Today I gave my heart a paintbrush

I read this quote on social media, “Today I gave my heart a paintbrush” and it lit a spark in my soul.

Because often when we paint, or take up our preferred creative tool we think we are handing that paintbrush to our mind. What happens if you hand the brush to your heart, to your soul?

When you hand the brush to your mind, there is a set of learned processes and learned outcomes. Our tick-box brain kicks in. But when you invite your soul to play, the possibilities are just that….possibilities. And that seems a much freer space to create from.

As a metaphor for the creative life, for flow, handing your heart a paintbrush allows for play, exploration. It may mean stepping out of a comfortable space where you know what to do and have expected outcomes, but if you still your soul and sit within your self and look at your mind’s sky, what do you see? What colours? What places and spaces? What is your current mood and how do you shift that into an expression of self?

Because ultimately isn’t that why you create? To embrace your own identity, to express yourself? But so often our mind pulls us back into line, into the expected, into the status quo.

I recently let myself get all the colours out and it took a while to get playful and to lay down mark that was joyful and vibrant. It took a while to let go of the fear of making a mistake and messing up my new work. It took a while to give my heart a paintbrush.