Simple Tips for Happiness!

Two friends shared two things with me this week that resonated and they allowed me to share them with you. First, my talented friend Heather shared a simple, beautiful channel from her team about the "tennis match" that goes on in the human brain when trying to decide anything. This channel was in response to something I'd forwarded to her re: the angel that sits on one shoulder and the devil that sits on the other, both trying to convince you that their individual and opposing perspectives will surely benefit you. The post I'd sent to her didn't resonate fully, so she sought higher guidance and was rewarded, fully. Here is the channel she shared with me.

A channeled message received by Heather Braden, July 2023

Greetings dear one. Relax and breathe allowing your body and your breath to soften. We are here. Allow all the tangles to be present and allow yourself to soften at the same time. Allow yourself to just let them be. Think about a tangled necklace and how you very gently rub at the knot. You might try to gently tease it out, softening the grip of the knot. You do not yank or pull at it with any vigour, dear one. It is with gentle tenderness that the knots are released. This is the exact approach that we want you to use with your mind. Very kindly and gently notice what is going on in there.

You have heard of the analogy of an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. This can feel like truth because you host conversations in your mind that often take the form of “You should do this!” “You can’t do that, it is wrong!” And what you might deem there to be a good side and a bad sided debate taking place. Humans have a love for labelling things, thoughts included, as good or bad. We have shared with you that thoughts are simply neutral, and you, with your perceptions and judgments, apply the charge to the thoughts.

Rather than the implications of a ‘good guy’ and a ‘bad guy,’ we encourage you to visualize a tennis match going on, with one player or team on your right shoulder and another on your left. They rally balls, without stopping and you feel them as they ping back and forth. You may notice one team scoring several points in a row, and the other becoming aggressive for a comeback. It can become a very invigorating game indeed.

These balls, as you know, take the form of thoughts. As you become attached, and begin catching the balls, they turn into beliefs. This scores a point. Your job, as the human in the middle is to notice the game being played, and to allow for the rally, but to keep the scoring to a minimum. See if you can observe the balls being passed and keep your hands free for that which is important to you.

Let’s pretend that one team has red balls and the other team scores with blue balls and you are present with arms open and a velcro strip inside your mind. You can notice how many balls are becoming attached. Imagine yourself catching and holding every ball during a day-long rally. Can you imagine just how full the vector board would become, and how exhausted and distracted you would feel? This is why we encourage you to soften, and just let the balls bounce on. They are only balls, dear one. You do not need to engage with them.

When you keep getting hit with a load of tennis balls, it can indeed become stressful and overwhelming. Especially when you are getting in their path and attempting to catch them all. Allow the match to play on, dear one, because it will, and allow yourself to simply observe. Sometimes, you might remark something like “Woah, this is a really heated match today”, and we encourage you to breathe deeply. Being aware is wonderful. Trying to catch and hold onto every flying ball is not. Allow, dear one. Let the balls fly. Let the match go on because this is what tennis players do.

If you see a ball that appears sparkly and appealing, by all means catch it and take hold of it. Allow yourself to play with it and explore its beauty. You are to be selective. Observe and choose your catches with conscious awareness, for they will determine the flow of your day, and the reality you create. Breathe deeply, and know that, in truth, life is but a game. Enjoy the journey and trust that you have the discernment as to when to jump in and play, and when it is best to be the witness. You are on your path. All our love.

What I love about her guides' response is it encourages neutrality. As humans we look at everything as good or bad. Do more good, do less bad: the recipe for life. While in its simplest form that is helpful, it ignores the source of good and bad, which is not, as most people think, societal norms, or laws/rules, or religion, spirituality or, dare I say, God. Everything is neutral. Every circumstance, occurrence, word, action, thought is neutral until we, individually and collectively, give each of those things meaning. We attach meaning. We choose what meaning to attach to everything and in so doing we create our world and how we feel about that world.

The magical thing about this is that everything, absolutely everything, can be seen as both good and bad, depending on your perspective. At first, that sounds a little insane, perhaps, and a mite bit confusing, and then ... it feels freeing once it is realized that shifting your perspective is all that is needed to turn any circumstance from trouble to blessing. That shift is where miracles are born. 

Of course, humans are habituated to see things as good or bad and hide their role in the decision making from themselves making it easy to blame outside circumstances for anything displeasing. And so that is where the second of two things shared with me comes in. My friend Tal sent me a Facebook reel by Dr. Daniel Amen wherein he shares two super simple and helpful tips for priming your brain to look at life more positively. In short: 

1) Wake up with intention and say "Today is going to be a great day!" and
2) Before bed, review your day and think about what went well that day to prime your brain for the next day while you sleep.

To listen to Dr. Amen describe this process, Click Here. 

