The language you use to describe your world paints the portrait of the world you will experience. Imagine your words are your paintbrushes and your thoughts are your paint, and start to see yourself as the artist you are.
Your thoughts are your paint.
Your words are your brush.
Your canvas is your attitude.
I am a mediocre artist, at best. In art class I successfully painted a cardinal and a portrait of my dog and I have faint memories of a lopsided clay jar from high school. An “artist” is never a term I would use to describe myself. I have always enjoyed art though and revel in memories from the homeschooling afternoons my mom spent with me wandering the halls of the Smithsonian in DC to the weekends in college I spent curled up poetically with my pen and paper on the marble benches of the Louvre content to just be in the presence of world-reknown masterpieces. Being around art feels like being in a field of wildflowers. It’s exciting and calming both at the same time, or in other words, it’s soul-widening.
In reflection of my lack of artistic gifting, I recently realized something unexpected: I am in fact an artist.
Yes, I am an artist, even though my traditional artwork was never prize-winning, I am an artist and so are you. We are artists of life because we are the artists of our mind. The moment we realize that we are the artists of our minds is the moment our lives take a real turn towards beautiful change. The thing is, art isn’t always pretty, and a masterpiece isn’t painted without millions of brushstrokes before it, and so too is the artwork of our minds.
God gifted us each with a style of our own and the ability to engage creativity with our thoughts and minds. Austrian-British philosophy and student of the philosophy of language, Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote, “The limits of my language means the limits of my world,” and I couldn’t agree more. The more expansive our language, the more beautifully we will be able to paint our perspective and experience of the world with the brushstrokes of our thoughts.
To inspire the life-artist that exists in you, I wanted to share with you two simple exercises to help you as you paint your beautiful canvases. (Oh, and by the way, you can consider the #BeMoreMovement and all of the resources you can get at TrishBlackwell.com as your mental art classes, and to help you begin your neurolinguistic training.) Try these following exercises out and paint for yourself beautiful and intentional thoughts:
LIFE PHRASE:
If there were one phrase that you could speak over your children or loved one’s life, what would that phrase be? Honestly. Think about it. This would be a phrase that you would say to them, to say about them, that would encourage them and could be said to them their entire life. It’s okay for it to be cheesy, what is important is that it is unique, personalized and memorable. Pick someone you love and create life phrase for them from you. Write it out for them, put it in a notecard and share it with them. Part of the art of beautiful thinking is to use your thinking to bring others beauty, for isn’t that what art does? It is something we create and that we can then share with others?
“When God made you, He called the angels over and said, ‘watch this, I’m about to show off.’”
You are more beautiful than all of the flowers of the world combined.
The beauty of you who are on the inside resonates so vibrantly that who you are on the outside will always be beautiful.
Stop reading this post, really. Take five minutes to write out a life phrase for someone you love. Share it with them. Then, later today, write a life phrase for your own life. This is no simple or elementary challenge, for the words we speak to ourselves have the power of life and death over our attitudes and our futures.
MIRROR MANTRA:
Over the next three days, repeat this exercise: every time you look in a mirror, look yourself right in the eyes, smile and then repeat the following phrase in your mind:
“I am beautiful.
I am happy.
I am exactly who I am supposed to be.
All I need to do today is to be me.”
The repetition of truth is like dipping your paintbrush into the paint over and over, preparing your brush to paint beautiful strokes onto the canvas of your life.
Your life is a word of art, so be an intentional, focused artist and you will create a beautiful and impactful masterpiece through your story.
I remember learning: There is momentum to positive thinking and good things happening. Being told “go back to bed & get up on the right side,” as you’ve mentioned your mom suggested, helps us start the day with a positive frame of mind.
Good energy builds on itself and everything seems to go well.
Of course the opposite is true also. When we’re “a little off ” with one thing, a series of maladies is sure to follow with momentum.
It’s true, we really need to pay attention to the positive things going on. Awareness is the key! Meditate, write, sit with your coffee and be aware!!