Starry Night & Mickey Josephson

So what do Starry Night and Mickey Josephson have in common and why my post title today.  Well, they are both part of an experience I encountered this weekend.

Mickey Josephson had a booth at a festival that my husband and I went to this past weekend.  He had fine art pictures and I was so drawn in by the Starry Night picture he had out.  It was very large and just pulled you in, so of course, I had to stop.  He was such a wonderful person to talk to and to find out that he has a gallery and he is also a writer.

This is the book he recently published and had it on display along with the paintings.  He told me that his focus in his novels is women and how drugs can destroy them.  So I thought how funny since I just started to change my blog to inspire and encourage women.  We got to talking about the beautiful paintings and he asked me if I knew what painting that was large and on displayed.  I told him "yes" it was Starry Night and he said "oh, the lady knows her art".  I told him that I am an arts/crafts nut and I am exploring mixed media painting.  The next thing that came out of my mouth was.....I am not as good as this artist!!!!!  Wow, at that moment I thought to myself ....I just heard that..... did I just say that about myself....yes I did!!!  Because I am more aware of the things that can destroy us and self talk is one of the ways that tear us down.  It just sounded bad after I said it. 

 I think most of the time we don't even notice that we are self damaging ourselves.  What we hear really does have an impact on us.  So my saying "I am not as good as that artist" I am self sabotaging my own creativity.  The wonderful thing about this whole thing was after I had said it Mickey immediately said "yes you are, you are who you are..... and you paint who you are"!!!!  It was such a wonderful thing to hear him say that since I wasn't feeling so wonderful after my own comment about myself.  I told him "you are right and I shouldn't say that I'm not a good painter" that fact is, I am a good painter because all of us who make art are expressing our inner selves and that is beautiful. 

We really need to recognize that negative self talk.  We have to start seeing it for what it is and not believing all the lies it is telling us.  So what are the negative messages you've incorporated as part of your self-talk?  Some common ones are "No pain, no gain"; "Life is a struggle and then you die"; Watch out for the other guy", or "I'm not as good as so and so", and the big one "I will never look that good".

Because we, at least in part, created our reality through how we talk to ourselves, its important if we want to be happy to make sure we're not bringing ourselves down with negative messages, but instead raising our spirits through positive ones.  We need to be kind to ourselves so that we don't believe what we hear and then act on them.  So why don't you try to listen to yourself today and see what you might be saying about yourself and then try to say that to a 4 or 5 year old little girl. 


So, this was a wonderful experience and I have to just say "thank you" to Mickey Josephson for being my encourager and uplifting coach that day.  Also, look for his book and see how he reaches women thru his writing.  I can't wait to read it myself.  Plus, I think I will have to paint a starry night painting so that I will remember this experience. 

xo

barbara lynn