We are only here, in human form, for a brief time. For me, I'm realizing that it is easier to walk with my fellow humans when I view them and my world with love, compassion, forgiveness, and joy. Both of these shares are helping me to deepen my awareness about how I navigate my mental chatter and my day so I can understand the meaning I am making and its out pictured results in my life. xo 

To hear more about Heather's approach to channeling and automatic writing, you can watch my interview of her on Youtube: The Eternal Possibility Hour: Episode 1, Heather Braden

To learn more about Dr. Daniel Amen and his work changing the brain with simple daily practices, visit his website here.

Heather's Courage Card Heart

Delight

I love being delighted. My friend Heather delighted me recently when I found a whimsically tangled envelope in my mailbox. Heather has been drawing with me on Fridays for my Zentangle (R) Explore class for months and her beautifully decorated envelope with a creative twist on the pattern drawn thrilled me.

I am always encouraging my students to draw on envelopes because it is a wonderful way to practice drawing. It is fun to practice new patterns, or play with new pens, or add color with neon highlighters or add a touch of sparkle. And, when you create art and send it out into the world you never know how many people it will delight along the way to its intended recipient. 

When I opened the envelope, I was delighted all over again as I found a heart shaped note on pink cardstock and 38 individually cut red cardstock hearts containing 38 beautiful affirmations. Thrilled, times two! I loved that she spent so much time and effort cutting out the hearts and hand writing each affirmation. A gift of time, attention, and creativity.

I love taking affirmations, which are powerful reminders individually, and linking them together to form a short poem, or prayer. The combinations are just about endless and each new combination creates a new kind of courage. Here is the 4 sentence affirmation prayer I created using Heather's cards:

Peace begins with me.

I find freedom through vulnerability.

There are no limits to the courage that lies within me.

I am a magnet for miracles.

Heather's envelope with
flying heart Beadlines (Margaret Bremner, CZT).

.

38 Lovely Affirmation Hearts!

Misha liked Heather's hearts, too!

Creative Confidence: This is why I teach.

Who gets to say whether I am good enough at anything? I do. Just me. And, yet, there are so  many other voices that chime in throughout our lives to let us know whether we measure up to whatever standard is being used as the one to meet. I taught my first of four youth community education classes on June 6 via Zoom. All five Melrose, Minnesota, kiddos, ages 8-12, were delightful and created beautiful tiles. And ... as soon as the class ended, I received this note from a twelve year old boy's mother, who gave me permission to share:

"Hi Esther, Thank you for providing this class! D.S. enjoyed it! He’s had unpleasant experiences with being graded for his work in art class and has started to believe he “can’t do art”. Thank you for reminding him that he’s a great artist!" R.S.

Her comment warmed my heart and broke it at the very same time. I immediately thought to myself, "This is why I teach." Her note reaffirmed my dedication to share the beauty, simplicity and accessibility of the Zentangle method with anyone who wants to learn. Since I began teaching in 2013, I have heard this story over and over again from people of all ages. I even have my very own art teacher story. 

In grade school we were asked to create a self portrait. I did my very best and when the teacher saw my page he brought me over to the mirror, held up my picture and asked, "Does this look like you?" Of course, it looked nothing like me. I was devastated and immediately felt like the worst artist in the world. 

As an adult, I can look back on this incident and ask, well, whose fault was it, truly, that I lacked the skills necessary to draw an accurate self portrait in grade school? But I lacked perspective about it at the time and took his comment personally. Fortunately, I did not give up on being creative or pursuing art, but so many others, with similar stories, have given up on their creative dreams. It truly breaks my heart.

All beings are creative. We are hard wired to create and through that creation to experience joy. Does it matter whether it looks like the teacher's? No. Does it matter whether your spouse, your children, or your mailman like what you have created? No. Does it matter if your creation wins any awards? No.

What really matters is whether creating brings you joy. Does making something colorful and messy and simple calm your mind, delight your heart, and enliven your spirit? If so, then create. Create boldly, wildly, freely every day in whatever way brings you joy. 

Drawing brings me joy and providing the opportunity for others to experience their own joy through drawing also brings me joy. This is why I teach. 

I am present, or am I?

Presence

This past week while I was working on one of two original art pieces for a juried art show, I realized I was experiencing a lot of anxiety and became curious as to why. It's a pattern that has repeated itself over the years and feeling quite tired of it, I began to explore it's origin. After some thought, I realized that while my body was here in the present with my artwork, my attention was sitting on a future calendar date tapping its foot and yelling "Hurry up already! I'm waiting!"

Two of me. Or, more accurately, me, splitting myself in two: Half of me physically creating, the other half a week away worrying about the deadline. Thoughts of the future will always cause anxiety because they are as yet just thoughts. When I pulled myself back into this moment and focused my attention on what I was creating, I felt more whole, more centered, and the creation process was far more enjoyable. 

