The awe felt through the eyes of artistry is truly a divine gift. Reserved for those that follow their hearts calling, it’s a life of timeless creation. Larger than life they line our memory with greatness. Nary a one, lived an ease life. Like fuel to the fire of creation, tragedy and heartbreak follows the gifted artist. Emotional extreme forged the creation of great art. Riding the wave of extreme can be difficult to balance. A wealth of attention and luxury will test the waters of stability. There is no mercy for the famous. The ones that take the love in stride and the hate impersonally, find longevity. Identifying with either will corrupt and distort your life experience.
Fame could be classified as a magnification of mental stability. Not to worry though, life gives everyone difficulty and will challenge your balance. What is it, do you suppose determines balance? Well, the short answer is your foundation. I guess that’s really true with everything. An earthquake will reveal weakness in buildings that are unprepared. Our quakes are more akin to emotional upheaval. So what is it that represents our foundation, and what gives stability in a storm? Our foundation is summed up in one word. “Identity”. Identity grounded in reality is unlimited, indestructible and eternal. Identity that is thought based, and rooted in the past, is subject to change and destruction.
The ones that weather storms, have the flexibility, because they let go of identity. You may think, how will I survive if I let go of my identity? In that question is the whole key to a balanced life. Holding on to any identity that can carry a thought, is the sail that will blow you in every direction. You are you, you don’t create you. Yes, we are conditioned to develop a personalized sense of self, and it is what creates the unstable foundation we stand on. Imagine a sailboat that is secure in the harbor. A hurricane strikes and the sailboat has its sails deployed. This is the metaphoric equivalent of what happens when trying to uphold a personal self, in the face of life. It becomes a dance of competition and defense. Like trying to carry a soap bubble around. Your bubble is going to get burst, again and again.
The pool of recreating and upholding your bubble, is the stream of thought continuously connecting you to the past. Quite literally a self perpetuating thought bubble. This is the foundation most humans move through life with. What creates this unstable foundation is the thought of being unworthy. This happens in the earliest stage of life, and no one escapes its development. Escape from this unstable foundation, is its own destruction. This is why few realize true freedom. Death is the cost of truly living. Yet nothing true is subject to death. The riddle of life spelled out clearly, doesn’t mean it will be clearly seen. A true willingness must be present for anyone to even read this or to hear it. Survival is the name of this game, and it’s held in place by ignorance. Pain is what pops this bubble and pain is what opens the door to discontinue creating it.
All of this process to authenticity, is solely reflected by your level of willingness to let go. At the forefront of this letting go is a softening of self-judgment. Prior to this stage is having compassion and understanding for others. Knowing that ignorance plays the only part in disfunction. Quite simply, it’s the cruel self-judgment that creates all psychological disfunction. If you hold fast that the world or others are the problem, you would not have read this far. So this is a good sign. It’s a strange thing, but the people that blame themselves are closer to freedom. This opens the door to realize we create our own misery. The good part is we can also use this same power to let go of what makes us miserable. I won’t tell you this is an easy path. What I will say is, it’s well worth it! Open yourself to the fact, any ill thoughts towards yourself are not based in fact. There based on thoughts stemming from a deeply held belief from early childhood. Give yourself compassion and understanding like you would an innocent child, because that is what you are…