It does not have anything to do with illegal substances. Tripping can mean many things since English is a tricky language. However, in this case it means to take an actual journey.
I have been wanting in the worst way to go on a trip for a while now, but timing has not been good. That’s my excuse anyway.
So, I decided to do some art journaling around a virtual trip. I chose four locations, the city, the beach, the forest, and the desert. Those parts are all inspiring to me. I decided to make it a bargain e-course so that more people can afford it. The course will last four weeks, and the videos are quick and easy. Personally, I like fast videos since I don’t want to slog through four or five in an online class. The e-course starts on April, 18.
Here is the cityscape and the beach pictures from the class. Your art will look completely different, but that’s the challenge.
A pretty grungy cityscape and a happy bright beach picture… through the lens of my eyes.
You can check out Art Tripping for yourself. CLICK HERE.
I hope you join me for this virtual journey. It would be nice to have a busload of people!
Procrastination never served anyone. (I have a hard time spelling that word anyway.)
The word totally resonates with non-action through its complex spelling. To me, it suggests monkeys jumping through hoops for no reason whatsoever, or being stuck in place.
Wiki’s interpretation of the word: Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished. It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones, thus putting off impending tasks to a later time.
Hoohah.
What is your favorite tool for procrastination? Mine is laying jigsaw puzzles on my iPad. I could spend all day doing puzzles, but I blushed just telling you what my fave “wasting time” tool is. Today, I’ve laid three puzzles so far, but in my defense I did some important yard work, WHICH DID NOT MOVE MY BUSINESS FORWARD. The excuse afterwards: I’m too tired now to do anything but lay puzzles.
Then I get furious with myself since I have a list an arm long to take care of. By the way, I teach people how to get out of a slump / stuckness, and avoid procrastination…. (with art.) Yeah, for real. I guess it makes me human, and all I have to do is take charge and get going (even if I don’t). It does become easier the more I exercise the anti-procrastination muscle.
And what is that muscle? I have lived by my Dad’s words for many years, and they work remarkably well. “If you have an unpleasant task ahead of you, do it right away so that you don’t have to think about it any more.”
Words of wisdom! In other words, don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
Chopping off bite size pieces of “things-to-do” works very well too. Take your list and denote how many hours or minutes you will work on each task every day, and then do it. It’s no different than exercising, really. Many tasks in life are not fun or pleasurable, but they have to get done or weigh you down more every day.
I do have a stubborn streak and I avoid my better sense many times, but at the end of the day, who suffers? Not the cat, that’s for sure. I feel like crap for betraying my own trust, and that ought to be a lesson in itself, but there is that strange stubborn streak sneaking up daily if I don’t watch out.
Psychologists say that fear produces procrastination, and that is true, but when I’m not afraid of the tasks, why put them off?? It’s a bad habit and the constant struggle against the internal nay-sayer.
Procrastination
Time is just going faster than it used to… hehe.
So what do you do to combat this daily beast if you don’t possess magic? Do the tasks anyway. That’s where a schedule can be helpful, and the discipline and promise to myself that I will do things that support myself and my dream.
The turtle wins the race. Just do a little bit at a time. It will get the work done. All I know, the monster will not go away so it needs to be trained to within an inch of its life. It sits when you say “sit!” Same with fear. If we let fear rule our life, we would never get anything done or go anywhere.
A gentle stretching of that fear moves us forward. That is a promise. If procrastination bugs you, you might be standing before a major breakthrough. Isn’t that an exciting thought??
Kick this to the curb if you have one… NOW!
On that note, I did get this blog post written after I got up from the recliner. It was a choice.
xo
Maria
P.S. Check out my art e-courses HERE. I also do one-on-one coaching. Click on the link in the menu at the top of this page. Have a great productive day–every day!
Done or not done, well, that’s the question that has been going through my mind for two days…
Hello there dear reader,
I’d like to share the intuitive painting I finished recently, or is it finished?
