intentional thinking – Tru Original

Category: intentional thinking

These 3 Things

Happy New Year! So I’m a little late to the party…how embarrassing.

As 2016 ended, I heard many people say things like…

“I’m so done with 2016!”

“2016 was the worst year I’ve ever had!”

“2016 totally kicked my ass!”

I even heard a cashier at the store exclaim to her customer, “I didn’t have one good thing happen to me in 2016”.

Wow, I just cant help to think that’s some major bad juju to be putting out there!

We are 19 days into 2017 and I have had the opportunity to really reflect on my experiences in 2016 and pray about my journey. Truth be told, 2016 was not my favorite year. It was a difficult year, mixed with some major changes and often times I felt like things were being unearthed, and exhumed…for lack of a better word. I lost friendships, people I loved passed away (some tragically), my husband lost his job, and family members remained estranged. And this is not to mention that the state of our world, especially with the 2016 Election, caused good people to turn against one another. I think it’s safe to say we were all feeling something very raw.

But lets go back to the word UNEARTHED. What an odd way to describe a year! The synonyms are: discover, find, reveal, expose, turn up, uncover, bring to light, ferret out, root up.

And there it is… root up or better still, up root. That’s how I felt. Just when I got comfortable, God would up root me and take me into unchartered territory. I was forced to deal with emotions that had been buried and consequences beyond my control. Every synonym you see that describe unearthed is how I felt throughout the year. And then this came to me in prayer…

Colossians 3 Put On the New Self

“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

And there it is. Raised up sounds a lot like up root to me…does it you. Im convinced, because of God’s word, that He wants us all to be ‘raised up’ and be made new in Him. It may not feel good to be exposed to light, after being in the dark, but it’s in our suffering that we come to know Jesus and are able to respond to the suffering of others.

I’ve taken these first 19 days of the new year and ive prayed and reflected. I decided to embrace what God had done throughout my 2016 and He open the door for me to enter anew.

I also did there 3 things…

I wrote a gratitude list of everything I was grateful for in 2016. I came up with 23 things/ people/ and places that blessed me.
I made a list of all of my passions, talents and gifts. I looked at the things I enjoyed as a child, I asked my loved ones what they thought and I prayed about what my gifts were. I wrote down 12, not bad.
Finally, I made a list of things that I needed to let go of. What am I holding onto that prevents me of opening my hands to Christ and put on a new self?

Oh…and I watched Good Will Hunting. LOL. One thing I learned and lived out in 2016 is if you want things to change, change your perspective. You can see many of my blog posts about that very topic. Good Will Hunting is a great example of changing your perspective and accepting the gifts God gave you. It’s about opening up that closed fist and letting God fill it with truth, love and mercy. I’ve learned how to be grateful. I’ve learned to surrender.

Free Spirit

Awww Summer! The excuse to get out of that routine and live like there’s no tomorrow. I certainly took advantage of that sentiment as I basked in the glory of late nights, late mornings, long walks and talks, painting in my studio, sitting in the sunshine and basically doing what I love to do. You know from past blog posts that I have struggled with relaxation, even felt guilty about it, but as I grow older I realize this is a prison of my own making and even God rested on the 7th day! So rest I did and it was wonderful. I hope that you all had some time to do what you love to do too!

If not…it’s never to late to embrace your FREE SPIRIT. Here are 10 ways that I let go and …JUST. BE. ME.

Take time to BE STILL and reconnect with your heart. Pray.
Discover you passions and share them with the world.
Love, just love.
Dance when EVERYONE is watching because no one else is dancing.
Be bold, speak your truth.
Have faith in what you can’t see. Let go and trust God.
Wear your feelings on your sleeve, literally! Dress funky.
Own your past, no excuses and then move on.
Explore! Try new things. Make a fool of yourself or maybe not.
Stop judging people. Not my job.

Still working on a few of these, but this is what I strive for.

Now with my teenagers back in school, the house is much quieter and I’m ready to get back into the swing of things. Although I have been taking the time to do the things I enjoy, I have also had some wonderful opportunities come my way and the timing of this has allowed my to revisit WHY I do what I do. So you’ll see some changes in my business coming this Fall and moving into 2017.

Mostly the direction of my business is moving towards more product development, branding, website design, and wholesale. This is very exciting but as usual, I’m having to learn a ton about business and marketing. This can feel overwhelming so I have to remind myself to do what I can do and leave the rest up to God. So a big change you’ll see in 2016-2017 is more information about the evolution of my art business and less workshops. I love teaching so this is a big let down for me, but needed so I can move my art into a direction that it seems to want to go. I do have some great TRY-IT classes that I will be hosting with Palette and Paper in the works, as well as plans for Art and Soul Workshop once per quarter in 2017. So, to my art tribe, I will not abandon you…ever!