My artist friend Erika Mock included this on point quote in a recent email: "It may not look like much, not with all these other distractions, but we make things holy by the kind of attention we give them." Martin Shaw, Storyteller from Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass I agree completely.

If, when, I feel anxious in the future, I'll go searching for where I've planted my attention and will gently call it home to this now moment, where all of my creative power lies.

Synchronicities: My Personal Assistant from the Universe

I love synchronicities. According to Oxford Languages, a synchronicity is defined as "the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection." Unless such an occurrence has a deeper meaning for you.

I have MANY amazing stories of synchronicities. I love them because they are like texts from my own personal assistant in the Universe reminding me to do what I may have otherwise forgotten to do, helping me get to where I need to go, and affirming that the direction I am headed is actually a really great direction to be going.

For the past 2-3 weeks, I've been thinking of my friend Wendy who announced that her July art & craft show was open for registration. I thought it might be fun for my artist niece and me to enter the show together as she will visit in July.

Since then, however, I had done nothing toward actually signing up for the fair. However, on Friday morning, something interesting happened that lead to action.

An hour and a half before teaching my noon drawing class, I felt inspired to post my class on Facebook. I've posted it before, but never the morning of class. I'm never sure who will show up for this class as registration is not required. Every Friday that I teach feels like Christmas because I am always delighted to see who has logged in with their pen and curiosity ready to draw with me.

Yesterday, to my great surprise, Wendy joined the class. I've known her for years and this was the very first time she came to class. She said she saw my post on Facebook and decided to try it out.

I was thrilled, not just because it was fun to draw with her, but because her presence reminded me to register for the fair. When I emailed her after class, she said there were only 3 spots left. Whew!

The thing about synchronicities is that awareness is key. They can be subtle, easily ignored, and they don't do the work for us, we have to notice, make the connection, and follow through. For instance...

Had I ignored the urge to post my class to Facebook, it is likely Wendy wouldn't have come to class and I may have missed the opportunity to register before all the spots were taken.

Had I not connected her presence in class to the fact that I'd been thinking of her with a specific intention in mind, I may also have missed the opportunity to reserve a spot in the fair.

I also feel as if her timely appearance affirmed that my initial inspiration was, in fact, a good idea. If you have a wonderful synchronicity story to share, please comment. I love hearing fun stories of the many mysterious and wonderful ways the Universe helps keep us on track. 

You can also check out this well done, short, and fascinating article: Synchronicities: A Sure Sign You're on the Right Path, Synchronicities are meaningful coincidences. Here's how to understand them. by Greg Lavoy, PsychologyToday.com, December 19. 2017.

 

Freedom is my goal

When I left the practice of law, I naively thought I would be able to just step out of my lawyer shoes into "new" shoes and keep walking. Turns out it wasn't that easy.

Being a lawyer-turned-artist has been a huge blessing. My years arguing cases before appellate courts, culling facts from transcripts, and writing concise, persuasive appellate briefs gave me professional skills that the average artist does not possess.

My technical writing background has helped me write multiple press releases, two successful art grants, and collate an art event list that populates the inbox of over 200 people each month.

My public speaking experience has allowed me to confidently practice as a certified Zentangle (R) teacher, speak with the media, and give a 20 minute presentation about my work as a visual artist at Duluth's American Association of University Women's annual fundraising dinner.

And the same, "I know where I want to go, but I'm not sure how I'm going to get there" internal drive that got me through law school and into the prosecutor's office gave me the fortitude I needed to spend a year drawing on a piano and hire a film crew to create a 17 minute art documentary that is now available on Youtube.

I am grateful for every one of these skills. Without them I do not think I would have been able to accomplish all I have in the four short years since becoming a teaching artist. I am grateful and I am tired.

While I no longer practice law, I feel every day that I use my legal experience to practice art. While essential to being a successful artist, the control and discipline I experience as a lawyer-turned-artist tempers my creative spirit.

As a practicing attorney, I had a box in my closet filled with art supplies with the words "Free Me!" written on it. Since leaving the practice of law, I've wrestled that box out of the closet, spread its contents far and wide, shared its creative joy with every possible being and as I write this now I know that I am not yet free.

Intense creative productivity has dominated my four plus years as an artist and now the call for quiet fills my soul. No internet noise, no classes to teach or attend, no projects to plan, just quiet. A three month sabbatical to just be. Freedom is my goal. I'm looking forward to experiencing what silence has to offer. I'll see you in April.

Esther Piszczek wearing her Heart Wall pattern (silk scarf and cotton knit skirt),

custom printed at Spoonflower.com. Skirt sewn/designed by Vivian.

Life & Art Entangled: Film Release

It is with great joy that I announce the release of Life & Art Entangled. I hope it inspires the world.

Check out film maker David Cowardin's blog post Here.