ART SLAM

India.Arie is one of my favorite singers. I have been listening to her music a lot lately. So many of her words have been resonating with me; helping me connect with my Light. As I was driving this morning, There’s Hope started playing and I listened to the words like I always do. Then, something happened, I listened with my soul. These are the words that got me:

Back when I had a little
I thought that I needed a lot
A little was over rated,
but a lot was a little too complicated
You see-Zero didn’t satisfy me
A million didn’t make me happy
That’s when I learned a lesson
That it’s all about your perception
Hey-are you a pauper or a superstar
So you act, so you feel, so you are
It ain’t about the size of your car
It’s about the size of the faith in your heart

-India.Arie

You wanna talk about having a moment. I had a big one. Back when I first started blogging, my first blog was called Believe Big. I chose that title because I believe if you are going to believe in something, you might as well do it as big as you can. One of the things that undermines our believing with our whole hearts is that we are so busy comparing ourselves to others. Then, I read this post at Zen Habits this morning. I am going to post my favorite section from the post, but you should go to Zen Habits and fill up on some serious food for the soul. I can not say enough about what a great site it is.

Breaking the Habit of Comparing Yourself With Others
So how do you break this cycle of comparing yourself with others? Here are some tips I’ve found useful:

• Awareness. Most often we do these social comparisons without realizing we’re doing it. It’s a natural act, I suppose, and as a result it’s something that is done without consciousness. So the solution is to become conscious — bring these thoughts to the forefront of your consciousness by being on the lookout for them. If you focus on these thoughts for a few days, it gets much easier with practice, and soon it’ll be hard not to notice.
• Stop yourself. Once you realize you’re doing these comparisons, give yourself a pause. Don’t berate yourself or feel bad — just acknowledge the thought, and gently change focus.
• Count your blessings. A better focus is on what you do have, on what you are already blessed with. Count what you have, not what you don’t. Think about how lucky you are to have what you have, to have the people in your life who care about you, to be alive at all.
• Focus on your strengths. Instead of looking at your weaknesses, ask yourself what your strengths are. Celebrate them! Be proud of them. Don’t brag, but feel good about them and work on using them to your best advantage.
• Be OK with imperfection. No one is perfect — intellectually, we all know that, but emotionally we seem to feel bad when we don’t reach perfection. You aren’t perfect and you never will be. I certainly am not, and I’ve learned to be OK with that. Sure, keep trying to improve, but don’t think you’ll ever be the “perfect person”. If you look at it in a different way, that imperfection is what makes you who you are, you already are perfect.
• Don’t knock others down. Sometimes we try to criticize others just to make ourselves look or feel better. Taking someone else down for your benefit is destructive. It forms an enemy when you could be forming a friend. In the end, that hurts you as well. Instead, try to support others in their success — that will lead to more success on your part.
• Focus on the journey. Don’t focus on how you rank in comparison to others — life is not a competition. It’s a journey. We are all on a journey, to find something, to become something, to learn, to create. That journey has nothing to do with how well other people are doing, or what they have. It has everything to do with what we want to do, and where we want to go. That’s all you need to worry about.
• Learn to love enough. If you always want what others have, you will never have enough. You will always want more. That’s an endless cycle, and it will never lead to happiness. No matter how many clothes you buy, no matter how many houses you own (seven, in the case of one famous candidate), no matter how many fancy cars you acquire … you’ll never have enough. Instead, learn to realize that what you have is already enough. If you have shelter over your head, food on the table, clothes on your back, and people who love you, you are blessed. You have enough. Anything you have over and above that — and let’s admit that all of us reading this blog have more than that — is more than enough. Be good with that, and you’ll find contentment.

And, because I am having a love overload moment, go read Jen Lemen’s post at Supersisters.

I was reading Ali Edward’s blog this morning and she was bringing us back to the word we chose as our theme for the year. I can not remember what I picked. So many things happened this year I did not expect and honestly, my focus stopped being on my chosen word.

I was looking back through some of my journals and one word kept coming up over and over again. Connect. Over and over and over again, variations of this word kept coming up in my art and my writing.
Dealing with various trials this year helped me reconnect with my Spirit. Scrapbooking and creating art helped me connect with many wonderful creatives. Speaking at BlogHer connected me with kindred spirits who believe you can post a message that resonates with someone and counter negative energy with an abundance of positive energy. Being in uncomfortable, even confrontational situations connected me with my inner warrior. Sometimes, you have no idea how strong you are until you are forced out of your comfort zone.

I see this word everywhere. One of my favorite magazines (and I have many) to read is Hallmark. They have an entire section devoted to connecting. When I shoot photography that involves more than one subject, I look for connections. Those are the images my clients love because this is how they see themselves. Connected.

That word is so profound. So powerful and I will honor it by looking for connections in my daily life, in my relationships and with my Spirit. You can not ask for more than that.