Your Practices Are Who You Are
Something that has recently dawned on me as I’ve been stepping into a new season (or a new timeline, if you’re savvy) is just how intentional it requires me to be when imagining the new life I will be living.
As I’ve been exploring further into the synergies of spirituality & quantum physics, it genuinely TICKLES MEE when I’ve connected the dots on how to intertwine mental & physical practices to create a new reality.
For example:
I’m working on building a life as an artist, where I can financially support myself & my dreams through my art.
Example of a watercolor sketch study of my two pups over the summer.
Everything looks better in neon in my opinion‼️
Okay…cool…so how do you get from a sentence, to reality?
A problem I think many of us face is how to translate what we are manifesting into a regular practice.
This leads me to wax poetic about my love of language - let’s dive into the word itself. Practice.
If you look at the definition of the word, you’ll find this definition: to do or perform often, customarily, or habitually.
The definition of the word itself explains what I think gets lost when we feel stuck at how to turn our dreams into reality.
Let me now shift gears into tutorial mode. I will use myself as an example. I am not a great example, but perhaps a more realistic one than short form content these days likes to showcase.
Because true, embodied learning, exploration, & experimentation is not a quick process. It is something you must make a part of your life.
Whatever you are dreaming of doing or becoming - it must become a part of your life. It must become who you are.
As I’ve come to terms with returning who I’ve always been - an artist!! this summer, I decided to commit to practicing art on a regular basis.
Okay, well what does that mean?????
In practical terms, it meant that I:
Placed enough value on my goal of living as an artist
Understood it would require me to dedicate chunks of time to my art practice
Felt EXCITED to explore the possibilities that could unfold from playing around with new ideas
Understood it would require me to research, and learn about new techniques
Began intentionally looking for & saving inspiration for my works
The results since incorporating a regular art practice into my life have been so fulfilling - but that’s an article for another day.
Up until now, I’ve been working on my art practice as a form of healing & self care for my mental health - which means it’s been something I’ve done when my bandwidth allows. It’s not necessarily been a top priority for me. This means my progress has been slow - but it has been steady.
And steady, regular, consistent attention to anything is still growth. I know we all want results fast, and that our modern world is great at making us think that things should happen quickly. But when it comes to learning & practicing a skill - it takes time, baby.
And a year may seem like a LOOOONGGG time to be exploring something - but when the result is something that will last the rest of your life, is it really so long? Once I began to reframe things in this way, it helped me to quell the incessant pinching at the back of my neck to make progress faster.
Because that’s what led me to the stage of burnout that got me here in the first place 🫠 le sigh.
But I’m still a realistic hippie. And now that I’m ready to up the anté on my goal of financially supporting myself through my art, I know that it will require me to get super intentional with my days in order to explore this goal.
I’m reframing my days & my schedule to reflect the idea that art will be my “job,” and taking it seriously, along with my dedication to not following through if I don’t “feel like it” each day.
Today is day TWO of my writing practice, and I already felt negative because when I sat down to write, my mind was blank.
I wanted to start organizing the method I’m going to begin using to organize my daily schedule for my dream life.
And boom - it then inspired me to write this.
Which brings me to now explain the idea behind the title of this piece - Your Practices Are Who You Are.
I’m going to create a physical Trello board using magnets, which will each read one of the practices or habits that will be required to make this new venture actually amount to something.
Luckily now that I’ve worked on two businesses, I’ve got the true knowledge of what it takes to build a digital & financial ecosystem for what I’m planning.
It requires so much more time than you’d think, oh my lanta.
But instead of adding more to my plate, I’ve removed just about everything from my plate to make room, instead.
Not everyone has this luxury. But it is what it is. And I am going to try. And no matter what happens, I will be kind to my heart & I will do my best to share the lessons I’m learning & that I’ve learned along the way.
Thank you for reading 💖
