From Pucci to Pudding

passion for process

world renowned architect frank gehry said in the documentary sketches of frank gehry (an excellent documentary by sydney pollack about gehry but also about creative process), "what's exciting to me is the process."

ahhh, the process. as creatives, artists, engagers in living, we know it well. at our best, we embrace it with all its inherent glories and frights. much like life.

it occurs to me that like food made with love, which tastes the best, projects where the artists love the process translate into the a-ha or resonant experience with the audience. when a painting or building or photograph or movie or meal takes our breath away, ignites a tingling in our soul, belabors our gaze, i bet the artist loved the process of creating.

extrapolating from that, a life lesson. if we are excited by the process, the sum of our days, our life, will be of unique beauty, enjoyable by us, each our own creator of life. with each day, follow what makes our hearts trip and our feet skip. when do the corners of our mouths turn up? where does the laugh come bubbling forth, our eyes sparkle? embrace, honor, heed, explore that!

 

exploring daily creative sources

as artists we must feed our creative resources. it is our imperative to know, what is it that gives us that freedom, that freedom to imagine? the answers will likely evolve as we do, but for each day, when we ask ourselves these questions, our inner voice points us to... what?

what environment, what clothes, what tastes inspire us? what activities get our juices flowing? are we doing those? daily?

put them on the calendar. i have three items on my calendar each day: set intention, play and be in quiet. this elixir is transforming my inner source. i feel more peace in my experience of being me, and i hear my inner guide more readily and feel in closer partnership with my creative resources. the a-ha moments and solutions are like childhood friends who are ready to come over and play.

two observations from other artists struck me saturday morning and i wanted to share them as tried and true wisdoms that can nurture us wherever we are on our paths:

• woody allen remarked that living life listening to the external guides is not his choice. living life by listening to internal guides, that's being true to self and living an authentic life.
• inspiration can come from disconnects. film director, sydney pollack shared that he could have been listening to music and he would start seeing scenes for a movie in his head. visionary architect frank gehry said he can get excited about fashion or a waste basket. as he said, "you can look anywhere and find inspiration."

dogs as artists of life

wildly innovative architect frank gehry's curator observed that either you believe in the white cube, or if you're an artist, you want to be challenged. truth. challenge is what keeps us returning to the blank canvas, the white page, the improvised meal. it inspires us to explore, to try new combinations, to seek fresh solutions. and it terrifies us. but we love the danger, the tickle, the thrill, the heightened feeling of being alive and open to composing on the fly.

dogs love to be challenged. that is a sure path to zen for ernie. to be challenged. ernie was not an urban dog when he joined me in my downtown atlanta home five months ago. sirens, statues, motorcycles, shopping carts, rolling luggage--they all caused him concern to panic. but as we have been working on confidence, which only comes from experiencing each scary thing and being with it, i see him working through his challenge internally. his process is to sit when he hits his the limit of his comfort zone and then when he has worked it out for himself that he is ok, he can move forward. sometimes just a few steps. but forward movement in new territory is a keen challenge. after a challenge, there is celebration of the new stretch (a rousing game of rope toy is a fave) and then a peaceful nap.

i'm grateful to dogs as some of my most profoundly impactful mentors. dogs are artists of living. their commitment to love, to play, to quiet time, to honoring their truths, to simple truths, and being patient with us humans, who let's face it, speaking for myself, will always be growing into a better me, g-d willing.

with my commitment to myself to live a more balanced, grounded life and not let stress impact my health, happiness or creativity, i certainly am conscious of how diligent i am being now in taking my cues from ernie on relaxing. when we walk, my arm is loose, the leash is loose, i breathe deeply and consciously embody a calm unruffled dog mommy. and he's braver and happier. when i ratchet up stress--in my shoulders, holding on to my breath, hunching over--then he reflects it back to me as a frustrated pup.

i am grateful and excited to be on this give and take journey with ernie as i live towards being as effortless an artist of life as he is.

