Another Girl at Play - Women Artists Making Creative Dreams Real

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MAY 2004

On my walk along the lake this morning, I saw an old woman painting effortlessly. Each stroke was fluid, quick and creating something amazing. I stood and watched her movements for a few moments and then asked her what her secret to painting was.

"I don't paint from here," she said pointing to her head, "but from here" and then placed her hand over her heart.

I understood.

Two years ago I had a conversation with a woman who told me the same thing and it changed my life. She told me that I had been living far too much from my head and it was time to follow my heart. She told me it would be difficult and it was - at first.

So much importance on money, on being right, on not making mistakes, of not looking foolish, of doing the right thing that we often forget just to live and do. That's why we envy children so much. They do as they please not because of lack of knowledge but because they have a lack of fear of listening to themselves. They haven't learned to think about their actions. They just do them.

When I first started to paint, I would stop more than I would continue. It was always wrong, always ugly. Each stroke was painful and completely overanalysed. It wasn't fun at all.

One day I was tired of all the attempts and feeling like crap about it all so I promised myself that for one month, I would paint in secret. I wouldn't tell anyone, wouldn't show anyone and wouldn't have any expectations. Id keep every ugly painting I made and attach no head thoughts to it.

It was the best thing I could have done because after awhile, I stopped thinking and just began doing. After awhile, my pictures looked less textbook and more like me. After awhile, I stopped hiding them and started selling them.

I think this lesson can be applied to many things, even bigger than just painting. When people ask me about living out a dream they want all the practical information so that they can satisfy their head. But really, what should happen first, is satisfying the heart. The heart is what makes you live.

Listening to my heart made me realise I had to leave the corporate world. Listening to my heart kept me going when I was really scared about being a writer. Listening to my heart changed everything and allowed me to live authentically and well - something I didn't think possible when I was thinking about every detail in my head and living out my life in thoughts only.

I think everyone's heart is always trying to tell them something. Sometimes it says, "go on, you can do it" or "Yes, that's right, this is what you should do." Sometimes the heart has warnings, saying loudly, "I'm hurting. Don't do that anymore" or "You're not being who you really are." It's the inner-voice we often ignore because of fear (although we often use the word "practical" instead of "fear"). But the moment you no longer ignore you heart and move from it, something amazing happens - authenticity and joy.

It's hard, at first, to listen to your heart and to move from it. Even if you've been doing it for a while one can become lazy, anticipating what our heart is going to say and forget to really let it speak and hear it. That's when we have to start the process of listening again because it might just be telling us something new.

But it's crucial to go from the heart as much as possible. It's crucial to surviving, it's crucial to authentic happiness and it's crucial to painting without effort.

What is your heart saying? More importantly, what are you going to do about it?