Last night I wrote down a short list, asked the Universe to help me out with new ideas for making Art & Money, and I woke up with some great ideas.

Determined to maintain my open & creative mind for as long as possible, I embarked on a creative blitz all afternoon, starting with the ideas from my dreams, then looking back at my previous work, taking my ‘baby ideas’, and seeing how far they’d go.

What’s interesting about this approach to my work, is that it requires me to be in my most open state of mind, because whenever I come up against something I haven’t done before, there is often a tendancy for criticisms, excuses, and doubts to creep in.

The key is to carry on regardless, to entertain those grand ideas. and take them even further…
Changing states of mind
One thing I’ve noticed is that things keep changing, as I entered a new environement, prepared lunch, whatever, I found myself in a slightly different head-space.

So it’s not so much about trying to ‘hold on’ to a state of mind, as about returning to it again and again, from all the different places your mind goes…

Baby Steps
Another thing I tried was to take ‘baby steps’, which is the idea that we can get from where we are to where-ever we want to go through a simple chain of actions, so long as we trust that each step will lead on to another.

As I found myself at the start of the week, I wrote down a specific goal for the coming week, and then asked myself, what can I do now that feels like it’s pointed in that direction? (even if it doesn’t contain the complete solution)

And one thing came to mind, which was writing an email to some clients of mine, who had expressed interest in a further sale or commission.

So I got on with the email, which I’d held off for a couple of weeks, and as I was doing it I realised it was putting me into my ideal state of mind, because I was communicating with people who were encouraging me, and actually buying into my most ambitious ideas.
For an artist, patrons are wonderful things to have, because they are often wealthy people who like what you do and regularly buy your work. Patrons can come and go, and it’s sometimes demoralising to notice their absense, but what I realised was that I could quite easilly tap into the ‘feeling’ that having patrons evokes, even when they’re not around.

The feeling is one of validation, support, and best of all, a keen interest in my as yet undiscovered potential.

I’m currently doing a commission for someone, and she doesn’t want to influence me too much because she’s intrigued by what I’ll come up with. She is my favorite type of client because she understands the true artistic process. Great art must be allowed to evolve and develop naturally.

So the email led to an inspired state, which led to more expansive ideas for art works, and actually revisiting projects I started a couple of years ago, but had left to gather dust, as I couldn’t imagine an outlet for them at the time.

These ideas have given me a renewed confidence and enthusiasm for my work. In fact I’ve felt far more inspired looking at my own work, than at other people’s.

I’ve realised that my problem hasn’t really been lack of ideas or money, but a lack of confidence in my ability to make those more ambitious ideas happen.

My greatest enthusiasm is for my grandest projects, but they often lie outside my experience, and way outside my comfort zone. I get so far with them, but then find myself coming up against the limits of what I know.

But then when I return to my ‘normal’ work, I lack the same desire to do it, knowing that I’d rather be doing something else, something grander and more exciting.
Much of the most interesting new Contemporary Art involves artists embracing these ‘outside’ factors in order to realise ideas that are grander than they could achieve on their own. This is new territory for me, and is unfamilar ground, but it’s a vital step in my realising my full potential.

What I mean by this is that for as long as I can remember I’ve worked hard trying to ‘be a success’, but I’ve never actually felt like I’ve got there, however much I’ve achieved, because I’ve always tried to be something ‘else’ that I imagine I could/should be.

My realisation is that of course it’s utterly fruitless to try to be anything other than what I am, and that all the success I can imagine is simply my ‘inner potential’ waiting to be released and explored.

So I decided to stop trying to be anything other than me.

If you think about it, t’s a total contradiction to ‘try to be yourself’. You already are yourself, so trying to be yourself more, must be resisting what you already are.

Becoming more of who you are is easy because it’s already there. Whereas becoming what you ‘want to be’ is difficult, because you’re then imposing expectations, rather than simply allowing the emergence of your brilliance.
The secret is to realise that what you really want to be is simply ‘more of who you are’, rather than trying to be someone different.

