PENCILS DOWN

This may be my last post of 2018 but just like my latest artwork is in process, so is my life, regardless of any man-made time-gate that says the year is “over.” What I have created to date is the foundation for what is yet to come. I don’t have a clean slate, and it’s likely that you don’t either. And would you want one anyway? Do you really want to start over?

I think a RE-SET is what we all need, but we need this on a regular basis. We want to maintain those practices and narratives that work for us while releasing that which no longer serves our best interests. But everything, “good and bad,” has placed us where at this moment in time.

Even if we have experienced significant trauma and want to distance ourselves from the emotional and maybe even physical pain, the “punch in the gut” is what woke us up and catalyzed our commitment to change direction. It is also likely that if we sit with what has transpired, and assess its origins, the events are related to something that needed replacing or addressing long before the problem dismantled a significant part of our lives.

It is in our best interest to thank our teachers, in all their fantastic forms, and use our increased resilience, insight and drive to make our lives more representative of who we really are and what we value. As for practical strategies we can use to help us in our process…. WE CAN MAKE ART!! But we can also spend time with real friends, move our bodies, be in nature, meditate, purge and clean our living and working environments, and cut out mana-munching people (a.k.a., energy vampires, users), which I strongly suggest is one of the most potent actions you can take!

As for setting New Yearʻs resolutions… I think those are about as effective as a trying to make a clean slate… but thatʻs for another post.

With aloha––Naiʻa