Creative Meditation: Divine Incubation-Emotions I Of X

The that today is gonna be a little longer than the next nine days of all of this in that I'm I'm going to Preempt everything tell you where I'm coming from in creating this 10-day What I called it and whatever I called it It was fed by a passion that pre Predated the things that have gone down in the United States in the last few days and Those just added fuel to the fire No,

I'm not going to speak from a political point of view.

I'm not going to address current climate but at the same time Everything we do we have the opportunity to address current climate and to make a statement about current circumstances so know that that is the underlying thread that Is going through everything I do?

It's my way of art creativity Self-expression is my way of Taking what the space I live in You know this little tiny bubble I live in as well as the grand space of the entire world as well as the climate of my of this current culture and society taking that and Reliving it that is what my art is and Sometimes people recognize it for a political statement Or a social statement or a timely statement and sometimes it's just beauty.

I Like it both ways This 10-day segment I Didn't call it quick shots because I knew it was gonna be a lot longer than quick.

Well a little longer than quick this 10-day Segment is the first of what I hope to be doing Segment is the first of what I hope to go on in In Owning my own courage Now that's my personal selfish motivation to being here But only through first addressing that personal selfish motivation in this case Magnanimous one what's the word for that?

Altruistic one You know it if it's narcissistic selfish Motivation no this can't be the true,

But it's an altruistic one It's it's meant to feed more than just myself So that is why I bring it here to this platform in hopes that it feeds others as well So where am I going with this today?

I have scripted what I want to say to you.

I I was I I was terrified once I hit the Publish on these lives The next day I woke up and went take them down run away I'm just not I'm not Naturally inclined to make a strong statement If that can be understood Not a pacifist,

But you know my my audience is my husband my dog my children when I want to get Voluminous But I wanted to bring it here to you because well,

I'll tell you why through my Through my pre scripting So sit back Get comfortable for maybe ten minutes.

I'm gonna read to you what I've written I'm gonna come away from this Reading to you what I've written with a lot of emotional resonance but I'm recognizing that as I do it anyway,

And that's my first lesson I want to share Sometimes there are some things that need to be said Done touched Expressed painted written that well up a lot of Embarrassment remorse Trepidation But you need to do it anyway,

So that's what I'm attempting to do here now Sit back for about ten minutes and let me say attempt to say what I'm trying to say and Then we'll do a 20-minute exercise and that's gonna be the the design of the next ten days these two five-day sessions We're gonna spend 20 minutes engaging with our surface with hopefully the Intentionality is to engage with our surface With more integrity and more Sometimes we can come to art very flippantly It's just about the blue It's just about this incredible sensation of putting down color My husband asks are you playing today,

And I let him get away with that Still after 20 years I let him get away with that After 20 years I let him get away with that Yes,

Yes,

Let your work be play,

But let your mind not forget This is serious play.

We are doing All right Divine incubation is what I've called this and the whole idea behind that name is To imply that we are here Doing this playing To yes thoroughly enjoy ourselves,

But also To let that incredible power That can come through trusting something bigger than ourselves that we cannot see It doesn't matter if you have a belief in a god or not Because it is something bigger than yourself,

And I think we can all recognize that Art to me is Faithfully Fearfully Despite the fearfully going after that more and more all the time.

So divine incubation is the name Nicole Lyons wrote I hope that someday when I am gone someone somewhere picks my soul up off these pages and thinks I would have loved her This is what art is we create today for tomorrow Sure,

It would be incredible to create today for today But that's not what art is for Art is more often for creating what is to come we are visionaries This is divine incubation a creative meditation from before the brush I'm Patricia Baldwin Segerbrooke.

I've been creating in paint and form abstractly for over 30 years And I'm going to be doing this for the next 30 years With five books published and international the retreat into its tenth year Teaching throughout the world and host to 11 artists and studios and residencies at my encosta castle in Lexington,

Kentucky I've come to realize my time has come The time that is to step up to the plate and with courage and opportunity And how other empower others to take up their own courage?

