The Seven Laws of Spiritual Success on DVD

On January 9 of this year I commented on one of my favorite books, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra. I listed my version of the seven laws, which you can read by searching "seven laws" on my blog. Yesterday I watched the new DVD of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, featuring Chopra and Olivia Newton-John, along with others who have been blessed by the message in the book. For the most part, it's a lovely presentation. Newton-John's music, which she felt compelled to write in part to express her gratitude for cancer survival, creates a beautiful ambience for stunning images of nature and the manmade environment that serve as a background for commentary by Deepak Chopra, Newton-John and several people who have experienced the impact of the seven spiritual laws. The hour-long presentation is a fine introduction to spiritual principles and practices that govern all of life. The DVD doesn't replace the book, especially if you're an obsessive reader like me, but it's a good way to start living the seven laws of spiritual success to create a more satisfying life.

Mini-palette goes to art therapy

I finally found a use for my mini Altoid palettes. Today I visited an artist friend who is in rehab for a serious illness. She can't walk yet, but until she can, she is able to sit in a chair and chat or read. Dottie is a painter of bright, sunny watercolors and I would love to see her painting again soon. I gave her one of my Altoid boxes, several small brushes, a 5" x 7" pad of 140# watercolor paper, and an empty box for water. Everything fit into two small Ziploc bags. Her eyes lit up when she saw the paints.

Here is how I made my Altoid watercolor box. Several other people elaborated on the Altoid box and created fancier boxes, but mine is the easiest to make (15 minutes, including filling it with paint) and probably the least expensive. You can put any colors you want into the half-pans. I used a full palette of ten artists' colors: Ultramarine blue, phthalo blue, Hooker's green, Lemon yellow, cadmium yellow, Indian yellow, cadmium red, permanent alizarin crimson, permanent rose and dioxazine violet. After seeing her smile, I think I'll make some more palette-boxes and keep them on hand for other artists who are temporarily unable to paint in their studios.

Happiness 101

This article on positive psychology in the New York Times is long, but worth reading from beginning to end. It seems that this trend is appearing in scientific and educational studies and not simply in self-help circles. Read it through and tell me what you think.

The power of positive thinking

One of my favorite books is Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams. I find new meaning every time I read this small book.

Here's a brief summary of some things I've learned from the book.

1. Law of Pure Potentiality: We are all born free of ego with infinite potential and creativity (pure consciousness, spiritual essence, all possibilities). Acknowledge the pure potentiality of yourself and others.

2. Law of Giving (and Receiving): Always bring a gift to everyone you meet every day: a smile, a prayer, appreciation, or a compliment. Whatever you want, give it and it will be returned to you: blessings, caring, attention, affection, appreciation, compliments. Receive such gifts with gratitude.

3. Law of Kharma (Cause & Effect): Make the right choices to achieve right results. You'll know it's right--if it feels right. If something bad happens, turn it into a lesson or rise above it and change the effect.

4. Law of Least Effort: Do less and accomplish more by working through love, not power and control. Nature is the model--it simply "is." Accept this moment as it is; respond to the situation as an opportunity, without blame; no need to convince others of your point of view.

5. Law of Intention and Desire: Formulate your desire (goal) and use your intention to achieve it to benefit mankind. Center yourself (meditate), release your intentions and desires to the universe.The past and future are in your imagination. The present is in your awareness, i.e., real. Obstacles disappear when you are serenely grounded in the present.

6. Law of Detachment: Attachment is based on fear and insecurity. Detachment allows freedom to create. Uncertainty is fertile ground, the field of infinite possibilities. Preparedness in the present makes you alert and ready to seize opportunity. "Good luck is preparedness and opportunity coming together."

7. Law of Dharma (Purpose in Life): Each of us is here to discover our higher, true Self, our Spiritual Being. We are here to express our unique talent and our own way of expressing it. No one else has it. We are here to serve humanity. Put your talent to use.

-Find your talent. Ask yourself what are my talents? What do I love to do?
-If you have passion for what you do, you are in dharma.
-If what you do serves humanity, you are in dharma.

Ask "How can I help?" (spirit) instead of "What's in it for me?" (ego)

Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams.

Ready to open the show

Six or so students showed up to finish hanging the show--cleaned the glass, straightened the paintings, etc. The show looks great. There are nearly sixty paintings from about twenty-five artists. Quite a few in the class had never picked up a watercolor brush--or any brush, for that matter--before taking my "Watercolor for the Terrified" class. It's amazing what they've accomplished. Others have greatly improved their basic skills since joining the class and all are beginning to grasp the rudiments of design and composition. People seem to think that a seniors' watercolor class is some kind of "art therapy" group, but this is a lively, challenging and growing bunch of people who have the potential to become every bit as good as they could ever wish to be. A passer-by watched me arranging paintings on Wednesday and said, "Those aren't beginners. I had to do black-and-white studies when I took your beginner class." I waved at the paintings and said, "So did they." Every artist was a beginner once. The ones who succeed do so because they want to do it and believe they can.

Art, family and birthdays

So much going on in the past two weeks that I've skipped the blog, missed an exhibition deadline and forgot to get my hair trimmed. Our son came from Boston for several days and we did a lot of family things with our Little Artist and her mommy and daddy, including celebrating my birthday. One evening I attended a picnic with the Otterbein College alumni association, a fun event every June called the "June Bug Jamboree." My birthday party was that evening at our daughter's with my sister and her husband coming from Columbus to Wilmington, Ohio. I firmly announced that there should be no birthday cake, but one appeared anyway. This is a tough time for watching weight at our house. Following my birthday by a week is our anniversary and then my husband's birthday comes along the next week. The scale is groaning.

