Life Advice from Brilliant Minds
Changing the way you talk to yourself about your life can make a huge difference in the way your life actually unfolds. Madeline Johnson
Changing the way you talk to yourself about your life can make a huge difference in the way your life actually unfolds.
We all know how important it is to communicate your intentions clearly to others – but what about how we speak to ourselves?
We can’t send ourselves mixed messages.
Watch every thought and watch ever word.
This isn’t just about positive thinking and affirmations.
It’s about how you can be more thoughtful about your intentions.
Featured Artist
@early_worm on Instagram
Our lives are just the result of the kind of thoughts we have. Thank you Emmet Fox. By Madeline Johnson
I am very, very inspired by the teachings of Emmet Fox.
“All day long the thoughts that occupy your mind, your Secret Place, as Jesus calls it, are moulding your destiny for good or evil; in fact, the truth is that the whole of our life’s experience is but the outer expression of inner thought. Now we can choose the sort of thoughts that we entertain. It will be a little difficult to break a bad habit of thought, but it can be done. We can choose how we shall think—in point of fact, we always do choose—and therefore our lives are just the result of the kind of thoughts we have”
― The Sermon on the Mount: The Key to Success in Life
“Emmet Fox was one of the world’s greatest metaphysical teachers. His works have contributed profoundly to the spiritual understanding of millions of people, including myself.” (Marianne Williamson, author of A Return to Love)
Featured Artist
Japanese graphic designer @t.f.gallery
There is no greater feeling of accomplishment than knowing you have a purpose- knowing that you are making a difference – by Madeline Johnson
There is no greater feeling of accomplishment than knowing you have a purpose- knowing that you are making a difference – knowing that you are contributing to something that is good.
There is just too much emphasis today on “finding your purpose” and not enough encouragement to live a life filled with intention. There is a difference between finding one’s purpose and living daily with intention. Today I am thinking about how one can find their purpose when they decide to live their lives like everything is on purpose.
Everything you do, can be done with more intention and with more purpose. Finding your purpose does not have to be a huge wrestle with wonder and worry.
Discovering your purpose does not have to lead to endless self-reflection and a struggle to uncover your true passion.
You can start right here, right now and ask yourself one simple question – What is the purpose of what I am doing right now? This one question helps to breathe new meaning into your life.
What is the purpose of sitting down and writing this post?
The purpose of this post is to share a bit of wisdom about what it means to live with purpose. This is my contribution to the world today.
What is the purpose of my morning routine?
The purpose of eating a healthy breakfast and going to the gym this morning is to keep my mind and body strong.
What is the purpose of my work?
The purpose of my work today is to help others growth their businesses and build their dreams.
And so forth. . .
Everything I do must have a purpose, or I simply won’t do it. Even wasting some time watching Netflix or surfing through YouTube has a purpose for me. The purpose might be two fold – the taking a moment to relax and discovering something new that interests me.
I believe that once you start asking yourself why you do what you do, you begin to live with more intention. This “why” question also helps you understand more about yourself and in turn makes you more self aware and connected to your life purpose.
Read: Think Straight by Darius Foroux
Artwork
The Moon Tower Party on Instagram
When you’re clear on your intention you take inspired action that is in alignment with your words and truth. By Madeline Johnson
What makes life easier is setting your intention for everything you do. This one simple habit will increase the probability of things going your way today and who doesn’t want more of that?
When you’re clear on your intention you take inspired action that is in alignment with your words and truth.
When you intend for everything to go well, you don’t have to try as hard.
Before you begin today, set your intentions.
I intend to remain grateful today.
I intend to have a productive day at work.
I intend to show my husband, brother, daughters and friends how much I love them.
I intend to laugh at myself more throughout the day.
What are your intentions for the day?
Featured Artwork
Don’t waste your thoughts worrying. Don’t give away your thoughts and don’t waste time thinking about what you don’t want to happen. By Madeline Johnson
Your thoughts have the power to change everything in your life. Everything you have in your life right now, started with a thought.
What you focus on with your thoughts, your mind will manifest as reality.
Sometimes our thoughts create realities that we have to overcome.
Every single thought we have is a unit of energy. Energy to create something new.
Don’t waste your thoughts worrying. Don’t give away your thoughts and don’t waste time thinking about what you don’t want to happen.
