Category Archives: motivational

female principle, inspirational, motivational, passion, transformation

Everyone wants to be perfect.

Everyone wants to be perfect this day and age. Toned to perfection, hard abs, fancy clothes, fancy shoes, a hot car.
I have no desire to hustle for perfection. Everywhere we look these days there are unrealistic role models that spout success on every level but the reality is we’re as different from each other as the pebbles on the beach. What works for some people won’t work for others, and what if you reach “perfection” as touted by the media??

perfection is stagnation
Perfection is invented

So when we reach perfection (a la the norm of the fashion magazines and such) what is next?

Push, push, push yourself to stay in great shape, buy new fancy clothes, etcetera. Be superwoman, go, go, go.

I’m not against pushing oneself to reach goals, but this mindless following of what others tell us we should look like and do  is a big fat brainwashing scenario.

I’m all for keeping fit, eat healthy,  do something I love so that I can feel fulfilled, but social media today is filled with aggressive success touting coaches that are not based on reality but some Olympic sized goal that most people can’t attain.

The point is, listen to yourself. How do you want to pace yourself?  What makes you feel good?  How do you do more of what makes you feel good and healthy?  One baby step of improvement every day.  You may never attain the perfect body; I know I haven’t but it’s possible to take care of oneself and get to a fitness level that makes your body feel strong and healthy.

As far as passion goes.  Do more of what makes your soul sing. It can be hard sometimes to work through the resistance, but again, talk to the resistance and take baby steps forward.  That’s what I do every day. I don’t care about having millions of dollars, but I care about the quality of my life.  I have to work at it; there is no getting around that, but the work is FUN (for the most part.)

Add more health, vitality, fun, passion to life by starting TODAY. What can you do to improve your life today? Just begin.

I have an art challenge going in my Facebook group at the moment. It’s a 14 day challenge about honoring the female principle.  I post a prompt every day, and we’re on Day 2. Why not join this free challenge?  Join my art group Art Exploration with Maria Greene.

We are all about nurturing and supporting the deep female qualities, and that is so needed in today’s race to be the most perfect, the prettiest, the hottest, the most successful woman around.  All it does is spawn competition.

Are you in?  You are perfect as you are!! 🙂

joy
Celebrating the female principle.

xo

Maria

art, artist, creativity, dream, life, motivational, passion

Count yourself lucky.

2 Comments

If you have a dream you can count yourself lucky because most people don’t have dreams. They do, but they don’t know they do unless something happens to open up their eyes.

dreaming
Count yourself lucky if you have a dream.

As children we dream all the time, at least I used to. I was the queen of daydreaming…

As I grew up there was only one career I wanted to embrace, become an artist. I kind of did, on the side, but to bring home the bacon I had lots of different jobs that I hated to various degrees.  But I also became a writer, which I loved, but that’s another story. I have done many things I hated, and that is my loss, BUT, no experience is wasted.

Today, I have gone back to my roots and art is my passion. For the last two years I’ve been working on building an online art career, mostly having fun and making videos to share.  I love to experiment with art and with crafts and see what I can make. It will go on for the rest of my life I’m sure, whether the money pours in or not.

We are totally ruled by money.

I have decided that I’m now ruled by what makes me happy to get up in the morning. I have overcome a large portion of fear around money, and that has brought me a sense of freedom. I would be lying if I said I never worry, but the waves of worry come but they go away just as fast.  I’m breaking out of the straight-jacket of money slavery.

Every day I look forward to my art and follow my intuition even though I have goals that I want to accomplish. I used to be really driven and accomplishment oriented, but something has shifted, and I don’t worry about how much I accomplish AS LONG AS I SHOW UP EVERY DAY.  That is the important part. The turtle wins the race because it keeps plugging away whereas the hare has a heart attack in his race to get to the finish line first. There is no finish line.

Life IS a dream, and we have the power to create from what we love to do. Even if we don’t know exactly what, we can try things that intrigue us and see what catches. Once we take a step forward, the thing that has been calling us is waiting and steps forward with great enthusiasm.

Listen to your own inner voice, not that clamoring, lying voice of the outside world (especially the media.)  Don’t let distractions and excuses stop you. Start today; don’t wait.

Get those art supplies if you want to be an artist and BEGIN, even if it’s at a corner of your dinner table.  You don’t know how? You didn’t know how to walk when you were a baby, but there was an inner urge that made you try and try again.  Your dream is the same way. It will prompt you to move forward if you’re willing to listen. You are hard-wired to your dream, so let it out! Give it some life.

