I originally wrote this for Patreon on February 11th 2017. I no longer use Patreon and have replaced it with my website (here) but thought I would share some of my old blogs with you for FREE to show my appreciation for you visiting my website! <3

———-

Happy day-after-the-full-moon-eclipse! The self portrait sets I’m sharing this week kinda don’t really match what I want to talk to you about… I’ll explain. These self portraits were taken when I was feeling pretty low. Scared for the future of our country, scared for my future and your future, feeling hopeless because I didn’t know the actions to take to make any kind of difference, upset because I had read too much online about all the terrible things happening. Some of my emotions show up in these photos and I’m glad I took them when I did, when I was sad/upset/hopeless/scared. I used self portraiture to work out some of my feelings and it helped me feel a little better.

What I want to talk to you about this week is positivity and the power of our minds. The power of positive thinking. All week I’ve been listening to youtube videos of Abraham Hicks  speaking about the law of attraction, Eckhart Tolle speaking about the power of now, Louise Hay‘s positive affirmations, and various other positive affirmations. I’ve spent at least 4-9 hours each day, Monday through Friday, listening to all these uplifting, encouraging, powerful speakers. It has honestly changed my life already. I know I did an intro to positive affirmations blog post recently, but I can’t tell you enough how influential and POWERFUL they are! A day or two ago (after listening to a couple of day’s worth of these videos) I made a vow to myself that I will be positive in all aspects of my life, and I have already felt so much more joy and beauty and happiness since then. I am choosing to see everything from a positive perspective and boy is my life wonderful!!! I took a wrong turn and totally didn’t go where I meant to? Well look at this super cute little town I discovered on accident! I had to go grocery shopping after work yesterday? I wouldn’t have seen that amazingly beautiful sunset as I walked out of the store if I hadn’t gone! I spent a bunch of money on art supplies? I’m super excited to start making those color zines for you next month!

I highly encourage you to click some of the links above (any of them, or even better, all of them) and do some reading. You know those days when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and your day starts out shitty and continues to be shitty or gets even shittier? That’s because of the law of attraction, when you start your day thinking about how crappy it is, the rest of your day is of course going to be crappy! That’s the energy you’re sending out so it’s the energy you receive. It works the other way around, too. If you wake up thankful for having a bed to sleep in, a house to live in, thankful that you’re ALIVE and you WOKE UP for another day, thankful that there are a million other things to be thankful for, happy that today is a brand new day that you get to be one more step closer to making your dream come true… the rest of your day and week and month and year are going to be amazing! If you send out the energy of gratitude, love, happiness, joy, and abundance, then that is exactly what you’re going to get back. If you set your mind to something, whatever that something is will happen. It may not be immediately or this week or this month or this year, but if you truly want it and work toward it and think about it excitedly and happily and as if it is on it’s way to you, it will happen.

My dad has said that he wishes he had reached higher, because he has gotten everything he has ever asked for and worked toward: a loving wife and children, a successful career, even a white cadillac. And you know what? It’s not too late to reach higher. He just recently got the best job he’s ever had (and he’s had some pretty good jobs already), he’s working LESS and making MORE.

REACH FOR THE SKY! Things may not happen the way that you expect them to but if you travel through life with gratitude and love then you will always be happy and successful.

You never lose, you either learn or you win.

I might go into this more in depth in the next couple weeks, I really want to talk to you more about Abraham Hicks, Eckhart Tolle, and Louise Hay. I just think this blog is pretty long already haha. I may start doing some videos about this too….. I’ll probably do a poll to see what you think, and I always love getting comments and messages from you!

I love you, thank you so much for being here with me and I hope I can bring some love and light into your life, even if it’s just through a computer screen.

***EDIT*** March 24 2020 as I’m scheduling this post: Three years ago I didn’t know what spiritual bypassing was, and this post sounds a lot like spiritual bypassing. Here’s a definition from Wikipedia: “A spiritual bypass or spiritual bypassing is a “tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks”. The term was introduced in the early 1980s by John Welwood, a Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist.”

I want to point out that while being positive is certainly a good thing, it is NOT good to ignore or avoid the full range of emotions and experiences that are an integral part of our lives. We are allowed to have “bad” days. It’s okay to not feel/be okay. Whatever you’re feeling is worthy of your attention, curiosity, and care. I might do a post sometime about feeling ALL of our emotions, and why it’s important.

All members have access to this complete 43 image basement self portrait photoset by clicking here.

All members have access to this complete 18 image antler self portrait photoset by clicking here.