Invest in thoughts that are productive.
The next time you start obsessing about something, ask yourself . . .
Place your thoughts and energy behind that which will make you stronger, rather than wasting your thoughts on remorse about things that have fallen apart.
Conserve your thought energy to create more beauty, rather than manifest more pain.
The moment you change your perception is the moment you rewrite the chemistry of your body. Dr. Bruce Lipton, author of The Biology of Belief
Recommended Reading
Way of The Peaceful Warrior, Dan Millman
Featured Artist
@demoontier makes weird, queer, drag and fashion inspired art.
https://www.instagram.com/demoontier/
Learning to love and respect yourself isn’t something that you decide to do one day. It’s a daily practice. By Madeline Johnson
Read More: The Three Levels of Self-Awareness by Mark Manson
An argument for loving and accepting yourself . . .
When we refuse to accept ourselves as we are, then we return to the constant need for numbing and distraction. And we will similarly be unable to accept others the way they are, so we will look for ways to manipulate them, change them, or convince them to be a person they are not. Our relationships will become transactional, conditional, and ultimately toxic and fail.
Go deeper into learning about how to better handle adversity in your life. Read his book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.
Featured Art
Leif is an artist and Creative Director. His work explores themes of connectedness, the relevance of nature and the psychedelic experience. By utilizing these subjects he attempts to inspire the viewer into a realignment with themselves and their surroundings.
What to do when you feel like your life doesn’t align with your dreams. by Madeline Johnson
Your thoughts are energy
and everything we create begins with thinking first.
Seeking wisdom and being true and real to oneself. Madeline Johnson
To be absolutely real with ourselves. Stop playing it so safe. How freeing. What a release. What a relief. True to you. No more disjappointmenting yourself because you put your needs on the back burner. You said yes, but you meant no. You didn’t want to hurt their feelings, so you over promised. You took that project for the money.
When we are not true to ourselves, we starve ourselves of care and respect. Integrity begins with honoring our hearts. It’s not selfish. It’s healthy and it helps us all.
Stripped of all of our masks and desire to be needed. To understand ourselves fully, to know more about our own existence.
Why I am seeking wisdom.
Why I seek wisdom.
Dorothea Tanning was born in 1910 in Galesburg, Illinois and attended Knox College in her hometown before studying painting in Chicago (haunting the Art Institute where she learned what painting was.) In 1941, now in New York, she met the art dealer, Julien Levy, and his surrealist friends, refugees from Nazi occupied France. Late in 1942 Max Ernst visited her studio, saw a painting, (Birthday), and stayed to play chess. They would have 34 years together, at first in Sedona, Arizona (a mere outpost at the time). Here she would continue to paint her enigmatic versions of life on the inside, looking out: The Guest Room, The Truth About Comets, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Interior with Sudden Joy, Insomnias, Palaestra, Tamerlane, Far From. By 1956 Max and Dorothea had chosen to live and work thenceforth in France. Though Paris was headquarters, they preferred the country quiet lure in Touraine and Provence. These years included, for Dorothea Tanning, an intense five- year adventure in soft sculpture: Cousins, Don Juan’s Breakfast, Fetish, Rainy Day Canapé, Tragic Table, Verb, Xmas, Emma, Revelation or the End of the Month, Hôtel du Pavot Room 202.
Trusting the process and reaching your goals. by Madeline Johnson
Goals can be so absolutely frustrating. Some days they seem to be so out of reach. Setbacks require creativity and a successful process. Read: Movement & Creativity.
Trust the process.
Trust the Process has become a catchphrase in sports. It means sticking to a long-term plan even in the face of bad short-term outcomes. … Trust the Process means sticking to a well-grounded methodology to accomplish a long-term goal.
Much of this calls for redefining, or refining, one’s relationship with time, and all the qualities and skills that will only come from engaging time more creatively and effectively.
The Difference Between Goals and Processes or Systems
The repetitive process, the habit, the ritual, the daily “doing” is what gets you to the goal. If you focus on the goal, you will get frustrated. Basically, you give up the need for immediate results. Transformation doesn’t happen in a moment, it happens over time.
Better to Iterate
Think of repetition as doing the same thing with the same data over and over. Think of iteration as doing the same thing with different or refined data.
& Measure your success with feedback loops.
Remember
Books to Read to help you develop your creative process.