 

stimulating life

filmmaker and visionary of movie magic, george lucas, remarked of the 6000 acres he has architected as a fertile oasis for creativity, artists' tools are ideas. we must be inspired. to that end, he created an inspirational setting, skywalker ranch.

i wrestle with creating and finding inspiration in a city that i often feel drains mine. not that atlanta is a bad city. it's not, and it has a lot of positives. but it's not the magic place fit for me. i resonate to port cities--water and mountains energize me. but we are where we are for a reason and i have learned much about myself and about energizing creativity and inspiration because of this city where i must consciously work at stimulating those two essential tools.

stimulate. people use the word lots. most notably as a political phrase describing an economic package... and then there's the more personal arousal aspect. but what does it really mean? according to merriam-webster:

 to excite to activity or growth or to greater activity

so what are we doing to stimulate our creativity and inspiration? to stimulate our best lives? are we leading a stimulating life?

and if not... what are we committed to doing to live a stimulating, impassioned, healthy happy life?

best health: habituate happiness and practice gratitude

goldie hawn had her life figured out from the age of 11. she said that she knew then that her single intention in life was to be happy. sure, the vision she had then for the specifics of her life (dance instructor, married, picket fence) transformed as she discovered her natural ability on screen to make people laugh and her path led her to a career in film. but the happiness intention stayed a constant.

goldie, who seems as sunny and healthy as a person could be, says her two core principles for living a healthy happy life are to:

• habituate happiness
• and practice gratitude throughout each day.

joy and happiness, she says, and embodying those feelings are our choice. we can choose to see the joy and happiness and we can choose to habitually come from those places and generate those feelings. gratitude is nothing short of life transformational. it's great to think of reasons we are thankful but to act on that, to express that is powerful. both happiness and gratitude shift the neurobiology in our brains and bodies, creating a better brew of hormones that reduces the toxic effects brought on by chronic stress and crafts a healthier internal mix. gratitude, she said, literally gets people out of their depression beds.

following our own internal voice, how she lives her life, is also a core key to our best health and happiness.

habituate happiness and practice daily gratitude. no time like the present!

BE the ENERGY

i've had the most delicious a-ha moment in working with ernie. i've started to wonder, am i working with him or is he working with me? i think it is mutual. but the a-ha is this, the most effective communications are not ones that are cerebral or stem solely from thoughts. when we embody the energy of our intentions, that's when we see the best results.

ernie is still insecure about much in the urban landscape and frequently sits or shuts down on walks when we approach scary things like the metro system, statues, sirens, etc. my issuing verbal directives and encouraging with treats gets us a little progress but not a lasting progress. however, when i FEEL positive and peaceful (no grtting my teeth, no anticipating a negative outcome) about what i am asking him to do, he reads that loud and clear and surprises me with his confidence to do what he was hesitant to do before.

i've heard, known, practiced this lesson before. but as with many lessons in life, we get them when we get them. we now are practicing calming, sitting and laying down without verbal cues but just with energy... i breathe deeply and slowly, FEELING the calm, blink slowly at him and think about settling and sitting. low and behold, he sits. it's such a privilege to feel connected on this level! i know that developing energy consciousness carries benefits through all aspects of life. whether working with pups, clients or other relationship dynamics, energy speaks volumes more than words can.

what's more, energy IS our truth. dogs are incapable of dishonesty. whatever their energy is, is how they are feeling and shows us what their needs are. they can't cloak their needs in deceptive words. they don't manipulate through deceit. if we took this pivotal energy lesson from our pups, BE the ENERGY, we could be truest to ourselves, to others, and focus on the simplicity of our one truth, our energy. not the masks or deceptions we may practice, whether consciously or unconsciously.