I realized as I sat down to write this post that I totally dropped the ball on finishing up my series of post about how negative thinking affected my life and what I did to get myself out of that downward spiral, other wise known as “the rabbit hole”. I’m so sorry about this! I hope you’ll stay with me as I revisit the remaining 3 things I do to help me to stay focused on the good, the true and the beautiful.

After we’re done with negativity, I will share a series of post about creativity! Ha! That’s pure serendipity! So, thank you for being with me on this journey.

Pick up this sweet graphic below that I created just for you! Just a reminder that life is too short to NOT be doing the things we love.

I feel so blessed by you!

Running with the Scissors

Sunshine MW quote with website

This week, I came across this poem from Marianne Williamson and every bit of my heart yelled out “TRUTH”. I read this poem some years ago, but the word TRUTH didn’t come to mind. Maybe the word was bullshit, or lie, or what a load of crap. Regardless, I was not in a place in my life when I could recognize that I had a light and what it would mean if I let it shine.

Even now, when I know that all of us are born with gifts, talents, and “lights”, I sometimes hold back. Why? I could point to many reasons why I hold back…fear that my gifts won’t measure up (to whom I’m not sure), fear that someone will demand something of my gifts and I will be obligated (commitment phob), fear that I will become stifled and unable to produce ( bored and trapped)…ugh! It really doesn’t matter what the fear is telling me because the job of this fear is simply to put out my light. To extinguish the excitement, the courage, the joy, the trust and hold me in a place of stagnation. This fear is the lie that holds us all captive and redirects us from the “Glory of God that is within us”.

So, the image I kept getting in my head all week as I meditated on this poem was a little girl running with scissors. The little girl doesn’t know how dangerous it is to run with scissors, she’s innocent, and she’s not even thinking about the scissors…she’s running ahead to the next paper doll, or snow flake, ready to do what she does…shine.

If you follow me on Facebook or you’re part of my Art and Soul Prompts group, you know that it’s been all about courage and slaying the fear monster this month. You may recognize the above image as our April Soul prompt. if you don’t, be part of the group. I would love to support you along the way.

One last thing, I want to give you a little gift, the above image titled Own Your Light graphic . Print it off and hang it in a place that you will see it first thing in the morning…the mirror, the coffeemaker, the shower door. But don’t just look at it, read the words and believe in Your Light.

Own your light, it’s who you are, a child of God.

Permission Granted

creative adult

I love teaching art workshops! The energy, the connection, the total vibe is just electric for me. Although it’s been over a year since I have taught art to children, they hold the biggest place in my teaching heart. Why? Because they don’t wait for permission to create, it’s just in them, it’s who they are and the world has not squashed that yet. The most challenging thing about teaching children is they don’t wait for instructions…they just begin and keep going until they have a completely different outcome then the project I am trying to demonstrate. And they’re fine with it! They are confident, passionate, and courageous explorers who conquer the canvas as if it were a piñata, ready to spill out with candy.

But then something happens, it seems around middle school, when the world gets hold of them and tells them they suck, or art is not a “boys” thing, or elephants aren’t purple! They start asking me questions like…”does this look ok?”. ” Should I paint it blue or pink?” Or they make comments like, ” His is better then mine!” We get our creative butts kicked.

We grow up and feel all insecure about being different or artsy. Standard is safe. We lose confidence and push away that creative lifestyle, that creative idea. I don’t mean a crafty life, although some people make Pinterest a lifestyle and it may spark a flame. I mean a life that draws outside the lines, lives outside the box, and believes that what we have to contribute is unique. You become the pioneer!

Living a creative life is special because when you are living in that zone of confidence, passion, and courage, you become a trail blazer. You blaze the way for others to truly live in their passion and purpose. Then you know what happens? World peace! Just kidding…kinda. What happens is we start giving ourselves and others permission to screw up. We understand that being true to ourselves means sometimes being misunderstood, making mistakes, and maybe being over looked. That’s good! Lot’s of opportunity to grow in courage, confidence, and forgiveness during those moments.

So who knew that your art journal, those funky and bright fingernails, or building that wooden igloo was making you a better lover? Just ask the people around you.

I think living a creative life empowers our hearts to love with more depth, understanding and courage .

Pray.

We all know “those” people…the ones who are always talking about their Faith in God and seem to know exactly what God’s purpose is for their life. They are at peace, even though they may be in difficult situations, they don’t get sucked down that rabbit hole of negativity and obsessive thinking. Why are “those” people different from us?

They are different for one reason only. They. Pray. Often.

