Fearless February: How Trusting the Brush is Trusting Yourself
For the last two or three years, in an effort to help myself regulate my emotions, I’ve been collecting opposites.
Why? Because science. Also, because my emotions feel like an abstract painting—I know there’s meaning there, but I can’t always explain it.
The Universal Law of Opposites says that all things exist in pairs of opposites, and that one cannot exist without the other.
Intuitively, we all know this is true. We know what happiness is because we have also experienced sadness. When we are cold, we add hot to balance, and vice versa. We value our health more after we have experienced being sick. And we value silence most when trapped in a car with a child who just discovered knock-knock jokes.
So when we are feeling unbalanced in our emotions, it is helpful to pursue its opposite.
But what’s fascinating to me is that what we think of as opposites…aren’t actually.
For example, let’s take fear—something that I’ve been feeling a lot of lately in the last couple of weeks that’s probably not connected to anything going on in my country right now. (And if you believe that, I have some beachfront property in Nebraska to sell you.)
We might assume that the opposite of fear is bravery or confidence.
If I try to put my energy into feeling courageous or confident, is that going to dissipate my fear? Maybe for some people. But for others, that approach just turns them into blustering egomaniacs who say things like, “Hold my beer.”
The Law of Opposites only works if you’re actually applying the real opposite. So the trick is finding what that actually is. And that is why I’ve been keeping my list.
So, let me let you in on the real opposites of fear: Trust and Love.
That’s why this month, Fearless February, I’m diving deep into overcoming fear through art. And to bring this theme to life, I’m hosting my free open studio, The Art of Trust: Painting from the Heart.
Because we don’t freeze up in front of a blank canvas due to a lack of courage—we freeze because we don’t trust ourselves. We don’t trust our hands, our instincts, our right to create without a performance review.
So, let me ask you a personal question…if you’re afraid to paint a picture, what else are you afraid of? And more importantly, what might happen if you choose trust instead?
And let’s not forget: The opposite of fear is also love.
We get caught up in making something good instead of making something that we love. We choose safe colors, familiar shapes, things that might impress the imaginary critics in our minds. But when we paint what we love—boldly, freely—fear begins to lose its grip.
The Hopi and Lakota peoples, as well as many other First Nations, are a constant source of inspiration for me.
And as I was thinking about this, this Lakota prayer showed up on my FB feed. I love synchronicity:
It is also why I recently painted a silhouette of a Hopi Water Carrier of the Hopi Tribe in Arizona.
In the dry desert, water is life. And because the dwellings were built high on the mesa, the women would carry the water up to sustain their families.
Why did I paint this? Because I wanted to paint something I love—something that helps me remember what is important. I wanted to remind myself that I am also carrying something valuable, something sacred, even when the path is steep.
It’s the Water
by Lori Poff Kellogg
And as I can learn to trust myself on the canvas, I learn to trust myself in life.
And as I can learn to focus on what I love and what is important to me, I can learn to love beyond fear.
Trust and love. That’s the lesson I keep coming back to. On the canvas. In my life.
And this is how art teaches me to overcome fear.
If you want to work on this idea on a deeper level, this is exactly what we explore in Artisan of Your Life, especially in the lesson Creating with Love, Not Fear. Because when we learn to trust ourselves on the canvas, we begin to trust ourselves in life.