Your Creative Way

The Upside of Fear

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This week, another powerful question that will receive a treatment below. Treatments to such big questions are limited by space and time. Books can and have been written about such topics and there are many opinions and theories. I offer a few resources along with the following:

This Week’s Question:
How should we deal with fear, in particular, fear of death?

Answer:
Fear is a very powerful word and full of many connotations. I will leave the fear of death until last, as seems fitting.

Fear is a mechanism used to alert us to danger. Originally, this alert often meant survival; the difference between life and death. And it still can. On a physical level, paying attention to the response of a fear alert is vitally important.

However in the Western world where, for many of us, our survival needs are being met, our fear response has taken on a different role. Rather than signally a threat to our physical safety, fear has become a threat to our mental stability.

For an in-depth discussion on the real threats that we can avoid by paying attention to our fear alert and our intuition, please see Gavin de Becker’s The Gift of Fear.

The following will pertain to our mental fears, the fears we construct in our minds that mostly do not come to pass but paralyze us nevertheless.

Fear ~ 5” x 8”Ink on Paper ~ ©Linda Hough

Fear is the projection into the future of a perceived negative outcome.

For example, in your mind, you are thinking about changing careers or jobs. When you imagine this change, you begin to get excited. You imagine all the good things this change will bring.

Then, the possibility of a negative outcome begins to seep into your vision. Maybe you’ll fail. What will people think. Etc. Etc.

Suddenly, this negative outcome becomes larger than the positive mental images that led you to contemplate your change. Fear has taken hold.

There are all kinds of reasons for projecting a negative outcome and having it outweigh your original vision. But the end result is that the negative outcome becomes dominent in your thinking.

Now, every time you imagine making this change, not only does fear grip your thinking, your body begins to respond as well. Your breathing and your heart rate increase. You suddenly experience a gripping pain in your solar plexus or heart area. You become anxious, and you respond as your ancestors once did to physical fear: flight, fight or freeze.

When it comes to making the decision to change, you are now overcome with the paralysis of fear. This results in you doing nothing. Your dreams are put on hold or never become realized. Fear has won its battle today. You are indeed ‘safe’.

The greatness of this question lies in the fact that when you are aware that you are in fear, you now have other options. You are at choice.

Marianne Williamson says that there are only two emotions: fear and love. If you are not in one, you are in the other.

When you recognize that you are in fear, immediately stop and become aware of your thinking. You will most likely find that you are imagining a negative scenario. You have only to change your thinking and the fear will disappear. I’m speaking in mental terms and again, NOT about physical fear and danger.

Open Door ~ 30” x 40” Oil on Canvas © Linda Hough
Private Collection

At any given moment, there are a multitude of futures available to you. All it takes is the awareness of what you want and then making the choice best aligned with your desire.

I know this sounds very simple. It can be but often it is not. All sorts of unconscious beliefs and ideas come parading in front of your beautiful vision. It is all an illusion to keep you safe.

As a creator, it is up to you open the door to the future you want. You begin by taking the first step. You step either into fear or into love…the choice is yours.

Love ~ 5” x 8” Ink of Paper ~ ©Linda Hough

When I was reflecting on this very important question, the 1984 Foreigner ballad came flashing into my mind. With internal speakers blaring loudly, I heard this resonate with the deepest part of myself:

I wanna know what love is
I want you to show me
I wanna feel what love is
I know you can show me.

If you too want to know what love is, just ask. Ask to be shown. In the presence of love, fear cannot exist. They are at opposite ends of a polarity. Let love replace fear and watch what you can do. Let love be the positive outcome you imagine, instead of the negative.

As for fear of death, this comes from much the same place as fear in general. When an outcome is unknown, we fear the worse. Faith and belief are helpful but still no one knows what happens when we die. And so we fear.

Besides faith, there is one single resource that not only completely comforted me with regards to this most universal of fears but gave me insight on a number of different levels. You’ll find that resource by clicking here.

