Remember that You are an Artist…

A few years ago I read the Architecture of all Abundance by Lenedra Carroll. Although this book had a profound impact on me at the time, one line, however, would prove to be somewhat life altering even beyond the scope of an already amazing story.

I was working on a recording project when it was recalled and I kid you not, it was like one of those skies parting moments, when everything changes and angels speak. It hit me like a ton of bricks crashing down on my head, leaving me in dumbfounded confusion, as I sat face to face with my own unconscious resistance to the word artist…

Remember that you are an artist.

The Resistance

Why would I have a problem with this word? I wondered. I’ve always loved artists…and in fact, spent a lot of time working with them. I questioned what this was really all about as I followed the trail further back through time.

A part of me began to speak through my memories. My youngest of watching and being attracted to singers and performers on television as a child, then there was the strong link to music when I was a teenager and how I used it as an extension of my own voice, onto actually working within the music industry as an adult in which I witnessed others use it as an extension of their souls.

I started to notice my pattern with both the written and recorded form of the arts. I could see how deeply connected I was to these artistic expressions and how I admired those who had the skills and talents to create in this way. At the same time I was able to look at my own past attempts at expressing myself in these mediums. The reason why I failed to bring this aspect of myself into the world was perfectly clear…I had never considered myself an artist.

I could acknowledge it in others but not within myself…without this form of inner permission I was seriously impeding my ability to create…not only in an art way…but in any way at all.

Learning to Embrace My Inner Artist

The revelation came as I began to prepare my audio project for iTunes. There in the artist box was my name. I sat in my chair with the quote from Lenedra’s book flowing inside my mind and in one great ah-ha moment…I felt, I knew…that this was true.

Breathing into it deeply, I allowed the word artist to move with my breath into the depths of my being, permeating my every cell with it’s higher level meaning and creating within it, a wonderful vehicle for the movement of my soul.

The Art of Life

So why was it so important for me to be able to call myself an artist?

An artist is able to surrender completely to the energy of creation which is always flowing between a state of contraction and release.

An artist aligns themselves with that flow, channels it and uses it to create new solutions, reroute their current path and overcome limitations.

This ability to become fluid in perspective, identity and context aligns them with a deep universal truth.

The keys to freedom, and the way to unlocking our own prison doors lies in matching our nature to Nature.

Our egoic tendencies trigger resistance as we attempt to keep ourselves separate from the totality…our true selves recognize that we ARE the totality…and that all we really ever need to do is tap into that and flow.

These qualities are something that each and everyone of us is here to express. Your artistic or creative side is an important part of yourself to integrate regardless of who you are or what you do as it will often determine how you show up for life.

Questions to Ask Yourself

How close are you to being able to acknowledge your own inner artist?

If you’ve not yet done so, what stops you?

If you found some kind of fear, ask yourself what holding onto that is getting for you?

And as always, feel free to share your results and experiences

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Comments

By Andrea Hess|Empowered Soul on March 5th, 2008 at 9:23 am

Beautiful article, Paula.

There’s something else that I just thought of when you talk about what an artist does. An artist creates for the joy of creation – art doesn’t always fulfill a particular function – it doesn’t have to be useful or practical. That joyful creation, for no other reason than to create, when I consider my own inner artist, brings up resistance – as if such acts of creation are too self-indulgent, since they serve no actual “purpose.”

Of course, the very Creation we are a part of is Creation for the sake of creating and experiencing that creation … so to make it all serve a practical purpose is limiting Creation itself …

I don’t know if that thought process makes sense to anyone else … but thank you for the inspiration. This was awareness I did not previously have.

Blessings,
Andrea

By Paula Kawal on March 7th, 2008 at 6:24 am

Hi Andrea,

I know just what you mean, here. Our forms of resistance are often so subtle that we can miss them. In my case I had a set of rules that was different for myself than for others…and it sounds as if you had a set of rules around how creative energy is expressed.

To step outside of our rules we are required to trust life and surrender our mind’s sense of understanding. Waiting for us, at the higher levels of creative energy is that sense of joyful creation which needs no purpose other than the experience of the creative act itself.

Really getting this makes us powerful manifestors because this is the essence of the consciousness that created us. We are the reason we are here and we make up the meaning of our own existence with every breath we take.

For me this perspective makes it easy to suspend judgment and makes purpose crystal clear…after all, we can’t really get it wrong…now can we???

Thanks for sharing your process and perspective! I found it set my awareness even deeper within me

Much love,

PK

By Vitor - The Fractal Forest on March 8th, 2008 at 3:46 am

Hi Paula,

This is an amazing insight, and in my case I went through a similar process.

By Paula Kawal on March 9th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

Hi Vitor,

Thanks for commenting. It is amazing to me how many of us have had insights that mirror one another while moving through the process of becoming conscious!

I’d like to hear about how the insight came to you one of these days

Much love,

PK

By Slade | Shift Your Spirits on March 16th, 2008 at 7:36 am

Great post, Paula!

I believe we’ve talked before about my experiences working with artists and musicians… I spent most of my adult life in technical supportive roles, or at least behind the scenes, behind the camera — I lent my talents almost exclusively to powering other people’s creations to the point that I became lost in the shadow of others I considered “real” artists more than myself…

Maybe I was comfortable in that shadow, because it allowed me the freedom to fail — other people’s art didn’t ultimately mean as much to me as risking my own name and voice and vision.

For me, the epiphany or the experience that allowed me to accept the title of artist came from a very Big Picture perspective — the realization that divinity and creativity are linked — that my life is my creative masterpiece.

Once I accepted that my entire reality was/is my art, stepping into the identity as artist became inevitable and necessary. From that perspective, any “project” I engage in or role I play is secondary to that greater reality.

By Paula Kawal on March 16th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

Hi Slade!

Yes. That is exactly what happened to me as well. I think I was attracted to the arts from a young age to learn this very lesson. The fear of inadequacy becomes meaningless as it is burned away by the higher level understanding.

It took quite a long time of my spirit crying out to get my attention though and it seemed like an eternity passed in that unhappy space before I had the courage to walk the road my spirit was guiding me down…but as it ended up, there was really no other road to walk…I was simply moving through my fear generated illusion and getting my first glimpse of something real

Much love,

PK

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