What is Right
As humans, it is easy to gravitate towards what is not working in our lives. To give attention to the pain, the weaknesses, the hardships. The ugliness. Our attention and time gets sucked into repetitive stories and beliefs, focus which is largely unhelpful and considerably draining. It is hard to write about because there is so much heaviness and grief in the world, so much that can tug on the heart and cause great anxiety. Think the war in Ukraine, the attack on abortion rights, pandemic weariness and the state of our climate… the list could go on. On a more intimate level it looks like worrying if your kids have friends, bummed that you haven’t connected with a good friend in weeks, or exhausted by household maintenance that is an endless to-do.
A painting practice reminds me to look for what is working, both on the canvas and in the rest of my life. Even if it is just an inch of a painting where colors hum together or an interesting shape is found, focusing on what is going right in a piece can settle me into a feeling state that feels peaceful and joyful. It helps to build trust that the rest of the piece will settle and come together and makes me question why I am resonating with that color or area or pattern. What makes it work for me? How does it make me feel? How can that feeling bleed out into other areas of the canvas? This is not putting on rosy glasses and ignoring the mess that may be happening in the right hand corner. Rather, this is getting curious about what feels good on a body level, enjoying that sensation, and exploring how it can ripple out.
We can do this in our life too. We can be present for the hardships and pains with greater resourcefulness and a more creative mind when we can also take in the good, feel the gratitude, and notice what is beautiful around us. This isn’t weakness or naïveté. In fact, I am learning that it is a building block for strength, for facing what may cause suffering with more fortitude and clarity.
What is working in your life? What may be a glimmer of light that you can focus on? Where do you feel that in your body and what are the sensations? Stay there for awhile and fill up; get still and breathe in what is working.