Bohemian Art Buffet: listen to the inner guidance

When you think you have dried up all your resources for creative ideas, for paintings or artworks, for poems, stories or dreams I highly suggest returning to What You Know.

First step: Quiet yourself--sit down, breathe deeply and just "Listen Inwardly." This is also sometimes called meditation. Don't TRY to think of anything, just be present with yourself. (We get so busy we forget to do this--and yes, I know it kind of sounds stupid since we are always with ourselves--but we really crave our own attention--and I do mean attention.

Second step: Remember where you came from. We all have roots, history, a past, experiences...we don't have to judge them as good or bad because let's be honest, it's a mixed bag. From that past, pull out something that really resonates strongly with you. Maybe you resonate with the memory of a colorful sunset or sunrise. Perhaps the resonance is attached to a specific place you visited. Maybe you recall a story or a person who caught and held your attention for a time. Whatever it is, start there--with What You Know. Because what I know is that we are all amazing, powerful creators and we know so much more than we usually cop to knowing. We are brilliant. We are geniuses (I don't care what IQ tests, stats, or negative-minded people have told you in the past.) We have infinite creativity. We just have to get back to What We Know.

In my case, I drew upon the feeling I used to get when I would drive out to El Malpais or Acoma on the West Mesa of New Mexico. Especially powerful for me were the striking colors and light when there were storm clouds present or as the day drew nearer to dusk. If you've ever been to the Land of Enchantment, you know what I mean. This is What I Know today in my #InspiredArtProject2015 #doartdaily.

West Mesa Nostalgia, (c)SZing 2015
Watercolor on watercolor paper

This morning I had planned to go to a craft market to sell my artworks. But my ignition failed on my car and I'm going nowhere. When I returned to the house to have a cup of coffee and figure out what the day would turn out to look like instead, I realized that it's not in my control and the best thing I can do is surrender to the process and be open to the opportunities that the day holds.

This is not unlike the process of doing artwork or painting. It also applies to most businesses. And it certainly applies to our spiritual living. We do not have the entire blueprint. We are only given what I refer to as "marching orders" and have the tiny corner of the overall plan. We can use our free-will to determine how best to carry out our marching orders, but fighting the marching orders only prolongs the pain.

I could have come inside and been so upset that my day's plan was messed up and allowed that to cause my entire day to be blown apart. I could have fretted and fussed and tried to "make" it work out--although in this instance, short of hiring a taxi, there really isn't much I could do today to get things working out how I wanted and expected them to be.

One of the reasons I love the Painting Experience that I attended this past weekend is that I have learned to (mostly) surrender to the process. I will admit it is only through some rather painful and wrenching resistance in the past that I learned this hard-won lesson. What I found by surrendering to the process is that it "shushes" the inner critic and the inner control freak because I listen, acknowledge their contributions and they go away. In the act of surrendering, I am able to hear and see clearly what the next step in the process needs to be--whether that is a change of paintbrush, loading the brush with a new paint color--like maroon or red instead of green--or if the next step is an image or idea of some particular item that comes into consciousness and must be added to the whole. In one case, this was a goat. It hung out in the back of my brain the entire time I was painting and was the last thing I put into the painting, but I honored it and gave it its place. Had I refused to do so, not only would my painting have been incomplete and felt incomplete, there is a very good chance that I would have become stuck or frustrated and perhaps done something drastic like paint over the painting in order to avoid the issue of the goat.

In recent months, I have begun to call surrender "the great cleanser."

In the past, the word “surrender” held negative connotations of ideas of suffering, limitation, lack, or loss. It meant giving up something valuable and implied there would be pain of some sort. Over the years, I developed a new way of looking at and allowing surrender. I see surrender as the restoration of my spirit to its divine and original state—a cleansing of sorts from the day-to-day will power that the human “I” tries to exert upon my world. There is joy in the release from the pressure of having to “make” things happen. Surrender moves beyond my human self/will to allow the power and presence of the Source to flow and guide my thoughts and actions. In some respects, this fits the traditional definitions of surrender in that I “deliver my fugitive self into the Law.”

To surrender is to relinquish monkey mind busy-ness, planning and thoughts of “how things should be”, allowing things to be as they are. Surrender is the release of Spirit that brings freedom, confidence, peace, abundance, health, faith and more of life. To surrender is critical to faith and manifestation. All situations, events, activities, thoughts and processes have a natural path. Rather than forcing a path, Surrender allows the existing path to be revealed. Surrender opens a door to possibilities, imagination and exploration.

In surrendering to the process, my artwork continues to grow and ends up better than it would have had I fought my intuitive guidance and inner knowing. I trust my art...and conversely, my art trusts me.

(c) SZing, 2013. All rights reserved.

Pages

Friday, January 23, 2015

What You Know...

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Surrender to the Process