Art And The Practice Of Being Yourself

How to do I practice being myself? When I speak, I try to think clearly about what I really believe and want to say, not what comes first or easily or will please the other. I do my spiritual work (daily meditation and prayer), coming more and more to be my true self and not just ego self. I support myself by seeing myself as worthy of respect and dignity. I don't think we really know what is meaningless on a universal scale. How can we know that? Much can seem meaningless but there is a Mystery that we don't understand. I think creativity is a process by which I reach toward the unfathomable or mysterious. "If you solve your problems and speak of them truly, you are of help to others, that’s all. And it becomes a moral obligation." Yes! I love this. Others do this for us, and we do it for others. I can't share a specific story, except that I do try to share my personal growth stories with others because sometimes they truly help them. I have often received personal stories from others from which I have benefitted. It's a circle of grace, human helping human. Hide full comment

On my way to figuring out what my gift is, how my creativity surfaces, I, for many years have seen myself as not creative. Among people who draw and paint, I can only appreciate color, line, and subject. Among people who make music, who sing and play, I can only listen with awe and appreciation. Among those who write words of all kinds, I can only pass them on. When Malcolm Gladwell examined Paul Revere's role in the American Revolution, I began to remove the word "only" from my descriptions of myself and replaced it with the concept of connection and integration. I connect people to people, people to art, music, theory, practice, wonders of ourselves and the world. My art is sharing myself and the world with others, connecting those around me to themselves and their possibilities and souls, and I use words to paint pictures, I speak words to connect people with their deepest selves, I sing praise to all who can hear. How do I come alive? I show up, light up, and reflect the best of others onto themselves. My art is showing up as myself so that others can discover how to be the best of themselves alongside me. At 75, even though I have always "BEEN", I now can see how I have traveled my life and I am satisfied. Hide full comment

Most recently, being in a space where I feel I'm truly tuned into myself comes from a meditation/visualization of connecting my body to the earth, and pulling Mother Earth's energy up my legs and with each in-breath into each chakra. On the out-breath I release any dense energy from each center. This is a mental exercise (especially in Maine where the winters are l-o=n-g) but it's also a very physical and spiritual practice. Once I go up all 7 chakras, I then welcome in Spirit from above and go all the way back down. This practice enables me to stay, at least for a while, in my own self, able to speak my truth, and at times able to express my creativity through song (especially on the occasions of friends' birthdays when I write lyrics to well-known tunes depicting aspects of the person's life/being and how we feel about them) or sewing or painting (watercolors)- the latter not often. Creativity for me is a process that connects us to each other. Creating from the true self means presenting a picture of truth that some/many can feel resonates with their own truth. This connects us all. Moral obligation? Do we have a moral obligation to be true to ourselves? To reflect the Divine within us? And following the theme of Spirit in ordinary things, I will share what I wrote about it in an email yesterday, February 19, 2022. I have such trouble getting a winter hat to fit. I think of myself as somewhat of a conehead because hats are usually not long enough from crown to ear to cover my ears. I’ve had several knitter friends try in the past but it wasn’t until ten years ago that my friend Martha knit one that not only fit, but was warm and beautiful . I’ve cherished it every since. Especially after it disappeared in late November. This morning, at the indoor farmer’s market, my favorite egg-man was engaged in a conversation with a woman about my age. I glanced over at her and noticed she was wearing a beautiful hat; then I realized it was my beloved hat on her head. The yarn is so variegated, and the design so unique, that when she started to leave, I stopped her and asked where she got her hat. She told me she found it in Baxter Woods (where I walk every day) I told her it was mine and that I was about to write to my friend that made it to see if she could make me another. She apologized for picking it up, but I assured her that I very much appreciated her rescuing it and taking good care of it all these weeks. She and I had a lovely conversation, and after we both finished shopping, she gave it back to me. (She didn’t want to take it off earlier because “my hair is a mess”) What’s in a hat??? It’s just a hat for heaven’s sake. But I felt quite emotional. We’ve lost so much in the last two years (as well as gain much,) and maybe this just represented something I was “re-gaining.” It gave me such a lift to have this little piece “of me” returned. So many thanks to Martha and the market lady for my hat!!! Reflecting on it, it feels like an example of another person's generous spirit, and of me "reclaiming" something I had cherished, a gift from a dear friend. Hide full comment

I recognize that we are all Sparks of the Divine. While there are billions of Sparks, each has its own Light. I learn to live my Light by going deeper within. I am a microcosm of the Universe and nothing is meaningless. Everything serves my higher purpose and goal to return home to the Heart of God. A few years ago I became Facebook friendly with a woman who took in my daughter's dog - the dog and my daughter's chaotic household with younger children were not a good fit and the dog, Stella, kept running away. Shortly afterward, the woman, Christine, asked that if I were a person who prayed, to please pray for her as she was going for a biopsy. While I don't really consider praying a moral obligation, this is the closest I can think of right now. Anyway, Christine and I have become friends and she was the burr under the saddle that pushed me to sell my house in a pandemic and move closer to my family. Moving was not on my radar! My Spiritual life has been greatly enhanced by the simple request to pray for another. Hide full comment

I do not believe that we are "born more or less with an empty vault."  I believe we are born again and again and who we are  as in this lifetime is the sum total of all our experiences and lessons from previous lifetimes.  If you notice little children, at even a fairly young age they have different talents, personalities and fears.  Surely these weren't developed or accumulated in a just a few years.  I do agree that different memories enter into making the self, and that we come into each existence with lessons to learn.  Some are easy and some can be very difficult. Much of our mission is remembering who we really are beyond our physical bodies.  How we address those opportunities during our current time on earth will determine how we leave to go  Home, and eventually we evolve to the point where we come back to help, or stay to help, or experience even broader opportunities to help in the great scheme of things that is beyond our limited human consciousness - more in the realm of love than of mind.

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You practice being yourself by being yourself.  I don't think there is another way.  I may not be good at it and it may be risky, but it's worth it.  And the alternative is to not be myself, and what sense does that make.  I think it was Joseph Campbell who said "Being your self is the privilege of a lifetime."  I also see it as my responsibility.  If I don't be myself, I and the world are deprived of me.  My being creative is my being my unique self, offering my unique perspective, sharing my unique experience, which offers my meaning to what is happening.  I don't think all that is is meaningless -- I think it just is.  I do think that my being myself offers my unique expression and touch and meaning, and no one else can do that.  This I have learned by being myself more and more over time.  As someone said, "If not me, then who?  If not now, when?"  The culture tries to get each of us to get in line, be numbers or robots in the social machinery, and it's important to find time and ways to be oneself, be creative, and stay alive.

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 Excellent article. Paradoxically I practice being myself by not practicing but rather by being myself with my flaws and warts.. Paradoxically again, being creative is not being creative when one is just being oneself. By that I mean "trying" to be myself or "trying" to be creative is not being myself and not being creative. If I were myself and and creative I would not need to "try." This again relates to the paradox that it takes much effort to move toward effortless living. I am now considered "an old man" but I find that I am still learning to be myself. Sometimes I extend effort and sometimes I don't. As the old saying goes sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits.. Being aware is the key to being yourself and being creative. wanting to know too much in advance what will happen before it happens prevents one from being oneself and prevents one from being creative. Simply notice your noticing while you are noticing and accept what you notice. If you want to change something. Change it. If you don't, don't.  As usual, you may notice I don't know much and I find that to be just fine. For me I find there's often nothing to know, nothing to attain, nothing to realize for everything is fine as it is. I often find that if I allow events to happen rather than make them happen that I am more of myself and I am simultaneously than more creative.Warm and kind regards to everyone.

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