You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself. That’s the message from Austin Kleon, a young writer and artist who knows that creativity is everywhere, creativity is for everyone. A manifesto for the digital age, Steal Like an Artist is a guide whose positive message, graphic look and illustrations, exercises, and examples will put readers directly in touch with their artistic side.
Elizabeth Gilbert digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives.
Featured Art
Kiki Smith Woven Tapestries
Kiki Smith works at the scale of the tapestry, creating large collages on paper from cutout drawings, photolithographs, and various textural elements. The collages are sent to Magnolia Editions, photographed, printed at scale and sent back to Smith for more handwork and collaging; this cycle continues (often for months) until the design is ready to be translated into a digital weave file and sent to an electronic, double-headed Jacquard loom for proofing as a textile.
“It’s the way that I work,” she told me from her studio in New York last summer, “making sculptures, too, I do the exact same thing: I make drawings, and from the drawings I make rubber stamps; from the rubber stamps I make impressions in clay, then waxes, and then sculptures. It’s a transformation, moving from one way of generating an image to another, which makes a hybrid.” Smith’s choice to compose her tapestries at scale rather than enlarging smaller images is crucial to their impact. To work large is “to emphasize the holiness of it,” she explains: “historically, these things were made to blanket walls… They’re blanketing space. In mosques you have the kilims that are hundreds of years old sitting on top of each other for prayer, and there’s that relationship between cloth and life and protection.” …
Kiki Smith’s critically acclaimed tapestries depict “a mythical world wherein human and animal forms entwine with natural phenomena” (Artforum); they have been exhibited internationally at venues including Pace Editions (New York), Timothy Taylor (London), Haus der Kunst (Munich) and Lorcan O’Neill (Rome). This 2018 survey of Smith’s tapestry editions to date features an interview with the artist and an essay by Nick Stone.
A morning manifesto that resets your mind to start the day with a stronger, healthier mindset.
Change. Transformation. Something new for you. It starts with ownership and attitude over your thoughts, words and deeds. You see, I take pride in owning my problems. I hammer away at them daily. Unfortunately, I also take on other people’s obstacles and challenges as well. Perhaps this makes me feel more important. Validated. Essential. Significant.
When Fixing Problems Becomes a Problem
By day, I deal with problems and concerns by constantly updating my to-do list. I also take time out of my day, time that I really don’t have, to help others solve their problems. And I get very frustrated when they don’t listen to my advice. It gets me so twisted. Have you been there? Do you know what I mean?
At night, I have a tendency to take those problems to bed and ruminate over them until I fall asleep from mental exhaustion. On occasion, I can even take that worrying to a whole new level of crippling pain and insanity. I believe I may have perfected the art of catastrophizing – believing that things are worse than they actually are. My mind a maelstrom of nighttime worry. Day in and day out. Night dreads and morning anxiety.
Believe It If You Need It
Meditate they urged. Journal it away. Pray they said. Clear your mind. I thought about it. I tried new ways and altered my approach. Crystals, sage, affirmations. Nothing really worked. Rote prayer never inspired me. I was seeking more. I wanted to focus on transforming my mind, breaking the patterns of rumination, tapping into the limitless, openness of possibility- – not just mechanically reciting phrases that meant nothing to me. I wanted to turn worry into wonder.
Show Me Holy Places Not Yet Found
Sometime last year, I considered writing down a morning manifesto that would reset my mind to start the day with a stronger, healthier mindset. This was to be my very own prayer, a promise to myself, my mantra for manifesting a more powerful and positive life. It’s working to help me reset in the morning. So on the start of a new year, I share it with you. Maybe it will inspire you to write your own. I believe it has helped me dissipate the morning anxiety that crippled my days.
I pray today that I remember that I already have the strength to sustain a positive open awareness and joyful caring presence through the gains and losses and the highs and lows that today will inevitably bring upon me and I to myself.
I know that I am brave enough to face this day and to be of benefit to this world. To be of benefit with a compassionate and loving attitude and to make sure it shines through with every smile, hug, word and deed that I do today. No matter what happens to me today, I remain constant and confidant that my loving acts will help me and others heal our pain.
Through it all today, I pray that I will be able to take full responsibility for my life and to groove through all the moments, the good and the bad without sinking into false refuge (drinking too much cheap wine, mindlessly snacking on chocolate and chips, gossiping about other peoples BS), without hiding from my pain and problems and without blaming others.
