Create Your Reality

It is your birthright to be creative. Nature shows us that it's inevitable in one way or another. When part of a plant is cut and replanted, it then creates a whole new plant! By the looks of all the double baby strollers in my neighborhood, and the expanding gatherings of my friends, two have become three and four... Everyone is doing it. Life is creating, duplicating and expressing itself from an endless stream of ideas and intentions.

We are creators building our reality from one moment to the next. As I have said for myself, the same energy I have used to build myself up, I have used to tear myself down. Or give me a task, point me in a direction, and watch me go. Consider this: when you are heading in a direction, you may very well get there. So you may want to take a moment to step back and set your course. Here's a little tip: you are already creating your next moment. Look around you: this is the reality you have created. That is awesome! Now what?! If you want to re-create your reality you cannot simply wave a magic wand or declare your way into it. As the saying by Albert Einstein goes "You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it."So how to access your creativity?

Personally, I am in a transitional moment in my life. I have outgrown and fulfilled the last chapter.  Lately I have been feeling that there is more of me that wants to be seen and heard, yet I don't know what that "new self" looks like yet. The creative process begins with that emptiness. The emptiness and the unknown can be daunting, yet this is where the well of creativity exists. I have been trying to get someone to join me here. Take my hand and jump into the abyss with me! (How romantic!) Waiting. Waiting for someone to join me. Looking for a friend to go paint along side me....I finally decided to jump in myself.  So what shall I do with this blank canvas? I decided to get an actual blank canvas and to go paint. Yet, what to paint?

Here's how I started: I had an intention–the impulse to paint was a call to awakening more of my creativity.  I reflected on what it felt like to "not know" what I wanted to express, and defined it with words. It feels like I'm withholding. As if I'm hiding from spirit. Like I am holding my breath. I decided to call the painting "Exhale."

I picked out a canvas shape, which was inspired by my prior nights dream. I chose acrylics, for ease. I then sketched what I thought represented my exhale. My call to my creativity. I highly recommend playing music in the background that inspires your creative intuition! Then let it flow. I do not stick to the plan when I paint. If I do, frustration quickly reveals itself. Paint doesn't respond to control. It responds to layering, and process...to patience and loving what you do. When I was a girl, my mom was a great artist and taught me how to color inside the lines, as well as shading and perspective. By the time I was 14, I was able to do exact renderings...but that is not the nature of my spirit. I am more whimsical and free. So I encourage being as much like a child as possible. As Henry Miller used to point out (although he was known for his writing, painting was a huge part of his creative process), a child always paints a perfect picture. Picasso says : "It takes a long time to become young again".

I felt so loved once I was done painting. The act of painting, itself,  felt like an exhale. I felt seen and heard in the moment. I felt expressed. I wanted to paint and I painted! Perhaps it's that simple. If you want to sing, SING! If you want to dance, DANCE! Perhaps instead of plotting out what you think needs to happen, from the same mind that got you right here, you can instead tap into the source of creativity that is inspiring you to take broad new leaps in this very moment.

As with everything, people will perceive the final expression from their own perspective. One of the women at the paint lab said my painting looked like a fairy princess. Someone thought I was painting something to go in a yoga studio. The highest compliment came from my niece who said she wished that she had painted it. I don't suppose it matters much in the end what someone thinks, except for in a sharing way. Just like the piece of the plant that is replanted and becomes it's own, so does the new creation. When you are creating, go for the feeling. It is the feeling that brings the new reality.

Your moment is a blank canvas and you are an artist

This happened.

It looks like a happy battle!

This woman worked at the lab and she recognized my voice when I asked for more white. She does the Yogalosophy DVD with her daughter all the time! She is an art teacher .

EXHALE