“Dreaming” by Maria Greene 20×20″
Sometimes I struggle for days, but the best way to gauge whether it’s finished or not is to let it sit somewhere and stew. I force myself not to look at it until some time has passed. By then I can usually see something that bugs me or not…
I have actually done some work on old paintings when I see a flaw I never noticed before. I could call that growth or maybe a keener eye. Not sure, and there is no need to label it. I have a finished painting that I will work on some more shortly. I worry that I will mess it up more, but something has to be done. The good thing about acrylics you can always paint over them!
Have you tried intuitive painting? You just lay down some colors to cover the canvas and do this in many layers until you can see some rhythm or reason in the paint. Sometimes I see figures and I fill out the outline and refine from there.
It takes courage to paint without plans, but sometimes the raw art is the most powerful. Try it and you might get hooked. I doubt that I will ever go back to traditional painting.
Speaking of intuition, I am very fond of combining art and intuition. I help people release fears and blocks around creating. I have a one-on-one coaching offer going right now, and various art tutorials /e-courses. I take a lot of art e-courses myself because they inspire me. I’m always looking to stretch my creative muscles.
If you’re interested in knowing more about my offers, check the menu bar at the top of the website (under the header) and you can click on the links.
What are you working on this week? Spring is here and the trees are bursting with flowers. It’s wonderful.
xo
Maria
P.S. This painting is available in my etsy shop now.
Does the headline put a great bubble with a question mark above you as in the cartoons? A leader can be many things, and the most exciting is when he or she has the brilliant enthusiasm and determination to change the world. Do you say then, “I’m not like that, or do you say a resounding ‘hell yeah’?”
Basically, you can’t change the world, but by changing yourself you change the world. However, it’s not so much about changing yourself as it is to ACCEPT yourself, with warts and all.
You know, we are all leaders IF we decide to blaze our own path and go “there” whether anyone follows or not. The individual has that choice. I believe we were put on this earth to have amazing lives filled with passion and prosperity. I totally buy into that concept and I have consistently turned to the arrow pointing toward my best life: “go there, there is your passion.”
It is becoming a habit to follow where the joy is in my life. And so it should be for you. There is no mystery here.
It can take guts to change yourself, let alone change the world. But I’d rather take the risk of making a fool of myself using my own mental and heart capacities to create something original than working 35 years in the same job. I never could settle down to a career, but now I’m grateful for that since so MANY varied experiences have led me to take charge and become the CEO of my life.
CEO of your own life
When you step into the shoes of leadership, you say no to the fears of society, you rise above the anchors that hold you down at status quo, i.e. the murky bottom with the sharks.
So, a leader leads people toward something good, a transformation.
A leader offers the path that she has already blazed with a badass machete. 🙂
A leader inspires others to break out of the mold and become the awesome person they are meant to be, to become another leader to help others succeed.
It is basically all about helping others to become great, so a leader stands behind the people and urges them along the path he or she knows will lead to contentment and discovery.
A great leader listens to the needs and implements solutions to problems.
Leadership is something we can grow into if only we take the steps to free ourselves from the beliefs and fears that hold us back. Who says your idea, your passion, isn’t the next great thing that will help humanity??
If you ever read the classic book Jonathan Livingston Seagull you know anything is possible. Jonathan sensed within that he had greatness and he set out to prove it to himself and others. He flew higher than any seagull had done before.
soar
The other seagulls said it could not be done, but Jonathan practiced and practiced. He didn’t care if his wings hurt or if it was stormy; he know he had to reach that greatness. He made the decision to never give up and that decision brought him to success.
I stand in my power as a leader. I’m no great name or famous person, but at one point I decided to be the best I can be, and that includes my spiritual life, my mental and physical health, and my work. My passion is art and to help others to create, overcome their fears of exploration via art. I am an intuitive artist and I use my intuition to help others break through to greatness beyond that snarl of brambles that grew across the path because no one had the nerve to cut them down. Do you have the nerve?