Might feel a bit awkward at first, but at some point, along comes the groove! 🙂  You have come home to your dream.  Count yourself lucky.

xo

Maria

P.S  I’m working on a mini e-course on how to make some cool art journals, so keep your eyes peeled for more information. Meanwhile, you can always sign up for my newsletter via the link in the side bar.

independence, inspirational, life, motivational

Today it’s almost Independence Day.

Today I went to a block party in my neighborhood, and I admire the people who put it together in 95 degree heat. People around here are great, and I’m so grateful to have nice neighbors.  They are awesome, in fact!

I’m sure there will be fireworks later, but I had to leave early since the heat was getting to me.

People are celebrating a long weekend, and tomorrow there will be more parties and fireworks.

Happy 4th!
Independence Day

Independence Day is all fine and good, but what is independence? Is it a long weekend off from a job one hates, or a celebration that we were liberated from the British rule way back when?

To me, independence is to own my life, to create the life that supports me on all levels, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.  Art does that for me, but there is always more.

Independence is not about over eating and drinking, though good food is always welcome since I don’t cook much.

Why not celebrate independence every day?

That is what we are meant to do. We were not created to live with nose to the grindstone (I have done plenty of that and it’s soul-destroying.) Life is not supposed to be an albatross around your neck.

Creating an independent life is not easy, but it’s fun and challenging. It takes a lot of soul-searching and often trial and error to get it right. I don’t think I have gotten it right yet, but I have lived an independent life on and off in my life, and that has taught me some things.  There really is no going back to the grindstone.

I’d rather have fireworks coming out of me because I’m so excited about my life.

inner fireworks
I am the fire

That is when life becomes interesting.

Today can be the day to decide to go deeper, to quit something that doesn’t serve, to let go of self-defeating behavior, to let toxic people go.

Today can be the day to choose LIFE, not the same ole rut and the addictive behaviors that we all have.

Well, every day we have the choice, life or life numbing.  Every day I choose life, but I don’t always succeed since habits are strong, and the familiar rut is strong.

But there is always another day and another choice.  What a blessing that is!

When we truly fall in love with life, the choice is easy.

Love to you, and lots of creativity!

xo

Maria

P.S. If you want more musings, please sign up for my newsletter. Link in top right hand corner of this page.

art, counter-productive, doubt, motivational, process

Stop beating yourself up!

Sometimes we set impossible goals, or goals we’re not quite ready for, and then we beat ourselves up for not accomplishing them.

It’s good to have a schedule or a plan and to stick with it, but if it’s totally overwhelming it’s going to be counter-productive.

If you discard a goal and feel bad about it, know that today is a new day. How can you modify the goal and feel more at ease? Life is not a race and what others accomplish has nothing to do with you.

I made a goal at the beginning of 2016 to offer something free or paid art-wise to my artist friends.  I followed through until June and when six months were almost up I realized so many things had been counter productive.

I can just give up or beat myself up about it ad nauseam, but that is even more counter productive.

I learned something along the way about the process and that is priceless. If I hadn’t taken the action I would still be in the dark.

It’s not about discarding the dream, but to make it more streamlined to who YOU are, not what people might expect.  Or even bigger still: what you expect of yourself.

Listen to your own drumbeat.

drum beat
The beat of your own drum.

I have always been a doer and sometimes I forget to listen to my own drum. But it’s getting better. Nowadays, I don’t get as far away from myself as I used to do, and I truly want to offer the best me to the world.

I don’t compromise while creating my art, but how I bring it out to the world the best way is still somewhat of a mystery. All I can do is keep exploring and see what responses I get.

One thing I do know. Your dream is important and when you talk about it, you might help someone on the other side of the world as you pursue your own process.

I often get comments like, “oh, I really needed to hear that today, thank you.” Then, what I thought was  a half-assed blog post or art offering, means something. It’s verification that I’m headed in the right direction, and that I inspire others.

That makes every step worth it.

To find the right way sometimes takes many tries, but there are no failures, only experiences.

Believe enough in yourself and keep the dream alive. There really is no other alternative!

So, STOP beating yourself up from now on. 🙂

xo

Maria

P.S. If you’d like to try one of my evergreen art journaling e-courses, go HERE to check them out.

goal, life, motivational, success

Big or small goal?

Basically, there is no difference between a big or a small goal. The only thing that separates them is a person’s mindset.