Fear arises to keep us safe. But ‘safe’ is not the way to a fulfilling life. By becoming aware of your fears and choosing differently, you step through the doorway to a life you are longing to live.

Meet the New Me

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Thank you again for your questions and comments. Let’s keep them going. Please CLICK HERE to ask your question or comment on anything you’d care to mention.

This Week’s Question:
I really enjoyed watching your creative process unfold. Are you still painting and where does that fit in with what you are doing now?

Answer:
Thanks so much for asking. The creative process is an integral part of my life and rather than just applying it through paint, I’m exploring my desire to experience my life as one continuously creative act. We are always creating our lives through action and reaction. My purpose is to become more conscious of what it is I’m creating in my life and to help others do the same.

Switched On ~ 8” x 8” Oil on Panel ~ ©Linda Hough
[$200]

What I recently realized was that I was using the process of painting as a path to healing some very deep wounds. My long journey was a step-by-step process that I was unconsciously following to regain confidence in my creative expression. And through that, acceptance of who I really am.

Through painting, I developed the ability to lose myself in the creative flow that happens when you are present only to what you are doing, dance with the divine creative energies and represent my ideas on canvas.

Now, I am doing the same with words. I am deeply interested in all the ways we hold ourselves back from attaining our desires and goals, our intentions and dreams. I am interested in the constant battle between what we really want and what we actually do.

Eternal Mother ~ 8” x 8” Collage on Board ~ ©Linda Hough

Exploring this inner terrain has fascinated me since I was in high school. We are seeing so many breakthroughs with regards to how our minds work, the energies of universal laws and stepping up to new levels of awareness that I can’t help but be excited about the possibilities.

However, at the same time, so much is breaking down. Often, it is difficult to determine what exactly IS going on and how to find our true home in this crazy world. My intention with this new work is to provide some information that helps make sense of not only our lives today but also the big picture as a whole.

Within us, there are many energetic patterns that determine how we experience our lives. Some of these patterns are old habits we are holding on to. The experience of pain or suffering is a good indication that you have energetic patterns that need to be released. When you are able to do so, your life will take on an entirely different quality. Of this, you can be sure.

Passion Alive ~ 8” x 10” Collage on Panel ~ ©Linda Hough

Ultimately, my intention is to combine my all loves into one big, beautiful extravaganza of love and color and vibrant expression that is my life. In the weeks to come, you’ll see these changes reflected visually in this newsletter and maybe even a new website.

I hope that you continue to join me on this journey and perhaps even begin yourself to more consciously experience your very own creative project called life.

Questions Google Won’t Answer

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Agave Light
16” x 20” ~ Oil on Canvas ©Linda Hough
[ $547.00 unframed* ]

First, thank you to everyone who submitted questions. I’m going to jump right in, as I’m excited to begin this journey. After reading, please feel free to hit REPLY and send a question you’d like answered and/or send any comments to me.

Here is our first question:
In our fast paced world, that is constantly drawing us outside of ourselves, what are the practices you would recommend to us, to stay connected to our inner life, our soul’s calling. We can go to Google for everything these days and have stopped asking questions of ourselves inside. How do we find our way back?

Answer:
Who is the one that is asking the questions? Constantly distracting yourself from your soul’s calling is the not the work of the soul but of the entity known as the ego.

Within ourselves, there are many parts. Depending on the activity, different parts will take a more prominent role.

When you find yourself not doing what you truly desire to be doing or not feeling connected to your soul’s calling, ask yourself: in this moment, who is in charge here? Who is doing the choosing? On what basis are the choices being made?

Our days are fraught with distractions. We constantly let our attention wander away from what is truly important on a soul level. Google is a good source for answering questions of fact. Staying connected to the divine flow of information coming from your soul is a better guide to finding your way to living a more satisfying life.

