Book 279 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: Art is Your Ticket Back to Eden!

Book – The Artist’s Journey: The Wake or the Hero’s Journey and the Lifelong of Meaning by Steven Pressfield

Book Description:

I have a theory about the "Hero's Journey". We all have one. We have many, in fact. But our primary hero's journey is the passage we live out, in real life, before we find our calling. The hero's journey ends when, like Odysseus, we return home to Ithaca, to the place from which we started.

What then? The passage that comes next is the "Artist's Journey".

On our artist's journey, we move past resistance and past self-sabotage. We discover our true selves and our authentic calling, and we produce the works we were born to create. You are an artist too - whether you realize it or not, whether you like it or not - and you have an artist's journey. Will you live it out? Will you follow your muse and do the work you were born to do?

Ready or not, you are called.

Reflection:

Adam and Eve had it pretty damn good as the first human’s hanging out in the Garden of Eden days. I must imagine that life was carefree, they had no wants or needs, and their inner and exterior worlds were at peace and free from suffering. The world was in perfect harmony, connected, and all they had to do was exist.

It was literally the Garden of Eden!

Then, they did what humans do best and went and messed it all up…we all know the story! God got angry with them and said, “You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything until you go back to the soil from which you were formed.”

In my mind, when we were kicked out of Eden was the exact moment that our brains went from one connected and harmonious being, to one that made the strategic decision to divide and conquer to ensure our survival as we set out in the brave and unprotected world. We let our left brain do their thing and worry about the rational and methodical aspects of the world like food, shelter, warmth, protection, and all our other basic needs. Unfortunately, our imagination didn’t have a huge role to play at this time of our existence because we just had to survive, so our right brain was lost in the mix most of the time.

However, God knew that for us to make the soil produce anything, we would have to access all of the gifts he bestowed on us. We would have to find a way to reunite our minds to make it back it back to Eden one day.

So how do you jump start your right brain to access the full potential of your mind to make it back to Eden?

According to Steven Pressfield, the way back to Eden is through the art we produce which is paid for in sweat.

ART IS WORK!

I couldn’t agree more! To me, art is when your work deeply aligns with your values and the people you surround yourself. Those are the conditions needed to produce art and reignite us with Eden. I call this meaningful work and meaningful relationships, but you might as well call it art. It is through our meaningful work with meaningful relationships that our art is brought into this world and is our momentary ticket back to connecting it all back together to get that harmonious feeling of Eden every now and then.

When you are performing your meaningful work with people that matter to you, there is no greater feeling in this world. While, we don’t get it all the time, that little taste is enough to understand how beautiful life can truly be and makes all the blood, sweat, and tears you put into each day worth it.

We all have the art in us, it just takes a whole lot of concentrated time and effort to bring it out of us to share with the world. Art doesn’t have to be painful though. In my opinion, when done right, art should be the easiest thing we do in this world because we have found the momentary realignment of our minds and it has transported us back to the place where we began when life was effortless and carefree.

Art is your ticket back to Eden and a connected, balanced, and harmonious life. We will never get a lifetime pass back to Eden, but if we work hard enough, we might be able to get to acquire a day pass to visit every now and then. I promise it will be worth the effort.

Question: When was the last time your visited Eden?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - The Artist's Journey