If you have a big goal, you must have a mindset to match. So if your mindset can only hold a small vision, you will get a small vision.

There is nothing wrong with having a small goal as long as you pursue and accomplish that goal. Otherwise, it will fester in your mind.  Accomplishing small goals will lead to bigger goals.

The only way I know to make a your mindset expand is to do things you don’t normally do.  Examples would be to visit a Ferrari dealership if you want to live a swank, rich lifestyle, or spend some time in a five star hotel.  You could have tea and cucumber sandwiches there while you admire the crisp linen and the polished silverware.  Get the rich feel of things.  Expansion is endless as long as you prove to yourself that you can do it.  People jump out of airplanes to prove to themselves that they dare to do something scary and outrageous.

I just watched a video of a man walking a “slackrope” across two buttes somewhere out west. One misstep and he would plunge to his death.  Not something I would do EVER, but I have my own small world to deal with. Challenge creates resistance and resistance stops us from moving forward.

If I want to paint a mural but only paint small canvases, say, 8X8″ inches, it would be hard to paint a mural. Not impossible, but challenging for sure. I would have to research layout and perspective and how to transfer a small image to a larger size.  That is just the technical side of things.

Would I dare to paint a mural that depicted people or flowers?  An abstract yes, but something realistic would be a real stretch.

But now I paint 8X8″ up to 36×48″ canvases, and painting large opens up to a freedom I don’t feel when painting small.

The point here is to actually DECIDE on a goal, small or big, and go for it. Don’t let anything distract, especially the naysayer within.

Why play it so small when life could be so much more? I ask myself that question every day. Since I’m aware of it, I make conscious choices to stretch my boundaries.

The gain: I have noticed that when I’m with people they often ask me for help or want answers to questions to things I have done, and they haven’t. I don’t mind sharing, and that also shows me that every small goal I have accomplished has a great impact. Results  accumulate quickly.

When you don’t stop and look to see where others are at, you blaze your own trail. The longer you’re blazing away, the farther you get, and that’s when people start asking your for help.

Working with increments really make a HUGE difference.

You accomplish a big goal as easily as a little one–in increments.  What is the biggest goal that you can dream?

reaching a big goal

A big stumbling block to achieving a goal is:

board-786119__180
Just do it now even if it’s not perfect

Just go for the goal and worry about perfection later (as in never.)

Have a creative Wednesday. xo

Maria

art, creativity, motivational

Art as expression of the intangible

I have touched on art as an expression of the intangible before when I wrote about the masters and what they left behind that touches us so deeply.  Not just artists, but the musicians too. There were composers like Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach.  They are still popular today, and what about all the more modern music that blasts over the internet and the radio?

Those people composed because they had such a strong urge to bring it out to the world. Not that they thought about fame and fortune, but something inside urged them to bring the gift out.

When we make something special to us, we also grace the world with that special something, the intangible energy that is pure genius. We can’t all be Beethoven or Rembrandt, but we have the gift of genius as well.  Just touching ONE person’s heart is enough.

I was thinking about that when I went grocery shopping yesterday.  Sometimes the energy is drab and low in the stores, but just one smile can change the energy to something better.  One smile can change a person’s day.  So, I go to the stores with the intention of bringing a good vibe, like magic dust, spread it around and touch someone with a bit of cheer.

Everything we do, if we do it with care and with a cheerful spirit, is genius. It’s that intangible something that comes from within. The trick is to live in the moment, not in memories or worries for the future.

In other words, to become a genius and be who you were meant to be from the get go is to practice staying in the moment of now and create. A whole new world opens up.

Yesterday, I was driving down this busy highway that everyone hates around here and cars hurtled by at breakneck speeds. Usually, I feel a bit anxious about being in the middle of the traffic “soup,” but yesterday it was like being in a vision of joy propelling the cars forward. Somehow I had tapped into the universal power that drives everything, and all I could see was joyous movement.  So strange.

The moment deepens into a whole new view of the world, and when I bring that to my art, everyone loves it.  I need to be there more often. 🙂

Have you let your genius out? If not, it’s about time to allow the bigger you to play. Slap some paint around and see what happens.  Sometimes we have to break all the rules to get out of the box.

I’m not getting back in that box!  Once out, you can’t really go back in. If you do, you feel like a fool.

Going to my studio now…

xo

Maria

P.S. I have three self-study e-courses available to get that art mojo going! CLICK HERE.