I pray that I remember that I have the strength today to positively face what is real and to take on each problem intelligently with love, humility and an open mind, knowing I need the help of others to grow and learn.
I continue today to remember what matters most. That no matter what happens today, that I have loved more that I thought possible and demonstrated that love to everyone I have the fortunate opportunity of spending time with today. I am so happy and blessed to be alive today.
I pray that I feel strong and confidant enough and passionate about my purpose and existence that I may understand and act on exactly, precisely what God has intended me to do with this precious life and that I may become a more inspiring human being.
I am strong enough to be radically and transparently open and honest enough with myself and everyone I encounter and that I see everything in my life as it truly is, not how I wish it would be.
And may I have the courage to take extreme ownership of my life and change what I believe is not serving me or others well.
I will embrace the magic of today. I do not wish to simply make sense of today. I choose to dwell and inhabit in life’s sacred mystery.
To expand my awareness and elevate my consciousness and my attitude.
To stay fully awake.
For I believe that this very life is one infinite, remarkable, unfolding miracle.
The important moment I’ve been waiting for is now.
Every single breath I take, you take, we take is a genius gift of infinite energy, an inhale and exhale breathing into a limitless universe, of which we are all connected to and supported by.
We are all so much more powerful than we realize. We must remember this daily. We are not alone, we have God as our co-pilot. We are in this together, supported and loved by our creator.
For every person I come in contact with today has this power as well and together we are meant to hold each other in reverence, now and forever. When I talk to you, I am talking to God. God loves us all.
I remain curious and humble today, for this life, this existence, is nothing short of magnificent.
Life for me is a daily, daring, epic adventure, a thrilling mystery ride to explore.
I live for the questions, the seeking, the learning and the breathtaking moments of awe.
I am content with the unknown, I do not need all of the answers, but simply love the experiential process of living. I look up at the cosmos with appreciation and awe in my heart and mind.
I pray that I remain on the right path today and every day and that I am always learning and applying what I have learned to become smarter, stronger and a humble servant to love.
Gratitude is my living, breathing, moving prayer, and my heart pours open wide with an enormous appreciation for everything that happens today. My soul cries out a passionate loving thank you to God and the universe. This is how I pray.
And when I forget today, I will let my heart soften and melt into the moment. Remembering, with discipline that we are all temporary tenants here and all we have is this very moment. . . . we are all just one exhale away . . .
There is nothing to prove or improve about my heart today. My heart is in the right place and on the right path. No fixing or controlling myself or others. I am remembering and honoring that we are all made perfect already and everything evolves in it’s own time. No mistakes, we are all made of divine intelligence. We connect and reconnect to our compassionate soul source in each moment with each thought, word and action, it is like this that we return to our innate goodness, to our loving nature right now.
If I am disappointed today by someone or something, I remember to love through it with patience and understanding. Love is the only real emotion, every other, the absence of it.
This is my best self, my connected self. Leaning on the cheek of of God, I sway through a divine dance with life each day.
I remain awake, aware, alive and here.
I will not waste a moment of this life today. Not a single second.
I will not doubt my greatness today, the beautiful essence of God within me. I will remain calm and at peace for there is no pressure to do anything at all if the spirit doesn’t move me, for I already am perfect with God and love in my heart.
Recommended Reading
“We’re talking about metamorphosis
We’re talking about going from a caterpillar to a butterfly
We’re talking about how to become a butterfly.”
How do you cope when facing life-threatening illness, family conflict, faltering relationships, old trauma, obsessive thinking, overwhelming emotion, or inevitable loss? If you’re like most people, chances are you react with fear and confusion, falling back on timeworn strategies: anger, self-judgment, and addictive behaviors.
Few writers have so brilliantly and poignantly conjured the desperation and absurdity of ordinary life as Charles Bukowski. Resonant with his powerful, perceptive voice, his visceral, hilarious, and transcendent poetry speaks to us as forcefully today as when it was written. Encompassing a wide range of subjects—from love to death and sex to writing—Bukowski’s unvarnished and self-deprecating verse illuminates the deepest and most enduring concerns of the human condition while remaining sharply aware of the day to day.
Featured art by Ouzo Kim
illustrator & graphic designer & creative director
