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November/December 2001 Living Now
Be the Artist of Your Life!

by Joanne Rodasta Wilshin

“Creativity has been built into every one of us; it’s part of our design. Each of us lives less of the life God intended for us when we choose not to live out the creative powers we posses.”

- Ted Engstrom

If your life were a painting, does it look the way you want it to? What would you change about it? What would you leave just as it is?

While these may seem tantalizing questions, in reality, you are the artist of your life whether you want to be or not. You have no choice. Every minute of every day you are shaping your future life experiences. This is because your many conscious and subconscious thoughts continually blend together to quantum-physically paint or create your future experiences. Often these future experiences are surprising blends of your contradictory thoughts.

You may, for example, think you can afford a new car, but you might also believe that you tend to get the raw end of deals. These thoughts might blend together to create an experience where you get a beautiful new car that turns out to be a lemon or you discover that the interest rate on your new car could have been less after all.

Your thoughts and beliefs work to become your future regardless of whether you are aware of them or not, or whether you are awake or asleep. This is because the beliefs held in your subconscious mind are always activated. It has been said that 73% of your thinking occurs in your subconscious mind. That means that perhaps 73% your life is being painted by thoughts you don’t even know you are thinking. Yikes!

But there is a way to access your subconscious thoughts so you do have a choice in what you create in your future. That access is through your emotions. Your emotions reveal what you consciously and subconsciously think and believe. If you feel emotionally good in this moment, ask yourself: Why am I happy? The answer you receive is a belief you hold.

For example, if you answer: I’m happy because I know these people I’m around love me, it means that you believe (and therefore create in your future) these people around you loving you. But if you do not feel emotionally good (i.e., sad, fearful, angry, jealous, dull and empty, etc.) In this moment, ask yourself: What do I fear? The answer you receive is also a belief you hold that will potentially create unhappy experiences.

If the answer you receive, for example, is: I fear these people I’m around won’t like me, it means that some part of you believes (and therefore creates in your future) these people do not like you. Interestingly, even if the people do like you, you will probably experience them internally as not liking you. Or they might feel uncomfortable around you for some reason.

Thus to become a skilled artist for you life, you need to first pay attention to your emotions in order to discover the belief that is going to be painted into the picture of your life. The next and most creative step is to decide what you want to believe instead. If you have a happy emotion, you might want to believe that the good experiences will continue. Or you might want to add some interesting touches to it like: I want these people to feel loved by me.

If, however, you felt an unhappy emotion, you will definitely want to decide what you want to experience instead, keeping in mind that absolutely anything is possible. Do you want to experience the people liking you? Do you want to experience the people noticing your wonderful traits? Do you want the people to feel extremely comfortable and loved around you? What is it that you want to experience?

Then make a sketch of this in your head by actually imagining the experience. What do you really want to people to say to you? Hear them say it to you. How do truly want the people to look at you? See them looking at you the way you want to be looked at. This is the picture of your life that you are drawing. Put into this sketch exactly what you want. Give the people what they want and need too, even if you do not know exactly what it is. Really make it a beautiful, loving picture.

And then go about your business knowing that your thoughts are reaching the canvas of your life and making the changes in the picture. Relax into knowing this is happening. It is much like leaving negatives at the film processor’s; you know the pictures will turn out fine, but if some adjustments are needed, you can do that when the time comes. Treat your new creations in the same way.

This will take practice and attention. But it is a skill that will have a profound effect on the picture of your life. Your life is your canvas; in every moment decide what you want it to look like.

Joanne Rodasta Wilshin wrote Take a Moment and Create Your Life! (available through Amazon.com) and facilitates the Create Your Life! Workshops. Contact: www.spiritsmith.com, 949-759-9300, or 3857 Birch, Suite 288, Newport Beach, CA 92660.