What Makes Life Worth Living?
Examining Enthusiasm
You know that subject in school that you avoided or hated? You would sit there, with your eyes glazed over, not absorbing the information droning out from the front of the classroom, and thinking of ways to get out of class or wondering why you even needed to learn it in the first place. This is the oposite feeling of enthusiasm.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "Some common synonyms of enthusiasm are ardor, fervor, passion, and zeal. While all these words mean 'intense emotion compelling action,' enthusiasm applies to lively or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, or activity."
Sampling Enthusiasm
When Sampling Life, you are looking for that spark of joy, that lively interest, that passion, and that inspiration that makes you want to learn more. You want to feel a hunger for more knowledge.
As a Life Sampler, you want to be able to tune in to how you are feeling at any given instance. This requires self-reflection and practice to be able to acknowledge your feelings without reacting to having them. It requires that you tune into the little voice inside that says "This is awesome! I want more of this!"
This is your brain enthusiastically leaning towards or diving into something. You have just sampled something you really want. Assuming that whatever it is is not self harming (many drugs will give you the feeling of wanting more, which is how addiction can start), listen to that voice. Ask yourself what part of the experience drew you in and gave you those wonderful "feel good" feelings.
Finding Inspiration from the Repugnant
Some of you may be thinking, "But Casey, I have tried a lot of things, and nothing seems to bring me that spark you are talking about!" In answer, I believe that you should start with creative and inexpensive projects. There are so many free tutorials for practically anything you can think of on YouTube. I used to "hate" visual art, but adored performance art. I used to "hate" that everyone in my family played guitar, but all I wanted to do was sing. I used to "hate" shopping for clothes with my sister, because I felt like I didn't have a style that called to me, I didn't have the money to buy things that did interest me, and in the late 90's, most mass-produced fashion was not made for women above 5'8 (I am a leggy 6'0, with size 11 shoes).
Most of my life, I could only focus on what I didn't want, and I couldn't seem to pivot my focus onto what I did actually want to enjoy, experience, and learn. I was stuck in a loop of resenting that I felt stuck, uninspired, and generally lacking joy. Since the idea of attracting and creating a life I wanted to live was foreign to me, I started to examine why I didn't like what I didn't like. Most of the time, it wasn't that I didn't enjoy an activity, I just didn't want to take the time or effort to learn. I didn't want to feel stupid by failing. If I put effort into something, I did it because it was something I already knew I liked and hoped to hone, such as acting, singing, and dancing.
I didn't start practicing visual art well into my adulthood because it came so naturally to my sister, I didn't want to look like a failure compared to her. I do find it interesting that I have attracted many an artist into my orbit such as my sister, and my best friend. Only when I accepted that doing art for the sake of doing art was an honorable exercise in creativity and self improvement did I actually start to enjoy it. Once I started to enjoy it, I started seeking different kinds of art, and styles that spoke to me more than what I had been working with.
Get Inspired! Then, Stay Consistent!
My eventual interest in visual art developed because I took the pressure off myself to be perfect. It was on a fold out table with my neighbors and their children that I was able to relax and let my creativity out as we were making little holiday decorations. There was no right or wrong, my work was not going to be assessed, and everyone else at the table was doing the projects for the fun and novelty of it.
Once I slowly came to the conclusion that I could do art (whatever that means), I began to get more excited at the prospect of trying new forms of art. For example, I had mainly worked with acrylic paints on various surfaces like canvas, brick, wood, and stones. Below is a recent offering to our neighborhood painted rock snake, with my first try at acrylic on wood in October of 2017, a portrait of Pitbull Mastiff dog, Atlas.
This January, my sister, my (now) fiancee, and I were sitting in LAX waiting for a flight to Ireland. My sister pulled out a bag of brushes, paints, and thick paper. "I'll be right back," she said as she spread out her supplies while I sipped an Old Fashioned in the terminal bar, "I just have to go fill my pens with water."
I continued to sip my beverage as I pondered what the heck she meant by filling up her pens. When she returned, she gave me a piece of water color paper, and explained that she had water color pens that filled with water, so you could mix, paint, and rinse colors with a squeeze of the pen onto a napkin. Watercolor has never been my favorite medium, but I'll be dammed if I wasn't absolutely enthralled with her magic water color pens. Last month, I bought a similar pack of pens off Amazon so that I could see if watercolor was something I or my stepkids would find ample joy in. My stepdaughter takes to art much more than my stepson, and she seemed to have a lot of fun playing with the water pens, pictured below.
I recently have had the honor of learning resin art and geode art from my friend, and I just spent an Amazon gift card on acquiring some of the supplies. This has been something that has really piqued my interest, and I am so excited to start experimenting with my own resin art projects. The geode piece below was gifted to me by my friend. You can follow her on Instagram @PourTricks to see some of the incredible pieces she has made.
Once you find something that speaks to you, that awakens something in you, or simple brings you that fleeting feeling of joy, it is important to practice consistently. Even if you have a naturally ability for or a proclivity towards something in particular, consistent practice helps to build skill and technique.
Literally as I was writing this post, some of my resin art materials arrived. It is time for me to go practice some resin mixing. Even if my piece looks disastrous, it will have been a learning opportunity for the sake of the experience, and the pleasure of inspired and enthusiastic work.
-Vincent Van Gogh
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