Work authentically to their own soul calling and Boldly face forward to their unique talent and creative way This 10-day course is about owning up to the fullness of each of our call to create No exceptions the time is now ridiculously the time is so now To take our intuitions and instincts Absolutely but also to own up to our experiences our intellects our education and our linearity So that the intended unique expression is fully realized through our work I believe that the time of the past few few years has been an incubation for the world An incubation like that of the caterpillar and the cocoon a complete breakdown in reformation And I believe that the time of the past few few years has been an incubation for the world Of reformation These 10 days put the spotlight on emotions We could and will go into much more as its next six months progress towards 2023 And we continue to meet together here but emotions are where we begin Why emotions Because they are so high right now They are serving as the fuel to so many fires.

Emotions are acting as the ignition switch to so many topics and so many arenas.

I argue that emotions rule the current race.

But what race are we running?

Is it one created by our desires and determinations or by reaction?

Can we stop and step back to assess what force is holding the match to the wick so as to respond with discernment?

Can we stop long enough to realize who and what is stirring the pot and decide to go where we choose to,

Not where we are attempting to manipulate the lead?

For the next 10 days,

We are going to recalibrate our personal emotional baseline so that what we are fed is taken nutritionally.

The world needs nourishment and artists can give the food that is healthy.

If we begin with ourselves.

From the beginning of time,

The artist's job has been to raise the bar.

We open eyes through opening hearts.

We melt discordance through expressions of harmony and beauty.

We make statements in words,

Color,

Form,

Texture that leave the interpretation clear yet always personal.

These 10 days are simple.

I ask nothing more of you than to participate in your fullest capacity.

Have fun?

Yes.

Enjoy yourself?

Yes.

Delight in the brush to canvas?

Yes.

But this time,

These days,

We need to add in a bit more sobriety,

A bit more solemnity,

A heap more truth.

This will happen only through complete faith to the voice of creativity that comes from your inside,

Not from without.

As we each listen and respond to this voice,

This internal call,

The response goes out and comes together.

Like the tapestry we weave being here together,

It too,

That response threads its way into all of humanity.

It will be subtle.

It will be slick.

But it will be.

And that's what matters.

So first,

Re-find your truth.

Splunker what truth is to you.

Yes,

There are hard lines to that word.

But it is simple and nuanced and personal and unique as well.

It is beautiful and it is never more a part of everything we are all now.

I know this with a surety through experience.

Truth.

Now it is time to believe it.

So emotions.

The word emotion comes from the Latin,

Emover,

Meaning a movement.

It's a body-based reaction.

And the moment that snags me immediately and urgently and feels like me,

This emotion.

Some people say we should call emotions narcissistic reactions.

And we have to recognize that they largely are.

Since the body carries all our shame,

Our childhood conditioning and memories,

Our guilt,

Our hurts,

The addictive patterns of our emotions can be very hard to unhook.

Emotions feel like truth.

But they're not necessarily.

That doesn't mean emotions should be ignored.

They must be felt.

Their honest message must be heard.

Only then can we release ourselves from their fascination over us.

They are necessary weathervanes to help us read situations quickly and perhaps in depth.

But they are also learned and practice neural responses.

Often,

Often ego-based,

Which have little to do with truth and much more to do with the storylines we have learned and created.

If an emotion does not help us read a situation better and more truthfully,

We must,

Must,

Must let it go for our own wellbeing.

How can we not see how our own wellbeing right now impacts the world?

For our own wellbeing.

Most of us are naturally good at attachment.

But we have very little training in detachment and letting go.

We must take the risk of legitimate attachment,

Fully feeling the emotion,

Learn its important message,

And have the presence and purpose to detach from that fascinating emotion after it has done its work.

I start,

We start this 10 day course with the emotion I find most difficult.

Shame.

It's most visceral of the bunch.

I choose to do so not just to get it over with,

Which of course is true,

But to realize very quickly how much we are ruled by emotions.

