Dare your Fear. Go blank. Just do it.

A regular Monday morning all set to begin with proper plans in place, perfect for me, I thought! I woke up to the music of the rain and a feeble sound of the chirping of the birds was soothing. All seemed fine and positive until I opened the door. It was not a pleasant surprise but a dead big fat rat lying on my doormat. The fellow surely couldn't not escape the cat's attack the previous night. The immediate reaction, well no guesses. I closed the door, somehow controlled and nursed the after effect of spewing. Catching a rat using rat trap, I have done yet handling a dead rat was always a no. Well, I thought quick, now what?

Call it an imaginary placard flashing on the mind, I recalled the specific morning read about daring your fear with absolute blankness, no thinking and just doing what best I could. Perhaps I was made to read it by some divine intervention. I opened the door counting my breath slowly and also holding my breath. Then dragged the mat along the corridor using a small twig, all that I could find then, to the main entrance of my floor. That's it, came home for another round of heaving and then thought the garbage collection men might help me discard it from my second floor. Well I received not much help from them and my neighbor next street seemed least interested to lend me even a ear. No complaints. I knew I had to get it cleared anyhow myself.

With all might, somehow transferred it in a huge paper bag, wearing disposable gloves ( they always come handy) and took it downstairs. Just in time when the garbage vehicle made its second round. I gave it off, couldn't smile in gratitude for obvious reasons. Thank God, the toughest task was over!

The sanitizing, cleaning, cleansing was a long tiring process that disturbed all my scheduled morning plans. Well for me cleanliness is Godliness indeed, just that I had to do it twice today. After an hour, I finally settled down, listening to music alongside the lemon aroma therapy for quite sometime to get back to normal.

I had no choice but to challenge my fear, simply go blank and do it with focus on just doing it. Thanks to the Divine and the book that I chose to pick up and read as part of my happy morning ritual. Trust me, the feeling of peace and achievement after winning over such kind of fear cannot be expressed in words.

A Writer's First Attempt with A Paint Brush

 

When a WRITER steps into the world of painting for the FIRST Voyage, magic happens the moment she chooses to become a CHILD, to PLAY with the colors, while brushing away the RULES. -  Sreelatha 

                                                                                                                                           

Ever since my childhood days, the world of wet and dry colors on the canvas always lured me and I would stand in awe as an admirer. Thanks to the childhood patterns in our mind, where once we believed that if we could not do anything, rest assured, we would never bother to invest even an ounce of energy, to give a try. At least in some cases. Art to me has been a classic world reserved for the highly intellect, I was happy with a pen in hand or the word document to give wings to my power of imagination, with absolute clarity and profoundness in communication. Yet, every time I would get a chance to enter the aesthetic art room in the school, I would be fascinated by the world of astounding human creativity in the form of painting, sketches, drawing, graffiti, tapestry, animation, sculpture, calligraphy and many more that I could even imagine. 

With the preconceived notion deep-rooted and constant, I was playing safe despite the humble words of motivation by my art-friend S who teaches the essence of art with so much love, passion and appreciation. I remember she once gave me a random task to sprinkle the glitter on the earthen pot, which made me so conscious, yet she was like, there is no right or wrong way in art. Whatever you do from your heart with a creative zeal manifests best in line with one’s own imagination.

Few months back, my dear friend N started unleashing her love for art by making miniature portraits using acrylic paints. They caught my attention for the simplicity and the perfect choice of colours and the brilliant narrative through her customized masterpieces. She assured me I could do it too, just try it girl!  Call it an inspiration, followed by the law of attraction where I received a painting kit as a gift from my cute niece A, followed by many more materials from my dearest nephew V. I had it all with me yet I did not know how to begin. Well again, it takes time to recondition the decades old mind-set. Like in yesteryears, when we used to rewrite the memory in the floppy disks with new memory, I chose to 'go with the flow', another magical phrase gifted by a good friend, M, I went ahead with a child's curiosity to finally create the FIRST painting of my LIFE. Truly Grateful for the surprise and the blessings!

Clueless of the rules, all I know is that I followed my heart, anchored my focus and the brush reciprocated my instructions flawlessly. Letting go the fear of self-created assumptions is the best way to liberate and express freely. S was happy and was surprised when she said what I painted was a 'Silhouette'. :) 

Takeaway: To slay the fear of doing anything off the regular, you have got adapt to the childlike approach, soak in curiosity and enjoy the process without thinking about the end result. Then magic shall happen.