At some stage we have to achieve balance by responding to life & not always outwardly reacting to everything in the moment.
What if you could do something creative to bring o some peace in the moments when the heartbreaking events of our loves come around. We are not victim of our circumstances, but rather of our own thoughts,
Creativity can be one of those creative outlets that can bring you a little closer to where you want to be. Recovering from illness, media bombardments & the things we do not want. The joy & happiness we intend to pursue we need to start somewhere.
To decipher and make this easier to understand, let’s quickly take a look at the key differences between reacting & responding. Each of these have an element of activity to them, although the general consensus is that reacting is a when we have an impulsive reaction or an outburst towards something, while responding takes the form of inner contemplation before an appropriate action is taken.
So, we can say the aspects of reacting is often the result of the many triggers we accumulate in our lifetime & is often based on an instinctive outpouring of negative emotions that reciprocate against a situation or someone specific. The unwelcome reaction is very likely to be a kickback against some personal injustice or a bad memory dependant of one’s emotional state at the time. It leaves us feeling hurt, unwell & most certainly drain our energy on a spiritual level far deeper than just that momentary outburst of over reactive anatomised emotions.
Responding is still also a reaction to an event or person, but it takes on the form of calm contemplation. In this moment it is far gentler to focus on what is causing the upheaval of emotions rather than the sudden instinctive explosion of brute force. Taking all into perspective, it is my views that responding comes down to the emotional intelligence of an individual & whether or not they’ve begun the self-mastery section of their lives.
“You see my dear creative; control over oneself is the ultimate outcome for building on sturdy emotional foundations in the knowing when it is appropriate to respond & when to hit that thing with a chair in the head. This discernment is the ultimate test in balance & of course your guide to serenity & bliss.”
- Tanya J. de Wet
When we take the desired outcome, our emotional state & the results into consideration before embarking on the outward ejection of that polarised emotional well, we can choose a better feeling & begin to express it instead of losing our minds to the chaos of the world.
At any point, we can balance out our pools of reactions to bring us in line with a more desirable result that not only benefits our own joy & happiness, but that of a positive outcome for all involved.
Let’s be honest here, it’s far easier to help ourselves when we are in a neutral mood rather than when we have our hair on fire with rage over some inconsiderate media post, an unsolicited comment, overexertion of events or any of the things we get ourselves into knots over on the daily.
Okay, so we have had a rough couple of days, things may have taken an unforeseen turn & life just isn’t feeling good right now! What can we do then to calm ourselves down a little?
Having a creative outlet has saved many of my bad moods & the hurtful things I could have said or done to the ones I’m supposed to love unconditionally. It’s easy when we feel great, but over the top & out of wack when I’m not.
With the most basic supplies, a few blobs of water, a pencil of ink just about any onslaught of negativity can we erased to align us with our inner greatness once more. We can bring back the beginnings of playfulness& with it the creativity that is held inside. Something I want you to remember today, we never lose our creativity; we simply neglect the nurturing sequence of it & think we are supposed to put it away for an adult life. Many responsibilities have fallen on our shoulders wherein we try to solve them with our logical reasoning mind, it is in fact the creative faculties that bring along the most soothing of results with the most pleasurable feelings of fulfilment. We just forgot about it when we packed away our crayons & decide that the inner child needs to grow up.
This is a standard that might be acceptable on the corporate industry, but it certainly is not the norm if your right brain keeps on nudging you toward those delicious colours & some quiet time to yourself. It's most certainly a great feeling when we can give in to our creative playfulness & bring forth shapes or random colour combinations to surprise ourselves with all the while making up pretty imaginary flowers to show a message instead of reacting to the world the same way most others do. A little whimsical bouquet to treasure with a heartfelt message is just what we need in times of need, in times of support & certainly in times of carelessness.
In today's video you can grab your supplies & ease into the weekend with the knowing you don't have to create anything for anyone else, only for the pure enjoyment of being able to see the world through a whole new set of eyes, no matter what.
