N = Nurturing our Creative Selves.

I have a few friends who claim to have no artistic ability, I have a few friends who have an amazing talent and can produce sketches that would rival any photograph and other amazingly crafty/artistic items.  Myself, I sit possibly somewhere in the middle.  Many years ago I began working on my sketching skills, but I let it slide - I let the creative side of me fall by the wayside to the demands of University and then work.  I'd try tapping into it every so often but I'd quickly loose interest.  It didn't help that, as stated above, I had some friends with amazing talent that made anything I did look like a 2 year olds finger painting.  I was incredibly insecure about what I produced, and being a perfectionist, I didn't want to produce something that was less than perfect.

It was only in 2007/8 that I really came to understand the nature of art and the importance of nurturing our creative side.  More importantly, I learned that by creating I was tapping into that spiritual core of myself, the inner child, the subconscious and that the work I produced didn't need to be worthy of the Louvre, it just had to come from the core.

Art is a great way to tap into our own inner selves, it is a way to express those parts of ourselves we don't consciously recognize (there is a reason its used in therapy).  Through art we can channel the divine and the divine within ourselves.  So what if your work is abstract, or it doesn't live up to another's standards?  If you can look at it and see yourself, see how you felt, see the divine, see the magic within it then you have achieved something truly great.

There are numerous mediums you can choose - art is a broad field.  I personally like to play with photography, sketching, painting, polymer clay and collage.  I have just started to delve into the world of watercolor.  I'm not a master at any of these, but every piece I produce holds a special place in my heart.  It talks of my journey, my feelings and emotions.  It helps me to look back and connect with myself. 

So let yourself go, embrace your inner creative selves, and work in an artistic medium - you'll probably be surprised by the results.

Meditative Monday

Maybe what I should be meditating on today is why I have this inability to keep up with my blog :)  Once again it appears I have taken on too much in my life and that sleep is most definitely taking the brunt of the damage.  Of course this begets a cycle of lack of sleep --> tiredness so can't concentrate --> causing lack of school work --> resulting in crammed deadlines and the complete ignoring of anything non-school related --> resulting in a very unbalanced life and lots of stress  --> which of course leads right back to lack of sleep.

I know people who have kids, go to school, work full time, and somehow still manage to find time to play sports, get crafty, go to church/practice a spiritual path etc.  How the heck do they get it all done?

Struggling to find the key to managing it all.  Maybe the key is that you can't manage it all and I have to realize that things need to be dropped...but that's a whole other set of issues.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for...

1. The local Starbucks (although I'm not a huge fan of their coffee) - who rescued me from my oj instead of milk in the coffee disaster today.  Any coffee was better than none.
2. The fact that I managed to get more than 3hrs of sleep last night.
3. The start of fall weather - I love this time of year.
4. Music
5. The fact that my body seems to have established an auto pilot mode to drive me to the gym in the evenings instead of home.

N is for Nautilus Shell and Spiral journeys

The Nautilus shell is probably the most well known spiral symbol we can think of.  Over 500 million years old they are amazing examples of sacred geometry. As the body of the Nautilus grows it moves from one chamber to the next within its shell sealing the old behind it.  A shell can have as many as 30 chambers within it.  Each spiral of the Nautilus shell grows larger by Phi (the Golden Ratio that is the building block of the universe).  Each revolution is the completion of a cycle.

Sacred Geometry is a reflection of the universe and the dynamic inter-connectedness between ourselves and the natural world. The spiral is a common element in sacred Geometry.  It can be found in the symbolism of numerous cultures throughout the world.  Much like archetypal figures it is a universal symbol that finds its way into cultures everywhere.  They appeal to us on a core/base level.  There is something appealing about the elegance and beauty of the spiral that we all feel connected to.

The Spiral represents a journey, the movement through stages (much as the nautilus moves from chamber to chamber) in your life in order to grow and continue  your cycle.  The spiral is life's journey - it is found in nature, in the universe, in our DNA.  It is also a highly useful tool for meditation.  For myself, when I want to take a dedicated journey in a meditative state - I visualize myself spiraling down a set of stairs into my deep conscious in order to access that part of myself.  Another meditative technique is to visualize a spiral (or actually print one out) where you can begin at the center and work your way up through the spiral, pausing, reflecting, taking the time to appreciate the changes that take place with each turn, taking time to look back and view the spiral you have just walked.  Its a great way to view your journey so far, as well as what may lay ahead.

Daily Draw(s)

Ugh - I have been struggling with sleeping lately which has left me pretty much functioning on basic levels only so I've been quite lax in all things, including these daily draws.  So here is yesterday's and Today's draw

Wednesday:

There is a creativity in you wanting to get through - sacred magic that you need to embrace and let the work flow.  Become a crafter of creative magics.


Thursday:

You must take the chance - allow uncertainty into your life instead of taking the 'safe path'.  Something scary but great is coming your way.

Daily Draw

Now is a time to go underground, to stay within yourself and develop your ideas and your plans without announcing them to all.  Be still, be silent and wait, and when you finally step forth your beauty will shine bright.

M is for Meaning

For such a simple little word there is so much significance to understanding and applying it. It took me a very long time to try and come up with something to write for my second M post - so long in fact that I believe I am now ridiculously behind on the alphabet. But last night, just as I was drifting off to sleep it came to me. I should write about the importance of meaning. Now, as with all good ideas that spring to life in those brief moments before you finally fall asleep they didn't get much further beyond that initial thought (or it if did I don't remember) and so I apologize that this post will probably be quite disjointed as I'm not entirely working with a plan here.

What does it mean?

How often do we ask ourselves this question? I especially see this trend a lot among those who follow a spiritual path of any description (but mostly non-mainstream). The desire to understand why a series of events has taken place and the importance of said events to our lives. Now there is a long discourse I could go into here about how this is all a part of the human condition. How we are creatures with the desire to know, to attempt to understand the world and our place within it. This is after all why we have religions and spiritual practices, it is all a part of our need to figure it all out. But I'm going to leave that discussion there for now because its long winded, involves a lot of referencing and honestly I don't have the time or resources right at this moment to get into it. If people are really interested I'll recommend some books. They'll make your brain turn to mush but they're great.

So on to my point. We strive to find meaning in our lives, its natural, its instinctive and it makes us feel less small. But is it always necessary? Does everything have to have a significance? Does it have to be something that was intended, or caused, or part of a bigger picture? Does shit just happen? At what point do we draw the line between acknowledging the pattern of things and the possibility that the energy in the universe can be affected by our manipulations and surrendering to the idea that sometimes stuff just happens?

Assigning Meaning?

This is another idea I've been pondering. Who gives something meaning? Why do we give it meaning. This is particularly potent I believe in our practices. We assign so much meaning to certain colors, symbols, events, words etc but how often do we stop to think of why we do this? Are we just doing it this way because the book says so, because your friends all do it that way, or is it because to you there is a significance, a special meaning that clicks inside your mind and that radiates with that inner power?

From that point, does something gain meaning and significance because enough people have dictated that it is to be so? If it appears to be generally accepted that a particular color has a certain meaning yet this doesn't resonate with you should you be forcing yourself to accept the meaning of others or your own? To my mind, working with things that hold meaning in your own mind is of far greater power than attempting to fit into the beliefs of others. However, there is argument too for the idea that if enough people focus on a particular meaning than that has power too. See, no easy answers.

Just the pondering of my somewhat caffeine deprived brain this morning.