Let’s BREAK FREE of our Limiting Beliefs!
Remember the incantation I used to ease my ruminating mind, when I had a terrible migraine last week?
Our MENTALITY Creates Our REALITY!
Not the other way around.
I say this often, to remember why I have to take care of my Mental Hygiene.
Because the thoughts we think affect us in the subtlest of ways.
Even when they’re not spoken out loud.
We only need to believe them for a moment.
And, many times, there are hidden Limiting Beliefs that keep us small — without our even realizing that they’re there.
But, there’s a solution:
To be mindful about what we’re thinking — and gently steer our thoughts & actions in a better direction.
Which brings us to the first week of our deep-dive into the new Book Club selection for our STUDY, SAVOR, & SUPPORT Each Other CHAT☕️🍵:
Dr. Ellen J. Langer’s book — ON BECOMING AN ARTIST: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity!
As I said before, Dr. Langer’s the very first female to be tenured in Psychology at Harvard, and her research focuses on the power of Mind-Body Unity (rather than duality).
Many of her experiments and studies are world-famous. In this book, she describes how to apply the practice of Mindfulness & the science of Mind-Body Unity to Creativity.
The book’s jam-packed with science but, what I love even more, is her attitude. She’s not dogmatic whatsoever. She’s the opposite. She teaches us how mindlessly we often live our lives, and demonstrates how we can stop assuming we know and allow our creative curiosity to guide us instead.
Not in the stuffy way you might expect.
Not by following the so-called “rules.”
But by actively questioning the rules. Flying by the seat of our pants. And experimenting to see what suits us as individuals.
This is an intuitive approach that’s inspired by Dr. Langer herself. As you’ll see in this book, amidst plenty of scientific explanations, she takes us on her own adventure with painting.
The Introduction: Dr. Langer’s Invitation to Embrace Whimsy
In the Introduction, Dr. Langer describes how she ran into a few Artist friends and — on a whim — suddenly decided to proclaim that she wanted to give painting a try.
Not because she had some grand aspiration to become an “Artist.”
Not because she wanted to launch a new creative business or make money with a “side hustle.”
It came out of nowhere.
“To my surprise,” she told her friend, “I was thinking of taking up painting.”
For our benefit, she confesses, “I have no idea why I said that. I don’t think I’d had more than a fleeting thought or two about painting in my entire life up to that point.”
Yet, she tried it anyway. With the encouragement of her Artist & Non-Artist friends, she gave painting a go. And, what started out with painting on small shingles she’d found, became a beautiful foray into painting on large canvases.
And, not in the way one might expect.
She didn’t do it by studying “how to paint.”
She didn’t look to any particular school of artistry. Not impressionism. Not cubism. Not realism. Not by taking any sort of class.
If anything, she started her own school of “Not Knowing.”
She simply dove in, allowing her intuition to guide her. Even drawing and painting in ways that defied reality, like drawing a horse twice — on both sides of a fence. Or another horse, kicking in a way that didn’t make sense, physically.
But, none of that mattered, she realized, because she FELT immense joy the entire time she was painting.
And she’d taken the time to go inward, to notice that happiness inside of her.
Dr. Langer’s Warning: Mindfulness Matters!
As Dr. Langer explains, “I compare mindlessness with the unconscious and [emphasize] how rampant and costly living a life mindlessly can be.”
“In traditional notions of the unconscious, we do not see certain things because we are motivated not to — to do so would be too painful for us.”
But, what Dr. Langer’s referring to is…
A Different Kind of Mindlessless:
It’s the unconscious Mindlessness that “typically comes about by default, not design.
When we live our lives mindlessly, we don’t see, hear, taste, or experience much of what might turn lives verging on boredom into lives that are rich and exciting.
We are essentially ‘not there’ to notice much of the world around us.”
Imagine the Difference:
If Dr. Langer had not allowed her curiosity to guide her, to go on this Creative adventure in painting, she would’ve denied herself so much joy, flow, & happiness.
Of course, the journey was not always smooth. Indeed, as she continued creating her art, she was also mindful enough to realize that she “found that it was surprisingly hard not to worry about what others would think of [her] art.”
But, she used her Mindfulness to find ways out of that prison of thinking. And, over the course of this book, we will see precisely how she did so.
YES, based on her own personal experience & in-depth scientific studies, she’s going to show us how we, too, can help our Inner Creative to BREAK FREE!
Now, take a Mindful Minute, to ask yourself:
⭐️ How might you be depriving yourself of the Joy, Flow, & Happiness you could be enjoying — simply because of your Mindlessness?
⭐️ In what ways are you afraid of “what other people might think”?
⭐️ Are you afraid of trying something creative?
⭐️ Do you stop yourself from diving in because of a Limiting Belief, like:
- “It’s not worth it, if I can’t make money doing it.”
- “I’m too busy.”
- “I’m not an Artist.”
- “I’m not talented.”
- “I’m too old.”
- “It would take too long to learn how to do it.”
Now, let’s take a Mindful Minute, to FLIP THE SCRIPT.
⭐️ How much better would our lives be if we adopted the willingness to “NOT know,” and we welcomed the opportunity to be surprised instead?
⭐️ Wouldn’t it feel amazing, to reconnect with the child that’s still living inside of us, the one who never cared who was watching?
⭐️ How healthy could our minds, bodies, and spirits be if we adopted a Creative Practice, and honored it, as an act of self-love?
Please join us next week, when we do a deep-dive into Chapter 1 of
📚ON BECOMING AN ARTIST📚 by Dr. Ellen J. Langer
🧠🎨The Mindful Creative in me🎨🧠
🧠🎨honors & respects the Mindful Creative in you,🎨🧠
Marisa
👭 Do you want to enlist the help of a Fellow Creative, to help you BREAK FREE?
Our CHAT can be a safe place to tell safe people what you’d like to accomplish, so we can all support & cheer you on.
👭 If you’re comfortable doing so, feel free to tell us what Creative Practice you would like to try whenever one of your Anxiety Spirals starts to spin.
Let’s TRUST in our ability to be at peace.
Together, we can support each other on our healing journeys, to be the Creatives we are meant to be.
Together, we can BREAK FREE.
We don’t have to find solutions alone.
We can find solutions, together! Please join us in my
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