Open Vista
20” x 24” ~ Oil on Canvas ©Linda Hough
[ $997* Framed ]

Key to this process is having a vision, at least an idea of what your soul’s calling is. When you know this, it is like a guiding light always calling you home. When a desire is strong and clear, and your attention is focused like a laser beam on your vision, distraction becomes a momentary pleasure you take from time to time to relax.

Following your calling though can be challenging. Often times it is not convenient or comfortable. Therefore we look find substitute activities to distract us from truly living our heart’s desire. We look outside ourselves for answers.

This works for a while.

Then the soul’s calling becomes louder, hoping to catch our attention. The moment we begin to pay attention, we begin a magical journey. As you rightly point out, connection to this source is the key.

Staying connected is just an awareness away.

Let’s say you have a deep desire to do something good for yourself, something you know your soul desires and/or something that makes you very happy when you do it. This could have something to do with your calling, or creating something, meditating, doing yoga or hiking, even working on a project for your business.

You think about this all day and are excited to commence the activity. But before beginning, you go to check your email and then, because one click leads to another, you get end up chasing answers to questions you didn’t even know you had.

The Decision (Detail)
13″ x 20″ ~ Oil on Canvas ©Linda Hough
[ $2,597* Framed ]

In the back of your mind, you hear your soul calling out to you: hey, didn’t you promise we’d get to paint, write, meditate (fill in your passion) now? What are you doing on that stupid computer?

Your body begins to feel bad, a sinking feeling that you are on the wrong path but somehow, you stay. It is comfortable and relaxing. You tell yourself: I don’t have enough energy to paint, write or meditate. You feel that you are not connected. You KNOW you are not connected.

Once you have this awareness, you are just one choice away from connection. It is only a matter of making an inner shift.

So the practice that I would recommend is this awareness practice.

1) First, have a guiding vision for your life.

2) Notice when you are not feeling connected to it. You may be feeling instead a feeling such as bored, frustrated, distracted, etc.

3) Notice what you are doing and then ask yourself: who made this choice? Is it the part of yourself that yearns to follow your soul’s calling? If not, what are you avoiding? What are you afraid of?

4) Ask yourself: what you would truly rather be doing? What is your heart’s desire, your soul’s calling in this very moment? Expand into the answer.

5) From the place where this answer comes you will find the connection you are looking for. Shift your attention, your feelings and thoughts to this place inside. Let this trusted source be your guide always.

The more action you take based on the answers you receive, the stronger the connection gets. The more aligned your actions are with your soul’s calling; the more fulfilled and satisfied you will find yourself.

Your answers will come, as you need them, from the place deep inside that knows you best.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

* prices include taxes, and shipping and handling anywhere in the world

Wanna Get Happy Inside?

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Transformation Is In The Air ~ A Firey Desert Sunset

Four months ago I wrote my last email to you and nine months ago my friend passed away. I always note the significance of a nine-month period, the amount of time for human gestation and birth. Death and birth, both are times of transformation.

And so it is again that I find myself experiencing a new phase of life.

This is how I ended my last email to you:
I understood that my passion lies somewhere between painting and helping others experience their authentic voices so that they too can express their true selves, shine their light and dance with joy.

For most of my adult life, I’ve been searching for the answer to my biggest question: what is my contribution? What is it that I have to offer? In the deepest recesses of my soul, this question has plagued and tormented me.

I have not been happy inside.

So I did what most of us do, I covered the pain of not feeling like I was enough with mild doses of various substances including but not limited to co-dependent love, self-help processes, denial, even the adventure of living in another country.

But as the saying goes: wherever you go, there you are. I could not escape the pain. I had to turn around and face it.

Phoenix Rising From The Ashes~ Weaving ~ ©Linda Hough

For the past several months, I’ve been working with one-on-one with the facilitator of the Authentic Voice workshop I attended last fall. We meet on a weekly basis to help me find answers to some of my most nagging questions. The journey has been intense and the effort rewarding.

