The Happy Artist

Who says you have to suffer for your art? The process of creation should leave you happy and fulfilled. This guided practice comprises a body scan, guided imagery and exploratory questions to help you unlock the joy in your journey and explore different ways to think about and approach the art of creation.

Transcript

Hello,

I'm Sydney and welcome to the Happy Artist Meditation.

Thank you for meeting me here in this space where we are going to stop suffering for our art.

Believe it or not,

You can be content or even happy and make something beautiful at the same time.

We're going to start off with a meditation to open ourselves up to receive some answers about making art and how we may have beliefs that are damaging to the artistic process.

We're going to get comfortable.

I invite you to lay down or sit down or even stand up,

Whatever works for you.

After all,

We are artists and we can't be contained by any one idea or position.

Just get yourself comfortable.

We're going to start off with three deep cleansing breaths to transition from the fully conscious into the conscious plus subconscious fertile soil of our minds and souls.

So let's begin with a deep belly breath in and out.

Again in and out.

This time in and out.

Now let's do a body scan.

As you place your attention on each part of your body,

You can just concentrate your attention there or you can move that body part a little bit.

I'm a big believer of movement and creativity supporting one another.

So let's start with our heads.

Just send your attention to your head or give your head a little shake.

Moving down to the shoulders,

Lift them,

Relax them.

How about our arms and elbows?

Move them in and out.

Give our fingers a little wiggle.

And now for our chest,

You may want to take a deep breath in and out.

Our bellies,

Poke it out a bit.

Now our hips and pelvis.

Shake from side to side.

Let's do our thighs and knees.

Depending on how you are seated or laying down,

You might lift them up.

Bend them.

For the lower legs and ankles,

Same thing.

Maybe give your legs an ankle roll.

And wiggle those toes.

Now it's time to imagine that you are the middle of a story.

All creation is a story.

All life is a story.

Everything has a beginning,

A middle,

And an end.

You're the middle right now.

The start is deep in the earth.

The hot molten glow.

And I want you to imagine you have tentacles on your feet or your back or the back of your legs that can stretch down and connect to the hot center of the earth.

And as you breathe,

You're pulling up that power into your belly,

Into your heart.

And now imagine you have tentacles or a cord that reach all the way up to the hot fiery sun.

And again with every breath,

You draw in that power from that sun.

The earth is the beginning of the story.

You are the middle and the sun is the end.

It's a perfect triad of storytelling and creation.

Now bring that power from the heat of the earth core and the heat of the sun,

That concentrated power that's sitting in your belly and your chest,

Into your hands and into your mouth.

Many of us create with our hands.

We write things down.

We draw.

We sculpt.

Many of us use our mouths to speak,

To sing.

Perhaps we use our bodies to dance.

And so our bodies should glow.

Wherever you physically output your creative endeavor,

Imagine that place glowing with power.

The power of the universe,

The power of creation.

Take your glowing self.

Take your glowing body part and imagine that you are using it.

You're using that power and that glow to make your beautiful contribution to this world through your art.

And as you're creating,

You're smiling because you're happy.

You're happy to be in that moment of creation.

You feel joy in your heart and you feel joy in your body.

You feel joy in your mind and you feel joy in your soul.

Now take a moment to finish your creation or to imagine it finished,

Completed.

And take a step back and look at it with joy and pride and happiness and accomplishment.

Give yourself a head nod and acknowledgement or a pat in the back,

Even if that pat is just in your mind.

Feel that heat and creativity and joy all at the same time,

Just swirling inside and outside of you.

And imagine sitting back from your art and sitting back from the process.

Seeing the earth,

Thinking the sun for infusing you with this moment of creativity.

Three deep breaths again.

Breathe in and out.

Second one in and out.

Third and final one in and out.

Now as you're laying there,

Sitting there or standing there,

Ask yourself a few questions about your beliefs around what state of being you need to be when you create.

Do you believe you need to be suffering?

Do you believe that it should be hard and painful?

Do you believe that you should lock yourself up away from the world,

Away from your loved ones,

Away from things that you like to do?