But I digress. I missed a show opening and submission for a different show. Somehow these didn't make it into my top priority list while my son was here.

The day after he left I participated in a one-day workshop on analyzing your drawings to find out what's going on in your unconscious mind, an art therapy technique. Maybe you've done it. You draw several things in a specific sequence, starting with a river, then a mountain, a field, a road, a dwelling, people, etc., up to a dozen or more items. The interpretation is based on the location of your object on the paper and its size and direction, indicating past, present or future. I've been told this is similar to a game called Kokology that I'm not familiar with. I remember reading about this years ago but I don't recall the name of the book. It's interesting, but you can't really accomplish much in one day. It was fun to be with so many friends I haven't seen for awhile. About half the class were former or current students in my watercolor classes.

Last Thursday I drove to Michigan to visit my best friend, whom I hadn't seen since she came here last year to attend a watercolor workshop with me. Several months ago she began to gather on a weekly basis with six other women who have a diverse interest in art and fine crafts and they have been having an amazing experience. It was wonderful to spend the day with this energetic, funny, intelligent group of women. We created handmade paper using the equipment of one of the members who formerly had an art business making paper, stationery and cards. Here's a partial list of what some of the women do or have done in the past: painter, quilter, fiber artist, knitter, arts administrater, art teacher, papermaker, belly dancer, collage artist, art dollmaker, PhD. They launch a different project nearly every week and have several ongoing and group projects, as well. Every gathering starts with sharing what each has been doing since the last meeting and because they have become so close during their association, art and personal matters are both woven into the conversation. When they start to work on their projects, it's like an electric current is turned on and when it's finished, all hands turn to cleanup. The Seven Spirit Sisters begin buzzing about the next project, then they're off to the real world. Or maybe their world IS the real world. It's certainly a great place to be.

No watercolor class today. The students voted to take a long weekend over the 4th of July. On Wednesday I'm starting a beginners' class, so next week I'll be teaching two days a week. I'm getting really antsy about the new books coming in. I'll have about 150 to autograph and ship and that will keep me busy, for sure. Today I'll be happy if I can straighten out my calendar and bring my planner up-to-date. A planner is a great way to keep tabs on all your events and tasks, but guess what! You have to look at it once in awhile to stay on track!

The transformative power of art

Imagine being a parent of a mentally disabled son, one who can speak and move but is somewhat unable to relate to the world about him or to achieve skills normal to children his age. As a devoted parent, you would take every opportunity to find activities to interest your child, hoping to kindle a spark that might brighten his life and alleviate the pain you feel for him. This was the life of Mary Pearce, whose son Bryan was afflicted with phenylketonuria (PKU), a genetic disorder that causes chemical imbalances that may result in brain damage. Babies today are tested for PKU at birth and given special diets if they test positive for the disease, but when Bryan was born in 1929, no such tests existed. When he was a boy his mother discovered that he seemed to enjoy painting objects in watercolor and had rather a gift for it. An artist friend agreed to tutor him. Eventually, in 1953 he was accepted into Leonard Fuller's St. Ives School of Painting in Cornwall, England. Bryan blossomed as a naive painter of the landscape and seascape around St. Ives and rendered still life subjects, as well. >In time his work attracted notice and he was invited to exhibit in galleries. At first he didn't understand that these opportunities meant he could become self-supporting. Eventually he became proud that his art gave him a degree of independence. Instead of languishing in an institution, Bryan Pearce has lived a fulfilling life because of art. His work is prized by collectors all over the world. Bryan's inspiring story is told movingly in The Miracle of Bryan Pearce by C. J. Stevens.

Art and Alzheimer's

Read The Pablo Picasso Alzheimer's Therapy in the New York Times. The implications of this article are thrilling. Several different programs suggest that Alzheimer's patients become more responsive and vital after visiting museums and looking at art. Some talk about it; others are entertained by it. These are people who show little interest or response to most other stimuli, although they are not yet lost to the devastating destruction of the mind that Alzheimer's causes.

My mother had severe senile dementia. For several years she lived in a controlled facility for the memory-disabled, including many with mid-stage Alzheimer's. Several times while she lived there I made collages with a small group of residents. The first time, I was told they wouldn't last twenty minutes, but they were with me for an hour and a half. I had selected pages from magazines I thought they might like. They loved the antique dolls, country kitchens, baby animals and food, oohing and aahing as they picked out images for their pictures. They had no problems with tearing out the images and arranging them on the page, but when some tried to use the glue stick, they couldn't remember what it was for. Once I started their hands in motion, they could do it. Every one of the eight completed a picture and was thrilled with it. A few couldn't remember their names to sign on the picture. On Valentine's Day we decorated big red hearts with doilies, which they all remembered doing as children. On another occasion we played with rubber stamps. Each time they became immersed in the task, talking about the images in their pictures and the colors, occasionally bringing up an old memory stirred up by an image. A visitor looking in wouldn't have suspected that these "artists" had memory problems.

If you'd like to do this when you visit an elderly relative or friend, here are some suggestions. First, speak to the activities director and set a time so they can have space set up for you. You might feel more comfortable for the first time working with fully functional elderly folks. Start with four people if you're by yourself, or eight if you have someone to help you. All you need is a stack of colorful pictures for them to tear up, non-toxic glue sticks and colored construction paper or white copy paper. Other embellishments, such as ribbon, yarn and stickers are fun, too.