Just being around them makes you feel like your very life force was sucked dry (and it was).
You were in a good mood until listening to their whining and complaining - about everything!
Being submitted to their negativity is like superman being exposed to kryptonite. It takes every once of you not to scream – shut the FLIP UP!
You know the type I’m talking about.
They’re the negative Nancy’s - the Eeyore's of the group. They’re constantly a downer and have a negative influence on others. They’re first to express the worst-case scenario of a situation, genuinely pessimistic, gloomy and prefer indulging in depressed states. In extreme cases, they are anhedonic –
wonder if that gloomy rain cloud over their head is to blame.
Whom can you name as Eeyore in your life? How does being in Eeyore’s presence make you feel?
Can you recognize those feelings when you became an Eeyore to your own life and rain on your own dreams or goals?
Part of becoming a thriving artist is doing away with negativity and surrounding yourself with positive, creative vibes – on the inside and out. This isn't a woo-woo mystical thing, but a real and fundamental universal law.
You become what you live.
If you live fear, anxiety, drama, and pain, that is who you, and your art, will become. But if you open yourself up to a world of new life, experiences, joy and abundance, you become that abundance.
In order to live a thriving successful life you must --
• Believe in yourself more than you don’t
• Tell yourself yes more than you say no
• Uplift yourself more than you bring yourself down (including anyone else and life)
Thriving Artists look beyond their everyday problems into their true, authentic selves – they connect with their creativity (finding the Muse), and channel that positive energy into creating a life of hART.
So how do you bring positivity into your artwork and your life?
1. Surround Yourself with Positive People: you seek out the people you admire – the artists who make people smile, the creators who lift a mood simply by walking into a room, the partners and friends who support you and guide you. Create for yourself a cocoon of kindness, a circle of abundance and positivity to help you flourish.
2. Banish the "shouldv'e"s – You fall into bed at night thinking "I should've finished that painting … I should've emailed that theatre back … what is wrong with me? Why can't I do this? If only I had better time management I could get everything done …" Does this sound familiar? Your time management skills aren't the problem – but the dark thoughts eating away at you every day – the critical voice that says, "I can't do it. I'm not good/clever/talented/smart/pretty/famous enough".
In Integrated Energy Therapy™, being plagued with the “shoulds” is directly related to doing or being what others want you to do or be. You invite the “shoulds” when you decide to “be overly responsible” and show up as an overachiever and “worship the opinions of others”, so much so, that you can’t take action on what’s inspiring you because you’re too afraid of what so and so will think. The inner talk is “very judgmental of self and others because of being brought up in an environment of disapproval and judgment.”
A sign the emotional and mental body is blocked with the “shoulds” is when “people tell others how they should feel, what they should do and become angry when others do not take that advice” – including themselves.
Vow here, right now, to stop shoulding on yourself. Give yourself the gift of freedom.
The cure comes from faith and freedom to express and be who you are without worshiping the opinions of others.
3. You are good enough. You've always had the skills you need right there inside you – your fear builds these dark thoughts, not your spirit. These dark thoughts are a sign that you are an artist suffering the shadow side of the brilliant Artist Archetype – which is the starving artist syndrome.
There is only one you and only you can be you. Embrace the good things about yourself and life. Let go of some of the lessons you've learned that aren't teaching you to be confident.
"I once had a garden filled with flowers that grew only on dark thoughts but they needed constant attention and one day I decided I had better things to do." – Dark Garden by storypeople.
4. Be kind to yourself. You are not a soulless machine. You're a gentle, creative and nurturing spirit, and you need care and attention or you'll wither and die. You can't work work work every minute – make time for loved ones, for walking in the woods, for dipping your toes in the stream. Make time for cups of tea (or lavazza) and cooking plentiful meals. And most of all make time to clear your head of unwanted thoughts and bad memories.
5. Be kind to others. By giving yourself to others, you allow your good life to shine out from within you. When you send compassion, goodness, happiness and tenderness out into the world, you cultivate these virtues within yourself – it's like turning on a light switch – suddenly, everything is brighter, everything is illuminated. You've got to gain sort out what's inside you, before you can focus on the outside.
Vincent Van Gogh said, "art is something, which, although produced by human hands, is not created by these hands alone, but by something which wells up from a deeper source in our souls." (Letter R43).
Use your art as a conduit to your soul, to express the magic, inspiration and beauty you find all around you with intention to align with your creative spirit while releasing what bogs you down. Energy follows intent and you can intend to realize what you need and create it in a way that is right for you.
Remember, you are safe on the blank page. You are an Artist.
You are your own artsy creation.
You create the life you want. You create the response to the things you do not want.
You are your own artsy creation.
How are you NOT being the Eeyore in your own life? When you catch yourself being an ass (get it grey donkey) what will you do about it?