Or would it work better for you to create in a communal setting where you can bounce ideas off of other people?

Or do you need a change of scenery?

Can you go outside?

Can you go inside?

Think differently about the place and the spaces where you create.

Where would you be most happy right now doing your creative work?

How about your mind space?

Do you believe that you need to be secretive and not share what you're working on until it's perfect?

That might work for you.

Or maybe you work better when you can open up and share what you're working on and get support with other artists or you can share with them and test out your new ideas.

And the last question,

Do you believe you need to be in pain in order to tap into that good stuff?

Or can you trust that you can go internally where you need to go in order to be your best as an artist?

You can tap into the stories,

The colors,

The movement,

The notes while you're in that creative space and come out again and enjoy everything that life has to offer so that you can continue to feed your creativity.

Maybe the answer hasn't come to you yet,

But maybe this is the beginning of thinking about your creative process a little differently.

Just think about beliefs that aren't working for you.

Maybe you want to write them down at some point and keep visiting them until you find ways of being of creating that do work for you,

That leave you feeling good about your process.

And in the meantime,

Remember that you are beautiful,

Brilliant and creative.

Thank you.

Reviews

beautifully different visualizations, colour, happiness, warmth and inspirational. thank you x

This is such a fun, uplifting meditation, thank you for sharing!

A few technical notes to consider in the future. There were some microphones pops that you might avoid in future recordings by using a wind screen, or spit cover, as I've always called it - y'know, the foamy covers you put over a mic. These are pretty cheap. There are also fancier expensive filters for, those things the look like round disc between the speaker and the mic? But those can be expensive. Another note, the crossfade or looping of the accompanying music track had a couple jarring moments, whether because the music ended and started again abruptly, or because the volume dipped or spiked. This could probably be avoided by using longer, more gradual, sloping crossfades between the musical tracks, along with overlapping the tracks, so that the next part starts at a low volume and slowly moves into the foreground as the previous bit fades into the background and ends. Finally, once you've put together the music, vocal, and any other accompanying tracks, you may want to equalize the "master mix". (Most of the free recording software available online has this option). This will smooth everything out and make sure that the tracks have a consistent amplitude throughtout.

Sorry the tech notes got so long! I love your meditation - I can tell it's already helped me tremendously, because I haven't thought about sound design in this way in ages! Thank you again for sharing, and I hope my comments prove helpful :)

Thanks for sharing your meditations for artists. I appreciate the thorough, creative process to re-spark my flame, including body movement. Awesome!

Did this in the park it was so beautifully peaceful 😩

That was absolutely wonderful - what a joy that you have shared this with us. Thank you! :)

Perfect meditation as I affirm to reconnect with the arts

From one artist to another thakyou🙏🎨

Thank you🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Thoroughly enjoyed new insights about living my creativity and ways of breaking through limitations.

This is great! Thank you! ☮️💟🕉

This helped me to focus on myself and my art! I hope it helps others as well! Thank you Sydnye!

Thanks for the inspiration! I haven't been back into a studio since I got my M.F.A. being creative meant addressing my demons. After that I turned that part of myself off. I want sure how to continue with out endangering my psychic self further. Now after 28 years and a lot of soul searching and healing I am ready to begin a new. Your meditation showed me I do not have to go back to the past to speak through my pain, I can now start from a place of gratitude and positivity a work in the present! Thank you for your mind changing meditation. Nameste.

Nice to connect with a fellow artist. Namaste 🙏

Thank you 🙏🦋💕

Thank you. This was helpful even though my blocks are more around comparing myself to other artists and believing I’m not good enough to share my creations with the world. Your suggestions gave me some clarity. 🙏🥰💖

i feel electrified in a good way... never before connected roots to the core and hands and head to the sun at the same time... it was always one or the other.

am now feeling hot healing happy and complete.

i will bring you to visit my artist friends...

bless your wise heart!

thank you,

Susy in southern Oregon

Thank you❤️🎨🙏🏻Great guidance🌟🦋

What a delight to explore my old and new beliefs about creativity! Thank you :-)