It's pretty easy,

For me at least,

To hear the word shame and go directly like an arrow shot at a target to places in my life that carry this emotion like a dark,

Heavy cloak.

The irony is always the case,

Is that the place from which you beget no longer exists.

I alone,

We alone,

You alone.

Keep it alive and breathing.

Doing damage over and over again to my body and my spirit.

Shame.

All you're asked is to take a step or two through the darkness and start digging in.

You don't have to understand anything too complicated.

I don't know where that quote came from,

But how beautiful is it?

Simple.

So here we go.

Day one.

We visit shame.

It isn't to draw dark and ugly sensations into the system.

It's to realize.

As the quote above said,

It no longer exists.

We have been carrying this dark,

Heavy cloak for no reason whatsoever.

It's existed in us only all these years,

All these days,

All these hours.

And it's time to face up to that.

Day one.

Close your eyes.

Find the sensorial home of this emotion,

Shame,

In you.

It will be different in everyone.

I find it sits in my spleen.

And I didn't know what that space was immediately,

But I felt it here.

And I started to explore not too long ago what body parts resided there and what purpose those body parts served.

Spleen.

The mind knows it no longer exists,

This shame.

Yet the body holds it nonetheless.

What would happen if you let it go?

What weight wants to carry that weight?

What part of you wants to hold onto that?

If the mind knows it no longer exists,

What will it take to let the body know this too and the senses?

Emotions are tricky.

They'll come in on this shame expulsion and bring in guilt to suggest you can't possibly put it down.

Or pain.

Or sadness.

These are just layers our ego tries to throw about in order to bolster protection and to keep us in the space it's grown accustomed to living.

Ego's a tricky bit.

But it's part of us too.

Really though,

Think of the freedom this same ego will realize and rejoice in.

If you tell it thank you for its care,

Yet move on and let it go,

This shame anyway.

Stubbornness is a trickster.

If your brush in hand has the power to tell the story of your shame being left behind,

How can you go there?

What does it look like?

This is for you alone.

Right now the process.

The results.

Now that beauty,

That release,

It will weave its way magnificently into the world once your work is done in this process.

How beautiful is that?

First you,

Then the art,

Then the world.

This is the work of the artist.

We get to.

Let's do it.

We show the way.

We have that power.

It's time to own it and realize that the shame,

The emotions of the next 10 days,

Each one,

Are not burdens that we've carried.

They're gifts we get to release.

20 minutes in silence today.

We're sticking with silence because it is so difficult sometimes.

The trick feels so good,

But it guides.

It manipulates.

It takes us in ways we aren't necessarily desiring to go.

It feels good,

But we can't always be after what feels good.

Let's see what happens in silence.

Let the shame expose itself.

Let the grief of it be seen for what it is.

Finished.

Let the guise of guilt or embarrassment that tries to rise around it billow to the floor like a discarded cloak.

Through silence and the awkward,

Awkwardness,

It isn't our days anymore.

Let us all just be for this.

20 minutes quiet.

What have you got to lose but await?

You no longer need to carry around.

Paint shame,

But paint,

And watch shame roll away.

Paint and let your mind open safely to the idea that the shame doesn't exist anymore,

So let it fall.

Paint,

An experience in a safe communal space a few moments of freedom that would otherwise perhaps not be realized.

If you want to pick shame back up at the door when we are done,

That is your choice,

But for the next 20 minutes let it down.

Feel the weight shift and see what it feels like to paint from this different angle.

Tomorrow,

Something to look forward to if we visit pleasure.

Enjoy today,

Everyone.

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I hope you spent 10 seconds,

Even just 10 seconds of that 20 minutes without the weight of shame on your shoulders.

Thanking it for the work it's done and realizing it has given you a great opportunity through its message in your body to move on,

To be exalted and to do your work,

Your unique,

Incredibly important work with so much more truth and integrity.

I think that's what it's there for in the end.