“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
There’s still some Halloween candy left (well maybe in your house) and the sprint is already on to get through the Holidays. We won’t even have digested our turkey dinner and most of us will be worrying about our schedules and to-do lists. Thanksgiving shouldn’t be just passed over, it should be a reminder for us to slow down and really take stock of the important things. A reminder that gratitude should not be limited to just one Thursday in November but practiced daily. We regularly need to take a breath, focus and enjoy feeling gratitude for something in our life, even if it’s just being able to take that breath. In our busy life, we forget to focus and enjoy the flow. We forget that our life isn’t a destination, it’s an experience. Art is the same and doing art can actually help us to learn focus.
One of the things that I have to remind my students often is that they will not be happy with their finished drawing if they rush through it, talk while doing their artwork and are not completely focused on what they are doing. It will not be the best work that they can do. If we rush through the moments in our life, checking off things on our list, trying to do too much, we won’t be living our best life. Focus can be learned and cultivated. Even I struggle with this and need to remind myself that I need to do a drawing or painting one line or stroke at a time, not worry about the last drawing I did or what the finished piece will look like. We get lost in the flow by not getting ahead of ourselves or worrying about past mistakes, doing just one line at a time then making a decision on the next and then the next and before we realize we’ve, seemingly effortlessly, created something. It won’t be perfect but will be a step in the process and we can be happy that we did the best we could to do in that moment.
Just like that drawing when we dwell on the past or worry about things in the future and are rushing to get it all done, we aren’t experiencing the flow of life and it becomes a struggle. We need to remind ourselves to take time in our day to stop and focus on the moment and all the good in our life, one breath at a time and then make a decision on the next and the next, we will then experience the gratitude and flow of a happy life. It won’t be perfect but will be the best we can do in that moment.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!