Welcome to my first blog
Welcome to my first blog (EVER!). There is always that first step when we take control of our desires and make them a reality. You may face this challenge daily or yearly? Either way, engaging in a new experience, with you as the driver, can often prove very fulfilling and lend to many more periods of positive growth.
Since I started watercolor painting with more regularity during Covid, I find myself learning something new and challenging and worthwhile every day. With the help of wonderful teachers in live zoom classes, I have developed many skills in artistry and socialization. I find live classes provide me with the social interactions where I have always felt most like myself. I have never been very successful in learning by recordings on my own.
Each one of us likely knows what situation is most stimulating for us. What brings out your “mojo” moments? Which experiences particular to your areas of your interest guide you the furthest and tend to leave you wanting more? These considerations are an important basis and practical habit for launching a new talent or project.
Think about it: when you need to get groceries, your fridge is bare or just you are bored with your meals. Do you just jot down a common list? Or do you first consider which store has the freshest or most affordable items? Do you consider the distance and time it will involve? Do you come up with a menu? Each of us has a very personal method for getting what we want or need. Often times it just occurs naturally from repeated endeavors in past. Yet, when it is totally new to us, the basics are the same.
Imagine yourself doing what you find fascinating, engaging, intriguing, natural to you? Then where can you find this stimulation? Do you have the time and energy to commit? Or better put, how badly do you want to find out? Bad enough to rearrange your schedule and possibly other responsibiities so you can at least try it out?
I go through these motions often in deciding what I am going to paint next. Other times, I am simply spell bound by something I saw or heard and it prompts me to explore it on my own through photography, music and/or painting.
When it comes to singing, it is more than listening to music which I find stimulating-uplifting-soothing- or that stirs up my emotions deep within. It also is something I can sing along with or hum. A tune that stays with me for hours, pops up in my sleep, or simply lends to a new playlist of repetition. Because I love a variety of music in addition to the socializing with others who feel the same way, being a member of a choir has always been part of my life. My church choir gives me a deeper perspective on prayer and community and feels like a family. My community choir gives me greater training and socialization in a different way. Both venues tap into the person I truly am and have always been. Both options provide growth personally and in a talent I possess for which I feel not just the obligation to share but a personal need to share with others.
Both painting and singing, motivate me to bring the joy and challenges I experience to the world around me. So lets chat. Let us share what motivates us to be better, to strengthen self-awareness and truth, and to help others find the same. This is not a psychology blog (sure I am a nurse) but it is about sharing and finding those ways which personally have motivated us to paint, to sing (or hey to dance!) Discovering with each other not just how the results have affected our work but above all the process.