I realise now that I was brought up to question many of the talents and assets that I most value about myself. From a young age I was told what I should be doing, and why I would “never succeed’ doing what I wanted.

Even though I consciously dismissed these negative suggestions, I was left with a feeling that I would have to ‘work twice as hard’ in order to succeed.

‘Working harder’ equated with doing things I didn’t want to do but had to do in order to succeed. Unfortunately, doing those things didn’t make me happy, didn’t inspire me, and therefore didn’t bring the success I wanted.

The success I achieved was the result of simply trusting myself, and exploring my as yet unknown potential. I ended up surprising and amazing myself, coming up with things I COULDN’T have logically imagined, but which came easily by simply following my intuition.

If you feel that you are a failure, or a criminal or simply in the wrong career, then it might seem that a complete change of approach, personality or skills is the best plan.

The problem with this thinking is that it still implies that ‘you are not good enough’. I think that the truth is that ‘you’ are amazing, but your Great You has simply been hidden beneath various negative beliefs that have restricted your natural self-realisation.

For me, what distinguishes the people I most respect, is that they appear to be themselves. They are not trying to be anyone else. They accept themselves as they are and make the best of it.

I don’t believe you can succeed at the highest levels if you have to try really hard to remain there every day. The Only way you can be the best is if it feels natural and effortless.

Not that these people don’t put a lot of energy into what they do, but it’s the energy of passion and enthusiasm, rather than effort and labour.

It takes courage to trust yourself to be yourself. I was brought up to believe that I had to ‘work in the real world’ in order to earn my living. But my greatest successes have always been through doing things my own way, and through exploring new ways of ‘earning a living’.

Both my parents are (cautious) Capricorns, and I am a (passionate) Scorpio. I cannot live by their advice because it simply doesn’t work for me. I cannot do ‘sensible jobs’ or even keep a ‘normal job’ because my heart isn’t in it.
I always put an incredible amount of energy into what I do, and whenever I’ve done ‘normal jobs’ I’ve never felt I’ve got paid appropriate to my input. Perhaps some people get round this by giving less to their job, but I can’t see the point of living your life like that, it just seems like such a waste of human potential.

I feel happiest trusting myself. The problem with trying to ‘make things work’ by listening to other people’s advice, is that no-one else knows what you are capable of.

The only question is how to be myself more? What does that involve? What can I do to explore my infinite potential? Which seems to bring me full circle, back to my first point: I don’t have to Do anything, and I certainly shouldn’t Try to do something. If anything, I should do nothing, and simply wait to see what inspires me…

I’ve been watching “The Secret” again, and it never fails to deliver!
The key point I picked up today was about Gratitude, and the idea that we should remember to focus on the good things that we already have, rather than thinking about the absence of the things we desire.

I’ve realised that I’ve still been thinking far too much about what I don’t have. It’s strange that what I want, and don’t yet ‘have’, can appear as a lack (hence the phrase ‘he was left wanting’).

This can present us with a bit of a paradox because while we need to know what we desire, and believe it is already ours – before it appears, we mustn’t think that we don’t actually have it yet!

The funny thing is that the Universe DOES provide us with what we’re asking for, but it does so within the buffer of time, and therefore if we don’t appreciate the ‘little’ things as they start arriving, then we actually deny and push away the grander manifestations.

It’s like we’re impatiently waiting for these huge deliveries, while missing all of the subtle small/medium sized gifts arriving all the time.

If we can appreciate that the small gifts are actually leading on to the larger ones, then we can change our attitude towards the process of manifestation, and remain open to and expectant of our greatest desires.

We can learn to see each small gift as one step on a staircase leading to our dreams. As we recognise and take that seemingly small step, we can appreciate where it is leading us, rather than complaining that it isn’t a bigger step, or ideally, an escalator!

Of course bigger steps ARE constantly being offered to us as well, but we simply don’t recognise them. In this case the step is metaphorically too high for us to climb, or rather, we see it as a wall, instead of as a step!