BE the ENERGY you intend. FEEL your intentions. it's a powerful elevation beyond just thinking about our intentions. cerebral is good. but FEELING holds the key to transforming thoughts into being.

san diego seeing

i had the good fortune to spend an hour strolling through the prado in san diego last week. approaching magic hour just before sunset, the light and lines caught my eye. it was one of those interludes where i felt my seeing as fertile... i could feel myself creatively recharging.

i also heard someone recently say he thinks of photographs as sketches--capturing not full-blown stories but glimpses, perhaps yielding a look at a more profound relationship or dynamic than initially meets the eye. intriguing. and i identify with it.

thought i would share a few moments of san diego seeing.

sharing the way to yes

a light dawned in my understanding when thinking about training ernie to know how to be the best pup he can be. show him the way to yes. we use positive reinforcement to let him know when he's being a good boy and understanding what we are asking him to do. same principals would be wise to apply across the board in life, not just pupster training.

rewards and affirmations when we do something good encourages us to repeat that behavior. being scolded doesn't encourage anything but negative feelings, lack of confidence, and fear and aversion. sharing the way to yes, seems to me this is the way to be through life.

telling ernie no when he needs to have something in his mouth (and he initially thinks my arm might be a good option) is not enough on its own and is not effective. but telling him no AND to get his rope toy, redirects him to put a toy in his mouth when he needs to chew on something. that's something we can praise him for. and it's working. fabulously.

sharing the way to yes is a far more effective and relaxed way to educate--particularly about behaviors. in relationships across the board--pups to people--we all benefit from seeing what a positive alternative to unwanted actions can be. NO is merely part of the dynamic. it stops us from persisting at something. but adding the positive opportunity opens the door to happiness, balance, growth for everyone involved.

 

 

character or plot-driven?

thinking in movie types, it occurred to me to think of my life as character-driven or plot-driven.

in reflecting on what makes for the richest life possible, i am looking at myself and my life with fresh eyes. particularly areas that i don't examine much, the ones that are coasting along, the ones i may take for granted--they may be the very areas that would benefit the most from light.

in looking at character v. plot-driven films, character films invlove psychology, puzzling, reflecting, grappling with meaty questions, growth. plot focused films tend to be action oriented, pushing the envelope for realism, these days heavy on the special effects, and the characters might be propelled more in reaction to events than constructing them.

i suspect that we all live a blend of character and plot-driven lives. the life i value most is character driven. i believe in reflection, creation, discovery, exploring, the practice of seeing and the pursuit of growth and optimizing--these are the elements of a juicy life for me.

since i'm a visual person and work best when i have visual oriented tools, when i start feeling like a victim of schedule or other people's deadlines and agendas, i need to step out of the plot-driven script and into my character-driven film.

doubt-free living

i have been carrying a lot of tension and stress in my muscles. perhaps it's the challenges of acclimating ernie to being a good pupster citizen. perhaps it's to-do's and deadlines. perhaps it's my seeing a constant need for self-improvement. perhaps it's not getting my run zen time in as i had hoped to be achieving at this point in the winter. perhaps it's many aspects of life that require energy, patience, trust, confidence and love, particularly when i don't necessarily feel those qualities in vast supply.

but tension and stress sap us. they kill us over the long term. and i am too much in love with living and the possibilities for living into my best life that i am committed to making perhaps the most profound change in my life to date. living doubt-free.

doubt causes chaos. doubt is deadly. doubt is based on future suppositions. not reality. and when we give doubts our energy, we not only sap our good energy, we give the doubts energy to manifest as our reality. not anymore.

doubting something doesn't have any positive payoffs. if indeed our efforts or the way our reality plays out doesn't pay off the way we would prefer it to--there is always the balance of roses and thorns, yin and yang--we simply roll with it. look at it as an opportunity, no matter how challenging, and navigate through it. doubting something--despite an attempt at reverse logic--doesn't somehow hedge our bets or make a positive outcome more possible. quite the opposite.

so along with setting daily intentions: i am embracing a doubt-free life. it's simply a choice. and i know that i will need to be actively conscious about choosing to live doubt-free for at least 28 days in order to set a pattern for myself.

consciously relax where my stress is. breathe to let the tension out. see the positive. see the positive. see the positive. in front of me and in the visions of what is to come.

when i pay attention to the responses i get when i don't allow doubt and see a positive outcome possibility, i see that positives are generated. the world sends energy to match what we share. see the best possible energy, embody it, and experience life in a much richer, happier, healthier, more peaceful way.