Having a abundant prayer life changes things. It changes our perspective, it changes our situations and it changes our outcomes. When we have an active and abundant prayer life, we start seeing “those” people as our people…our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Here are 5 ways to enrich your prayer life …

Say a prayer of offering, gratitude, and surrender each morning before you get out of bed. Before you even open your eyes, before your feet hit the floor say a prayer. Say Good Morning Lord! Your prayer could sound something like this…”Lord I love You and I need You. I am all Yours. Help me to surrender my life to Your will in all that I do, think, and say. Thank You for dying for me. Amen” This is a short and simple prayer that allows you to align yourself with Jesus. If this is the first thing you do to start your day, you are setting yourself up for good things.
Incorporate everyday activities into your prayer time. Some people have long commutes to work, this is an opportunity to spend with The Lord! House cleaning is a big one for me and I can offer up that time to really focus on why I’m serving my family and how to do it with more love and commitment. Sometimes this leads me to pray about how I can better serve my church and the world, and other times I’m just trying to clean the house with a loving heart. I also take a walk everyday, my dogs keep me on track here. During my daily walk I am really reflecting on the positive things going on in my life as well as thanking God for the abundant blessings.
Hang out with “those” people. Pray for people to come into your life that are on the same track as you, maybe even a little further along on the journey. These friendships and relationships are the people in your life who reflect God’s love and mercy, they are a living witness of Christ. Jesus needed help to carry His Cross, who are we to think we won’t need help carrying ours?
Find a Church! I am blessed to attend a Church that challenges me, supports me, and loves me. It’s filled with sinners, people who are trying to live a life directed towards God in Heaven. It may take attending a few different Churches to figure out where God is leading you, I know that it did for my family, but don’t give up. The Church is the Body of Christ so I highly encourage you to become a member of a Church. Knock and you will find. Don’t give up!
End the day with prayer. For me this is a time to reflect and repent. Where could I have been more charitable? Did I put God first today? Did I have unkind thoughts towards someone? Did I withhold forgiveness? The Holy Spirit really helps me to understand where I missed the mark and how my thoughts, words, and action affected others and offended The Lord. I then tell God that I’m sorry and ask His forgiveness. Since I am Catholic, I may have the need for confession and would take that opportunity as soon as possible.

Are these 5 things incorporated into your prayer life? Do any of these actions seem hard for you? If so, how can I support you?

Know that I am here to support you and I pray for you! The only purpose I have for writing this blog and making the art that I make is so that others would come to know the love of Christ.

In my next blog post, we will continue on with how to honor the reflection of your journey and do away with negativity. I will write a bit about how to identify where our thoughts are focused and how to get out of patterns of negative feelings.

We are in this together!

Honor the Reflection of Your Journey

In my last post, I shared with you that I had been struggling with negativity and how difficult it was to change my outlook and perspective…in other words, to kick that unwanted house guest in my head right on out the door! When we are struggling with low self esteem, negativity, and/or stress I believe the biggest challenge is to identify and reflect on how and why we are having these feelings, but not go into the rabbit hole of obsessing. Sounds easy, right? It is not easy but it sure is fruitful!

Is it easy to take responsibility for our choices and actions? To take over the plane when we have been flying on auto-pilot for so long. What if we crash? What if we can’t navigate through the storm ahead? What if we let our passengers down? We may not be playing the plane wreak scenarios in our heads, but maybe you’re asking these questions…

What if I fail? What if I’m rejected? What if they see my imperfections?

We all ask these questions! These questions can help us to logically navigate through the storm, right? The concern is when we can’t stop asking these questions after a storm and we are still feeling fear even when the storm has passed, we went down the rabbit hole. What then? Stress, low self esteem, anger, confusion, fear, negativity…you get it and this is where we become stuck on auto pilot again. Better to let that guy handle those things.

It’s easy to not identify or acknowledge our feelings in our world today. We are busy and with all the distractions we can check out on our feelings and check into the TV, internet, work, social media, drinking, eating, etc. and feel like we are accomplishing something. We choose to not honor our feelings and soon our feelings are manifesting themselves in other ways like addictions, overeating, complaining/ negativity, restlessness. obsessiveness, not able to sleep, depression, and fear or lack of peace.

I was in this dark place and I was dwelling on negativity, completely unaware of my feelings of hurt and rejection. So how did I get out of that dark hole? I am not an expert on feelings or anything for that matter, but I can tell you about 4 things that are working for me.

Set aside time for prayer and reflection everyday.
Identify my feelings and acknowledge why I’m feeling that way, then release them.
Intentional thinking.
Attitude of gratitude.

I am going to go into details about these 4 steps in the coming weeks posts. These are steps which you can apply to begin living a life that honors the reflection of your journey. I know that our journeys are hard sometimes, filled with struggles, sorrow, and pain. But know this, we are not defined by our circumstances we are defined by our response to those circumstances and we are defined by God’s love for us. We are ALL precious in the eyes of God, no matter our choices, no matter our mistakes, no matter our circumstances. So let’s honor each and every step on this life journey so that our soul reflects love and truth.

My next post will offer tips on how to make more time for prayer and reflection.

Be gentle on yourself this week!