You could therefore say that all of the walls/obstacles/challenges we see around us are actually just larger steps, which we could easilly step onto if we had a different perception. As we grow more accomplished in our chosen field these steps become easier to climb, and we’re then surprised at the hesitancy expressed by those behind us.

These gift/steps also tend to lead into the unknown, so we can’t see anything but darkness ahead. In fact we might not even think the step leads anywhere, because we can’t see beyond it.

I believe that every gift/step does lead somewhere, but we can only prove this to be true by taking that step! If you don’t take that gift/step/opportunity then you’ll never know where it might have led.

The fact that we often can’t see past the first step is really not a problem, as we only need to take one step at a time, and as we take that step, the next one will become visible. This is where we must have Faith, or at least Trust in the unfoldment process.

So it seems that whatever opportunity the universe gives us we should take, even if we can’t see exactly how it will lead us to our true desires (“God works in mysterious ways”). And so, rather than standing around lamenting our apparent bad luck, we should eagerly get on with the task in hand, seeing it as an opportunity to excel, and all the while being on the look out for the next gift/step forwards.

Accomplishment & Complacency

Another thing to remember to be grateful for, are our own past accomplishments. They might not seem like much compared to the bigger picture we’re imagining, but they are vital steps on our path to our desires, and are wonderful tangible evidence of progress that we can utilise as we imagine our next step.

Sometimes we might been making good progress and then find ourselves seemingly without any new leads. We can then find our state of mind slipping from assurance to uncertainty and fear.

If we take a step back here, then we see that we tend to feel wonderful when things are going well, but then can become complacent, which means that while we’re appreciative of what we’ve achieved, we’ve stopped imagining where we want to go next.

Complacency can be the result of overwhelming relief in the absence of our previous pressures, and in that contented state we simply want to continue to enjoy feeling at peace.

In actual fact it is a crucial time to reaffirm our desires, since we are in such a positive state of mind. At those times we should recognise that other opportunites are occuring, though they will probably be at a new level/step. For instance, a good sale might not lead directly to another one, but might instead have brought our product to the attention of a new distributer.

What this means is that today I have been doing whatever inspires and moves me, rather than blindly continueing to do what I usually feel that I should do, have to do, or really ought to do.

It’s strange how we can cling onto the ‘philosophy’ of struggle, effort and resistance. That path leads nowhere, and yet we seem conditioned to follow it, trying to scheme, plan and push our way ahead.

My choice to ‘follow my bliss’ has resulted in my having a quite amazing day.

I am no longer wondering/worrying what is the best/right or most sensible thing to do, instead I’m entirely going by my feeling of what inspires me.

Sure, that could have meant I decided to spend all day walking in the fields, or invest all my money in hundreds of scratch cards (now there’s an idea!), but it actually meant I just got on with some ideas for paintings that previously I couldn’t ‘justify’ in terms of my ‘plan’.

I’ve also given myself the choice to take a break from any habits that I usually adhere to, and again, this hasn’t meant complete anarchy, but simply that each moment I enjoy the choice of what I do next.

I guess you could call this ‘the art of allowing yourself just to be yourself.’

Before today I really didn’t understand the concept of ‘follow your bliss’.

Sure I thought I knew what it meant, but to actually do it is a whole other experience.

What it means is that there is no longer any judgement.

Nothing is bad, everything is subjective, everything is a choice of perception.

Everything is a gift, and every moment can be incredible. You no longer have to try to do something, or feel the need to wallow in self pity, or feel obliged to react to anything in the usual way.

Isn’t it interesting that I was only prompted to take this course because I woke up in a strange mood? Had I woken in a good mood, then I might have just got on with the day as usual, whereas in this case I was ‘encouraged’ to take the opportunity to do something different.

You might say that all discouraging and annoying experiences are actually useful prompts from the universe to say “stop trying so hard”, and to get us back onto the path of Bliss.

I had started a blog a couple of days ago to be called “Do what you enjoy doing”, but I didn’t finish it, mainly because I didn’t feel that I actually WAS doing what I enjoyed!

