| What Is the Ideal Day for an Artist? |

What would your ideal day look like? Have you ever stopped to think about it in all its juicy details? How would you move through your day? How much time would you spend making art? Who would you like to be around? How would you feel?

The artists in the Mindful Artist Mentorship Program were asked to do just that and one of the artists came up with such a deliciously vivid picture of her daily life, I wanted to share it with you.

You see, if any area of your life isn’t quite satisfactory to you, focusing on the dissatisfaction only mires you further in what you don’t want. You keep thinking about it talking about it and feeling it over and over.

I know! I do it, too. It actually can take a great amount of effort to shift our thoughts from their well-worn paths and I applaud anyone who makes even the slightest effort to shift their thinking patterns. Consider the benefits: better mood, lowered blood pressure, greater peace of mind, clearer thinking.

Just for a minute – recall any delightful moment with a loved one (human or animal). How do you feel just thinking about it? What happens to your mind, emotions and body as you savor the details?

Creating a clear picture of where you would like to be and allowing yourself to daydream a bit, straying from reality a little or a lot, points your boat (your conscious attention) in the direction you want to head.

Also, using your imagination in this way, even when you aren’t able to work on your creative projects, exercises those creative muscles and keeps them in shape.

Besides, it just feels good!

Here’s one artist’s “Ideal Scene.” I encourage you to take 15 minutes tonight before bed and write yours out, too.

By Simon Davison (originally posted to Flickr as IMG_6045) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I get up early and have coffee and a donut…(it’s MY perfect day, not my doctor’s). My daughter in LA calls. We have named her the Breakfast Fairy because she calls early before both of us start our day. She is a loving child/woman. She fills me with the same kind of happiness that painting does.

I do my crossword, knowing the paints are calling. Maybe I cruise through the garden to see what is either in bloom or ripe for picking.

After setting up a still life and roughing in the outline of a new painting, I call a girl friend and she picks up the lunch boxes I ordered at a local restaurant. When she arrives, we picnic out in the orchard and chat. Cold frittata stacked high with artichokes, yellow bell peppers, spinach and mushrooms is followed by fresh strawberry tarts, baklava and iced tea. We talk about the scenery, the day, our husbands and kids…just gently going over the details of our lives.

My friend leaves just before I go back to painting. I turn on music and time goes away.

The day is fading and I start to think about dinner as I clean my brushes. My husband, is nosing around the extra frittata I bought and we decide to heat it up and make a salad from the fresh tomatoes in the garden. While I am slicing them, I think how beautiful they would be in a painting, the translucent meat and juice flowing onto the cutting board…

The peaches are ripe and peel easily. A perfect dessert with ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. We watch the Daily Show and laugh at Jon Stewart’s jokes.

Then my husband heads for bed and I go back into my studio. The painting is calling me.

“Come work with me,” it whispers, “Make me rise from the canvas. Give me life.”

There is my calling. It is literally calling to me. “Give me life, let me breathe, let me be seen.”

It’s midnight when I crawl into bed. The painting is sitting on a music stand I keep in my bedroom. It will be there in the morning when I wake up. It’s a newborn, and I am tired from giving birth. We both need to sleep now.