Doodles of Inspiration: Lisa Renee Wilson

Lisa Renee Wilson is an Awareness Artist, who writes at LifeUnity. com. I am Lisa's student with The Wild Elephant Project which is a free online mindfulness class. Lisa's commitment to practice, her drive to pursue creativity and mindfulness in daily life and to inspire others in this quest is what drew me to her. She writes regularly at LifeUnity.com, and teaches classes in self-awareness and creative expression through the medium of wax, The Encaustic Experience. To view her upcoming classes visit: http://www.lifeunity.com/classes.Lisa also creates a variety of art in her home studio area in Bloomington, IN, where she lives with her husband and two children.

Your favorite doodle of all time

It’s amusing how long it took me to think of an answer to this question.  I kept thinking what might be my “favorite”.  I kept thinking I wanted to doodle something fancy or intricate to show you.  I kept thinking day after day and not getting this post done.  And I know why – it’s because I was thinking.  I should have just sat down and started doodling, started creating.  All answers lie in just beginning.

So that’s just what I did.  This is what emerged:

It is a random expression of what is on my mind, right now.  It is amazing how vulnerable it feels to share this.  While I was drawing it, and even now, so many thoughts of how it is going to be received push through my head.  What is the significance of tiny circles?  Wavy lines?  Random squigglies?  Will someone be able to tell my deepest, darkest secrets from looking at this?  Will I reveal something to myself, or will I trick myself by over-analyzing it?

All this from doodles.

And there’s the thing – sometimes doodles are just doodles.  Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss, a fight is just a fight, a tragedy is just that.  Perhaps it isn’t what we make of it that is so important (the lingering fears or feelings or logical conclusions).  Perhaps it is the experience – that in-the-moment experience – that matters.

When we fret over how it will be received, the interpretation, we cling to that moment.  That moment is gone.  What is left is the consequences of that moment, the pen marks on the paper.  What matters now is what I am doing with what is.  What matters now is if I am experiencing this moment…or just letting it slip by. 

Huh.  I think I might go doodle again.

How do you stay creative and mindful in your day-to-day life?

By not making creativity and mindfulness anything other than my day-to-day life. 

I was once told that how we do one thing is how we do all things, and only recently has that begun to make sense.  If I pretend that creativity is only something I do when in my art studio or that mindfulness is something I can only find on my zafu (meditation cushion), I cheat myself out of the opportunities that are present every moment.  Over and over I forget that, but that only means another opportunity to remember and practice.

In a practical sense, that means I try a different way to slice the apple each day.  I try to look my daughter in the eye each time she talks.  (Try.  Try.)  I engage with techniques in the Wild Elephant project.  I make my bed each morning and brush my teeth and paint and write and voila.  I’m living creatively and mindfully in my day-to-day life. 

Your favorite quote

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.  I’ll meet you there.  When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.  Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn’t make any sense.  --Rumi

How do you deal with overwhelming emotions (intense joy, sorrow, anger, indignation, etc)?

By sitting in the fire of the emotion.  I’m a very empathetic person, so not only do I have my own emotions, but I tend to pick up on, feel, and often amplify the “energies” of those around me.  So these overwhelming emotions can happen quite often. 

If I try to ignore them, I stumble through the rest of my work and make a mess of things.  I’ve learned to just let what I think should be happening go on pause, and to simply be present with the emotion.  Sometimes this means just staring out the window, sometimes sobbing during a night drive with the windows down, sometimes journaling feverishly.

In releasing expectations, I understand the emotion to be an invitation to experience another facet of life.  It, like everything else, is impermanent.  It deserves as much attention and recognition as the blissful, so that it too can eventually be released.

Tips for readers to stay creative and mindful in the face of stress on one hand and boredom on the other

Stress and boredom are just two ways we avoid what is. (At least dis-stress; there is a thing called eu-stress, which is a positive stress.  But I digress.  And rhyme.)

We so often want things to be different than what they are.  We want to be in a different place, on to the next thing, feeling differently, looking different, with different people, doing a different chore.  Stress and boredom are reactions to this longing and aversion.

Recognizing what is, without judgment, is the first step to staying peacefully mindful.  It’s like soaring outside of ourselves and the situation, seeing it, and saying, “huh, that’s interesting!”.  When we tap into that awareness, we are then more free to see other possibilities that were confined previously by our longing to escape from the situation.  Creativity is seeing these other possibilities.. 

It is ALWAYS a practice – one we remember, forget, attempt, and ignore over and over.  It is vitally important not to judge ourselves over what we perceive to be our successes or failures.  Each moment is a beginning, an invitation to live a creative and mindful moment.

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