Building Momentum

Creativity can bestow a sense of well being and allow us to spend at least some of our time in a state of inspiration but it can also demand a lot from us. Everyone is different so the following is just my experience; I find that there is a threshold – a certain amount of time I need to spend painting and when I put in those required hours and days, I begin to build momentum and I feel a sense of accomplishment, competency and flow in my art. For me it requires four or five good, solid painting sessions per week to reach this level.

At the beginning of March it became clear to me that the demands of life and work had taken precedent and that my painting had fallen well  below the threshold. I made a commitment to become more aware of this so I could rise to, and stay above the threshold. Over the past month I have been building momentum and this past week I passed the threshold!

It feels good to have the sense that my painting is more fluid, intuitive, flowing from my body and a sense of knowing and seeing rather than from the thinking mind. But getting into the flow has also been challenging. I don’t always feel like I have the time to  paint and sometimes I just go do it even though I might really feel like taking a nap. I also found that my emotional ups and downs have been more pronounced. Challenging myself to cross the threshold seems to bring up feelings of frustration and not being good enough so why bother as well as feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment.