what you couldn’t know would be even better than the way you thought you should go.
More about change next time. In the meantime, I would appreciate questions, comments and feedback. Thanks for visiting my blog!
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