Now I can happilly write “Follow your bliss” because that is exactly what I’m doing.

Why don’t YOU give it a try tomorrow? You’ll love it!

I was having my usual meditation before lunch, and I was focusing on Expansive thoughts, thinking of myself in the most elevated forms, creating the most incredible art, and being at my greatest potential.

The thought that came to my mind was: I Am Infinity

It’s interesting because when we look around us, or imagine our surroundings, we can understand that we are ‘connected’ to everything in the universe, but of course, if we are connected, then we must also be a part of everything, an extension of ‘all that is’, and therefore we must ‘be’ infinity.

As we hear the sound of a passing car we can indentify with and become that sound, as we think of the sky, we can become the sky, as we think of the world we can feel that we ‘are’ the world.

You may have practised an ‘expansion’ meditation, where you imagine yourself expanding from your body into the room, then to your house, your county, to your country, world, solar system, galaxy, universe and beyond.

Beyond the Universe is Infinity.

There are no limitations to what we are and what we can be. However, we tend to identify with limited forms, and the mind has a tendency to dwell on limited or even negative thoughts because of the environment we have grown up in.

When I finish my meditation, if I have done it at home, then I go back to work through town, and immediately I’m surrounded by limited forms, concepts and beliefs. If I’m already in my studio, then I’m also surrounded by the previous forms I’ve created, some of which are expansive, and others reflect my more limited ideas/beliefs.

I’m aware that the most important thing after meditation is to maintain that open mind, and to encourage expansive thoughts, rather than returning to old habits of thinking. So it seems that my main intention should be to find ways to continually ‘expand my self-image’, rather than falling back to eroneous ideas I’ve had about myself in the past.

Visualisation
I’ve been writing out some Visualisation forms and it’s been really interesting to refer to them throughout the day, particularly as they remind me how the projects I’m working on seem to be much less ambitious than the intentions I’ve set myself.

It seems I must ‘allow’ myself to be in an expansive space, but my ‘default’ setting seems to be the ‘Protestant work ethic’. So my intention is therefore to change my default setting from a ‘sensible’ to a more expansive attitude.

This seems to ‘scare’ my ego, and a little voice in my head warns me that this might not be the ‘wisest ‘ thing to do. But he fact is that the ‘safe’ attitude has never got me the best results, for they’ve tended to come when I’m in a totally free sapce, allowing myself to dream up my most ambitious and unexpected ideas.

For instance, I love to visualise my exhibitions at the best galleries, but then I find myself getting caught up with concerns of a far lower ‘vibration’, and trying to work out what I ‘should’ be doing to pay the rent etc.

The truth is that when I allow myself to think in expansive terms, I’m far happier, and I create better work. So the key is to allow myself to be in that state of mind more often, is to create new habits and reminders to keep me thinking in those exalted states.
The important thing then, is not so much what we intend, but how we carry that into our working day.
We need to create a tangible link/path between our highest intentions and our daily activities.

One tool I’ve found very useful in this respect is the ‘Daily HoloCreation Sheet’ by Christopher Westra. Filling in this form allows you to decide on a definate course of action based on your highest intentions.
http://icreatereality.com/HoloCreationSheet.pdf And this is an example sheet for how you can use it:
http://icreatereality.com/example.htm

Negative thoughts are like cigarettes!

I stopped smoking in 2000 by deciding to stop, and going ‘cold turkey’. I haven’t had a cigarette since, and whenever the thought has entered my mind, I’ve recognised that it is not what I really want, chosen to say ‘no’, and got on with something more useful.

Cigarette/negative thoughts. We know they’re bad for us, but we’ve developed a habit, and every time we feel the urge for a quick negative ‘hit’ we have to stop ourselves, and choose a positive thought instead.

With self-awareness of the true nature of our thoughts and the practise of instantly ‘stubbing out’ detrimental thoughts, a predominently positive attitude can become our default state.
Constantly Expand Yourself !