What has been revealed is a simple truth, as true for me as it is for you. The whispers and longings that are barely heard but deeply felt, the ones that you recognize but don’t dare want to acknowledge? That’s where you want to go.

If you are not happy inside, if you are covering up your pain, that’s where you’ve got to look.

Each one of us is here to experience ourselves through our own creative process; to express our uniqueness and to make a contribution to our community. If you’re not doing this, you’re most likely feeling some pain inside.

Perhaps, like me, you are already on the right track but just can’t dial it in. My whispers and longings have always been for contribution but I didn’t know exactly what to do with that. Now I am aware that my energies are specifically attuned to provide information for approaching challenges in a creative way.

I am excited to learn more about how I can better use this ability. To practice, I need your help.

I invite you to submit a topic that you’d like me to write about. Something you’re curious about or a challenge you’re facing. These days, there are plenty of challenges going around. Transformational opportunities are everywhere.

To submit your topic, please REPLY to this email, pick a topic close to your heart, write a brief description and send it off to me. I’ll do my best to give you some useful information by writing about it for everyone. If it’s a challenge for you, no doubt others are experiencing it as well. Each submission will remain completely, totally confidential and anonymous.

Come on. Click REPLY, share your topic and begin the journey to get happy inside.

Authentically Dancing with Joy

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One Night ~ 18″ x 24″ ~ Mixed Media on Paper

When you last heard from me, I was in the process of revitalizing my artistic career. Although my mind was very intent on getting my work out into the world, I was beginning to suspect that my heart had other ideas. And then my friend died.

If you’ve ever had anyone close to you pass away, after the shock wears off and the grief subsides, you may have found yourself doing an involuntary reassessment of your own life. Especially if the person was taken quickly. As I wrote at the time, I imagined she woke up just like every other morning and did what she always did. Then suddenly she was gone.

That sort of suddenness really hit me hard. I began letting the thoughts that were just below the surface rise to the top. I had been struggling way too much in my painting. I was not happy. You may have been able to tell in my writing. Maybe you could feel some of the pain lying underneath it all.

So I stopped painting for a while. I stopped trying to force something that didn’t want to happen.

But what I didn’t stop doing was immersing myself in personal growth reading and spiritual teachings. Nothing makes my heart soar faster than turning the pages of a really wise book and savoring the ideas as they transform, or not, my current thinking. This was a clue.

Most of you are reading this newsletter as a result of my Shine Your Light Tele-Summit. I thought back to that time and what I wanted to accomplish. So many of us carry this deep, inner pain lying just under the surface of our lives. We ask ourselves questions that we cannot answer. And we KNOW there has to be more than what we are experiencing.

What do you do when your light is all stuck inside with no obvious way out? What if it isn’t quite willing to be expressed? Too fearful or shy?

Eventually you begin to hurt. The pain begins to take its toll. First in little ways, a lack of confidence, a slip of self-esteem. You may not even notice it at first but with time, the pain grows and makes itself known in continually larger ways. I know because that was my life.

Passion Flow ~ 18” x 24” ~ Acrylic on Paper

In search of relief, I took a leap of faith and traveled to Boston to a workshop called Authentic Voice. There, among other things, I learned about intuitive writing and intuitive painting. I got in touch with what authentic voice means and my own latent potential. Most of all, I got in touch with the deepest part of myself, the part who wants to express, who wants to paint and dance with joy.

When I got home, out came the paintbrushes. One Night (top) and Passion Flow (above) are two in a series of intuitive paintings where I finally cut loose and let myself just express. The self-critic was gone and in its place were trust, allowing and joy.

Was I happy or what? I knew that I had been missing something. The passion had not been there. The desire all locked away. But now, the pain that I had been feeling receded. This is what I had wanted to do all along, to just let go and connect with the part of myself that knows what to do.

Totem 63” x 72” Oil on Canvas

I even got to that big, giant canvas I had stapled to the wall. (above) But most of all, I understood that my passion lies somewhere between painting and helping others experience their authentic voices so that they too can express their true selves, shine their light and dance with joy.