Passion leads you along to discover even more passion. There is no time like now to get started. Maybe passion flows quietly at first, but if you keep at it, it will become a roaring river. It is a natural law!
As I said above, it takes guts to change, and the change starts within, with mindset and determination.
Are you longing to change? Are you longing to help people in a way that counts, not just surface stuff? Do you want to help change the world from the inside out?
If you want to explore art as a way to break through your brambles, I can help you. Check out some of my e-courses, and I will soon be offering one-on-one coaching based on intuition. Are you in?
The only thing that stands between you and your own greatness is DETERMINATION. Just don’t quit.
On that note, keep on going. Our roads might cross at some point, or they won’t. It is all okay.
xoxo
Maria
P.S. My available ecourses at this time: CLICK HERE.
Resistance sucks donkey balls! (I got that expression from a friend in NZ haha.)
Resistance sucks donkey balls
Have you noticed how you don’t feel any resistance when you go out partying or watching TV shows? But as soon as you decide to do something that you really WANT to do, something worthwhile, resistance sets in. You might be one of the lucky few who sails through without a blemish, but then you’re probably a saint.
I’m an artist and I suffer from resistance every day. When I was a full-time writer I suffered from resistance too, but I had an ironclad discipline that pulled me through. With art however, you usually don’t have a chapter outline to follow, and a word processing program that keeps you within the parameters of the page. Writing itself can be a resistance, BUT if you show up at the computer and start with one sentence, things might start flowing. No promise though, and that’s where discipline comes in.
It is sort of a military word, isn’t it? It worked wonders in my writing career.
Discipline and art don’t get along well. The only discipline I can tie myself to is to move my body and sit down at my art table or stand by the easel. After that, the wild donkey comes along and everything flows or the blank page syndrome sets in with a vengeance. That opens the door to the inner Critic (who sounds like someone I knew.) He says: get depressed now and go find something in the fridge, or better yet, the freezer….
Mr. Critic on a rant
My Mr. Critic is very sneaky, comes in on soft-soled shoes and doesn’t exactly critique my art, but fans the flames of frustration until I feel disgusted with the project. I never hear the words “you are no good” or “your art sucks,” no, we are way beyond that point. My Critic knows that if he says that, I’ll laugh in his face because I trust my art. So, subtler methods are often used to get me to fold.
But, I have learned to push on. That’s the only thing you can do. Don’t give up, don’t get up and go to the freezer, and don’t pay any attention to the feelings of frustration or doubt trying to railroad you. Welcome them! By Mr. Critic showing up in such stealthy fashion and throwing a curve ball only means you’re really onto something good. When you’ve got it going and the passion is burning, Mr. Critic will sneak in with curve balls or frustration tantrums. It is a test of sorts, a test to see if you’re ready for the next level of awesomeness.
When things turn to sh*t you might be on the threshold to something truly great. It could be a new level of expertise or a new way of unexpected expression. Go with it, and kick Mr. Critic to the curb!
If you want to grow, face the Critic and move on. Never stop creating, whatever your passion. Nothing can stop you then. There is only one simple remedy.
Show up every day…. Stay with it until it moves forward.
xo
Maria
P.S. There is still time to join my current art e-course, Art Journaling Journey. You can read more about it HERE.
It’s not too late to join my current mixed media / art journaling ecourse titled Art Journaling Journey. We are coming up on week three, but the course will be perennial so you can work at your own pace. I would love to see you there!
Art journaling is a true of journey of exploration outside and inside. It never gets old, but it can get weird sometimes, but life is weird sometimes too. Here are a couple of recent art journal spreads.
Here’s to having a fabulous creative week! Click on the link to check out the ecourse, ART JOURNALING JOURNEY.
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A pretty grungy cityscape and a happy bright beach picture… through the lens of my eyes.
I hope you join me for this virtual journey. It would be nice to have a busload of people!
