Art Is a VERY Important Tool to Help Us Connect With Ourselves.
Wow! Its you! This is the person that I’ve been trying to reach all along.
Lol. With all that introduction aside, here are just a few reasons on how art is awesome and helps us connect with our truest self. Just for you, sir and/or ma’am.
We all have an artist within us. True. And this artist within us is connected to us at our truest and intimate core. Also true! I personally think that anything art related is closely tied to or linked with our very own inner child. This is just a little side note. And as life goes on, we explore with our inner artist through the arts. We uncover interesting parts of our lives that we may not get to visit often. We get to peek through the window into the world of all that life is. We also get to see sides of ourselves that we have never seen before. Art is an experience, and as an experience, it also doubles as an activity that engages us with ourselves from a new angle where we get to take on a perspective that challenges or confirms particular parts of our own identity, intimately.
Woah, that was deep, and probably a lot to take in. Okay deep breathe, and we’re going back in 3…, 2…, …
My observations and life experiences from the last year and a half has filled me with such insight. From never having an inkling of an urge to practice the arts as a creative, I now find my current self engaging in and enjoying musical instruments such as the drums, guitar, keyboard; visual arts such as photography, acrylic paint on canvas, and drawing; also literary mediums such as songwriting, poetry, and writing. Some of these, like photography and playing the keyboard, I have either tried before this or was already participating in. The majority, however, all is very new to me. One could say that this was my renaissance awakening. It all started with me following a thought that spawned in me one day to go and paint for the first time. By myself. I told myself “nawww, I’m not good at painting, nor would I want to sit their and try, doesn’t sound like fun”. Queue situational irony laughter. Wow, imagine if I never actually painted in my garage for the first time.
For now, that’s my backstory on where I am now and how I got started, and I’m so happy that I explored the unknown the way I did. A mere exploration mission through paint by myself while I was taking time off work turned into my seemingly starting a life of the arts. Where I’m going with this is for me to highlight and emphasize the main part that art provides: it acts as a beautiful catalyst for us to look at ourselves, society, promotes self awareness, give us a stronger sense of who we are and what we consist of, and ultimately, provides open ground for clarity on what makes you, you.
Anything involving writing gives us the ability to question our views or stances. “Is this thought about myself real? Is this my viewpoint of the world? Am I being truthful when I say this? Did this really happen in my life?” These are all questions the that I have asked myself during the writing process, be it a song, a chapter, a poem, a medium post. Perhaps others have questions similar to this arise during another persons’ process of creation, and perhaps they could be questions you ask yourself as well if you were just starting out creating for the first time, if you are not a creator now.
It is powerful to know yourself. It is rewarding and exciting, and yes, even thrilling going through the arts. As you get to uncover more about yourself than you will have even guessed you had even wanted to see or had, you become that much richer with love for yourself, excitement for life, and curiosity of this new person you are. You’ll be a stronger person, a better person, a happier person, a more engaged person with life. I’ll let you find out the rest when you start going through the arts. Anything involving writing is very mindful, and can be the 411 on who the f*ck you are.
Painting. Painting, and other forms of visual art such as photography or drawing, needs no words, no reason, no need for explanation, it just happens, and we can to be in touch with such a beautiful and intimate part of ourself. We get to express and create and communicate simply without words, without sound even. I know when I get in the painting mode, I dance and create without thought. Silent beauty emerges through the brush, through the lens, through the soul, and we don’t need a reason to do what we do. No justifying with ourselves, or even others on that note. Our craft conveys the truth that needs to be freed from within our essence, and sometimes we don’t even know when it is spilling out of us. Connecting within without speech is purely blissful as it is, an arrangement with creation to happy. A nod of allowance to proceed forward with your best self in life.
A similar effect is with music. It’s entrapping, its warm, its soothing, it fills the soul with magic goodness that has a glowing after effect. It’s radiating, it’s trance inducing. The beautiful thing that I like with music is that a similar effect, if not same effect can be achieved whether consuming or creating. Whether you are on the making end or listening end, the encompassing and intoxicating magic can be had. However, if you are on the making end, you get to say where the journey goes. I’ve connected with parts of myself playing instruments before that I cannot connect to in any other form, such as playing the drums. From not wanting to play upfront, to agreeing with myself to play for 5 minutes, to getting lost in the sound for about 20 minutes, I feel content and overjoyed while I play. Nothing to hurt me, nothing wanting to see me in panic or stress. Only soothing serenity covering my like a blanket. I fade into the music, and it feels like home, euphoria. How I manage to connect to this care-free part of myself, only the instruments and God knows. But that’s it, that’s me connecting with a blissful and true part of myself and life, all through music. All through the arts.
Just like anything else in life, receiving any sort of help comes down to you, the individual, the person to accept or make change, to accept the help or not, and you also provide the help to yourself by the way. The arts are waiting for you, you just have to show up. Everyone or everything else in your life is just holding space and light for you so you can do all the growing. You show up, you take in the information, you make the changes, you become a better individual. And it is no different here with the arts. You pick a medium, you practice it, you engage with it, you open yourself up and be vulnerable with the art, and you become the interpreter of what you're going through. You get to process it, and you get to become your reaction. As my old spiritual teacher Jamie Munday once said, “in my reaction, I become.” When you respond lovingly, you become love. When you respond disgustingly, you become disgusted. When you respond acceptingly, you become acceptance. No matter how you respond though, I wish that it is authentic for the moment, as that’s how you naturally perceive your creation, accompanied with this big responsibility of looking at yourself. I’ve responded harshly to myself, I’ve looked at myself while writing poems and been like “oh boy. how do you not know yourself? how do you not know this information on something?” and even much harsher than that. Truthfully, however, I’m happy I've been there if I can say for today me, as I get to know more of myself each time I put a poem or song on my mind to write about. I get to be a bit more free everytime I pain, And I get to feel a bit more lost and found while playing music. At the end of the day, have fun with the arts, create some beauty, some joy, some magic, and respond honestly with yourself. You’ll thank yourself later.