In Memorandum…Reflections on Living, Dying and Creating

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Saturday, September 15th began like any other day. With a full cup of coffee, I settled in to read my emails and the morning headline news. But within moments, my heart was on alert. I saw the name of a dear friend in the subject line of another friend’s email.

As my breathing got deeper and faster, I opened the email.

My eyes could hardly take in what they were seeing.

Over and over again, I read the email telling me that one of my dearest friends in France had died suddenly from injuries sustained from an accident. She had been mowed down by a reckless, intoxicated young man on a motor scooter while crossing the street in a crosswalk.

Those of you who live in France and Monaco know exactly what hazards these guys can be.

Even now as I type, so many days later, I can hardly believe that this femme extraordinaire is gone. I’m sure I went into shock.

Later that day though, a very strange phenomenon began to occur. Instead of tears of grief or sorrow, as I recalled random moments we had shared, my spirit soared with joy.

I’m not talking about being happy. I’m talking about unequivocal, absolute, unrestrained JOY!

This was not what I would have expected.

When I dug deeper, I came to understand many things. I wrote the following letter to be read at a gathering in Vence in her honor. Hopefully, it will shed some light on my bizarre reaction and also serve as inspiration to live life as if every moment counts. Because it does.

No doubt, she too began her day like any other day. I imagine some of the things she may have done before approaching that crosswalk. Things she did on a regular basis. No matter what they were, I can pretty much guarantee she was engaged in maximum enjoyment, walking along with a smile on her face and that familiar skip in her step.

Dear Karen:

Like many of your friends in Vence, I met you at a French Conversation class. You were standing in front of me and turned to comment on something that was being said. The first thing I noticed was how beautiful you looked. You always looked so beautiful. More than anyone I know, you had a gift for creating beauty: in what you wore, in where you lived and most certainly in how you lived.

The many hours we spent talking, laughing and even crying on your terrace, in the cafés and during our travels showed me a wise woman who had taken life on as an adventure, with the full intention of pushing her level of enjoyment to the max.

I will never forget the day you talked me into parasailing. We were walking along the Promenade in Nice and stopped to watch the boat pull yet another two people up into the air and out over the sea.

You suddenly turned to me and said, Let’s do that! I thought you were joking. But I quickly realized you were not. I came up with a litany of excuses about why this was not such a good idea. But in the end, your sense of fun and desire for new experiences prevailed.

The very next day we were back on the Promenade in our bathing suits. My heart was beating a mile a minute. You just had a big smile.

As the boat pulled away from the beach, we took our running steps and then up, up and away we went. You kept pointing in different directions, saying, Look at this…Oh look at that, with absolute delight. I couldn’t see a thing as I was not allowed to wear my glasses.

But just hearing the joy in your voice was enough. It was pretty spectacular up there.

Then when we landed, in true Karen-fashion, you had yet another brilliant idea: champagne and baked Alaska on the terrace of the Negresco. Hotel. To celebrate, of course, a toast to the momentous occasion.

This is the legacy you leave etched in my heart: life can be a delight if only you decide to make it so.

I will miss you dear friend. But I know you are already creating even more beauty wherever you are now.

I raise a glass to you, cherie. Tu vis toujours dans mon coeur, (You live always in my heart.)
Linda

~ ~ ~ ~

Now I’m not suggesting Karen lived a life without pain. She had her share of heartache and sorrow.

But what I experienced with her time and time again was that when I allowed myself to cast off my (sometimes unconscious) restrictions on pleasure and say YES to the moment, I would often feel the rush of unrestricted joy throughout my body.

This was her gift and she modeled it beautifully: encouraging us always to take delight in every moment.

I shall always remember her as a frequent creator of joy-filled experiences. And hope that I can carry on as she would insist and always supported, as one who is open to what life offers and who creates what it doesn’t.