Sacred Self Healing Arts

It’s fun to look back on factors that influenced my decisions in my college days. I was in LOVE with the movie Ghost. Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore beautifully played out one of the most epic love scenes of the 90’s. It involved a grieving wife, her husband’s spirit and a pottery wheel, topped off with the haunting Righteous Brother’s song, Unchained Melody.

I had to fulfill an art credit as a part of my AA degree. The obvious and romanticized choice for my boyfriend (now husband) and I was to sign up for a pottery class together. Little did I know at the time that I’d carry with me some of my greatest life’s lessons from one pottery class at 19 years old. It wasn’t as romantic as I had hoped for, as I spent hours and hours outside of class time trying to get that damn clay centered!

Centering has always been a struggle of mine. Years of my life have been spent responding to life’s struggles instead of creating the beautiful life I want. I would throw that lump of clay on the wheel, as instructed. I put my hands on each side of the ball of clay and let the wheel spin. I’d start to put my thumbs down the center of clay and just when I thought I had it, I continuously ended up with a lopsided structure. WHY? I have always been so fixated on the outcome that I haven’t been very present in the process! The old saying goes- Haste makes Waste. My realization of this one simple fact has drastically changed my approach to the way I live. Changing my thoughts and habits has helped me to have increased joy in the journey of what I used to see as the mundane.

Now, I center myself, like the clay, before doing everything. I don’t want to end up lopsided and flopped on the floor like I have in the past! 🙂 Breathing helps me to get centered. I refer to this as…..the pause. When I’m doing dishes, I pause to feel the ground beneath my feet, to take a deep breath and notice my surroundings. When folding laundry, I pause to smell the soft linens, fold with care and breathe into the precious moment. When gardening, I dig my feet down into the earth and breathe in gratitude for the surrounding trees , the sun on my face and the plants that I’m nurturing. As I’ve let go of the outcome and planted myself in the center of every moment, somehow each moment has grown more precious. I don’t feel tossed around in a constant quest to calm the chaos of life. Rather, I carefully craft my days from a grounded and centered space. There is incredible beauty in every moment. Perhaps you can try this today. Maybe you can surrender to what is now. Drop into the moment, relax your muscles, smile and BREATHE! There will always be tasks, and chaos. You can choose to be a prisoner to mundane tasks or create beauty in each moment!