Hope you followed along & made a small creative project for yourself or a friend today. Share your images on socials & tag us #andsocreative #sketchbooklovers
Download the Art Print I created in the video further down in this Article (personal use only)
With a clear mind, organised trains of thought & love in our hearts we can make better choices for what we believe in, for what we aspire to become & definitely to guide us out of a devastating situation.
Today is one of those days when I knew that I can pick myself up. After recovering from an eye injury & an infection, there was very little I could do creatively, but in the darkness of drawn curtains & nourishing treats I could indulge in audio books. I’m talking about the kinds that broadened my mind to what our creativity can bring us in times of need. Even though not being able to physically be creative, was the most frustrating, I still felt so inspired to create a collection of wallpaper designs. Needless to say, there are some delightful & wonky scribbles calling out to be turned into repeat patterns.
Without the eyes to see the pages of my Sketchbook I felt something missing in my day-to-day creative process & then realised that I could in fact be creative in so many other ways that did not involve ‘seeing’ every detail, but rather find the outlines of inspiration in the form of play. The light was super photosensitive to my gaze & dark rooms were the norm for around two weeks. In these quiet moments I probably saw more organic objects in the raw form life had to show & the challenges were not about to change my mind about what is possible, in fact, I think it actually helped me see the balance it can give us when we let go of some of the stinking-thinking & just allow the world around us to reveal itself in magical ways.
You must know what I mean? It’s like those kinds of creative games we used to play when we were small & only you knew what each day could bring because you welcomed it in with open arms. It gave you everything you needed with every aspect of joy & happiness to be discovered without limits.
Instead of reacting with over eradicated negative emotions, we need to stop what we are doing & become intensely aware of what we can do right now to feel that much better than we did mere moments before.
We do have the freedom to choose, to adjust, to adapt & to respond with clarity.
Regaining balance in times of hardship or illness is this giant key to figuring out how to solve our problems & take the next step towards what we deeply need most… and no one can tell you what that is. Our quiet time & inner reflections will guide us into the unknown realms of our hearts, our minds & our deepest thoughts to reveal what it is our Souls are searching for. Then deciding when to rest & when to get back to your life!
Discovering not only the hidden joys of calm but also the new found direction after having had the time to think. To be with our own thoughts, is to know where our next imaginary set of inspirations will come from while staying in total harmony of what we wanted to be wholeheartedly.
Right Click, "save as" for an instant download to your device, ready to print at home
Then, when our souls are nourished & our minds are calm, the time presents itself wherein we can achieve the balance …that drives the mechanism …that brings the intentions forward to become the best we can be in any event of life. It is here in this moment we recognise the creative flow of life & innerstand that it happened for us in the most effortless blissful way imaginable & it fills us with gratitude...
By now we can feel how wonderful it all is. While we went through something big, all of what we already created before was still there & each aspect of our lives continues to build on top of the sturdy foundations named after your hard work.
The work we as creatives push out into the world will continue to be a love-thing for others who adore our works & because it already exists in it's perfect setting, nothing can take the joy from it!
Do you know what else brings me joy? Talking about the beautiful Wallpaper designs I have created. All the wallpaper collections, like the "Rocky Mountain Resort", the "Make a Wish" collection & the "Akito Roses" are available on short link bit.ly/tanya_s2s
From a question in the Sketchbook Lovers Membership last month, a collection of designs appeared during the filming of the lessons for a new Skillshare Class named "Developing your Style by Pitching to Yourself" In this class I wanted to help you build some confidence in your style as I know how difficult it is to pitch our work to a first client.
This class will help you to developing your style & by the end of the lessons you'll be able to pitching a small collection of cohesive designs to your first client (or to yourself as practice) Find it here: "Develop Your Style by Pitching to Yourself" can be found on Skillshare where I am giving away a 30 day Premium Membership to you!
All the designs I came up with during the filming of the lessons are now available on my Spoonflower Shop Simply order a sample or a few rolls of your favourite designs & tag us in your images when you upload them to socials by using #andsocreative
If you happen to be interested in the Sketchbook Lovers Membership, you can join us by going here: Sketchbook Lovers Membership
I can’t wait to see what you create in your Sketchbooks #sketchbooklovers
See soon & have a happy creative weekend
xo
Tanya
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