Clashing wills & quiet hearts

Clashing wills & quiet hearts

"Healing hearts/ Helende hjerter" Acrylic and paper on canvas, 24 x 30 cm 1600 kr.

“Healing hearts/ Helende hjerter” Acrylic and paper on canvas, 24 x 30 cm 1600 kr. For sale.

Text in the painting reads:

“IN THE QUIET SPACES LIVES JOY – CREATIVITY – CONNECTION + CARE.

HEALING OF OUR HEARTS.”

When we want something with our will and act on it, we create a direction, a movement. Directions and movements are powerful; they can move mountains and people. They can create the wildest new things and tear the old and dusty down to pieces. They can leave their mark and shape the world.

Directions can also clash. When two wills headed in opposite directions collide, conflicts can arise. And it is often worst when the two wills thought they were going to the same place. And bang, they collide, abruptly stopped. And get angry with each other, for no one likes being stopped in their progress.

And out there in the land of wills and actions, where everything is directions and creating power, it is often difficult to resolve this conflict.

It actually CAN´T be resolved from that place; the two wills are already moving in two different directions. Each of them of in their full right to do so. It takes strength to move mountains, all power needed. So the only focus there is room for in the country of wills and directions are often: That mountain has to be moved! And so, the two wills collide like two angry bulls ready for battle. And I have yet to meet anyone who has successfully coached two angry bulls into happily grazing side by side.

To resolve the conflict, we must sidestep and be silent. Completely quiet. So quiet that we can listen above and below and right into the middle of the very core of life. So quiet that we can hear the earth below us, with all the layers of primeval history. So we catch the universal melody of the past and future and endless possibilities in one. So quiet that we just ARE, without needing to move anywhere, because everything is right here and always have been. So quiet that we ARE love.

In love, it is not just possible, but completely natural that there is room for several directions at once. In love, coexistence is a wonderful opportunity to honor our differences while we create and contribute with each our bit to the world. Even when it’s hard and it looks like what we want are opposites, each of us can continue to live and act without being stopped by someone who want something seemingly different. Deeply rooted in love.

Do we need to enter a meditation room or a monastery to be quiet for hours or days every time there is a conflict? For God´s sake, NO, certainly not! The silence of love is timeless. For some it works to practice in a monastery or a meditation room. Personally I love to practice this healing quietness when I paint and create things. It is a state that works through us, and it doesn´t take more than a tiny moment to create a healing difference in a conflict. As lont as that moment springs from the love in a quiet heart.

Is it easy? NO! (permission granted to shout from your lungs full volume!)

Is it possible? Yes it is. (said with quiet wonder, like when you are unsure whether it is a lark you can see in the sky, and just have come to agree with yourself that “yes, it is”.)

With big love, from a sometimes frowning bullhead with an also soft and quiet heart.

Lise.

ABOUT COFFEE BREWING AND LIFE PASSION

Slow down

This morning I asked my morning pages:

“What could I tell to explain how Vision boards and life visions work? What do people need to hear to know if it’s something they want to pursue?”

And then I went to make a cup of coffee. And as I stood there in my own thoughts, watching the espresso brewer (one of those Italian owns you put on a hotplate until the heat makes the water into steam which is forced up through the coffee) turn water and coffee beans to a wonderfully fragrant brew, this answer came to me:

“Tell them what you see here, in front of your eyes. Explain that it is possible to do the same with our lives. That just as it takes heat to make the water and beans into coffee, in the same way it takes passion, to make a person´s abilities and talents flourish in the world.

For you humans forget so easily that inspiration and passion are possible when you don´t have it, and you begin to think of life is an obstacle or a competition. And you continue until you become stressed or ill. So tell them, and yourself, that there is another way – so you will remember. ”

And that is true, and that is what I will do, I do know the other way. And I must regularly remind myself of it – and practice. For so much in this world makes me forget it.

ALL of us (yes, also YOU – I swear) has a unique combination of skills and talents. But to brew a wonderful life we need a sustained and steady amount of passion. Passion is like fire that burns and, like heat, it needs a good energy source.

And that energy source consists of several things, but a really important one is that we have visions. Clear, passionate, playful, thinking-out-of-the-box-and-the-lid-off-visions!

And then, it needs us to create actions from our visions, immediately! So the steam don´t go out. But not all at once – oh, no, just with small doable steps, so we don´t burn out.

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Our life requires – much like coffee – a good amount of heat & passion to become a wonderful brew.

If you live in Denmark, I have a course just about that, all info HERE – last signup this friday!

And if you live abroad, here are some links you may enjoy, about how to keep that daily passion burning.

Love to you + your day from Lise.

PS: If you want to know more about morning pages, you may enjoy to read THIS

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The tiny step that will change your life

Today was a day that really counted.

Not because I have been particularly effective, has made a super effort or achieved a lot.

My reality today was NOT like that. Very, very far from it.

“Nourish your seeds/Giv dine frø næring”, mixed media on canvas, 25 x 30 cm. Price: 1800 DKK

“Nourish your seeds/Giv dine frø næring”, mixed media on canvas, 25 x 30 cm. Price: 1800 DKK

Today was the kind of day where I could not see clearly. For inexplicable reasons I walked around in my own fog and swamp of procrastination all morning. The start of this day felt more like being a spectator to my own life and helplessly watching it slip by without any meaning. I was stuck in a feeling of unclarity, physically weakness and overwhelming uselessness. And as the hours passed, it only got worse.

It was past lunch before I realized how lost I actually was. I still felt discouraged, but now I was at least awake.

And then I finally took a miniature step in OUT of the fog.

HERE, right here was one of those moments that really counts; THE FIRST TINY STEP!

When I had taken that step my mind was a bit clearer. And I was able to rise enough above my own swamp and find space in my mind to ask:

What ingredient do I lack in myself to be able to create anything today and how would I really like to feel? And, what can provide this feeling?

“Jump into Joy/Hop ind I glæden” 30x40 cm/11,8 x 15,7 in – 2800 kr./ 525 $

“Jump into Joy/Hop ind I glæden” 30×40 cm/11,8 x 15,7 in – 2800 kr./ 525 $

Now I had taken not just one, but several small steps. And my direction had already changed. 3 steps in a new direction is a change of direction, although it is only 3 very small steps!

Everybody has days that are foggy or hard or downright unbearable. EVERYBODY. WITHOUT. EXEPTION.

And those days are really important. For this is where we could get lost if we just let things slide. And sometimes we may get lost for days, or months, or even years. But it is also on those days we have the opportunity to carve into our minds and lives which direction we sincerely want to take. To change direction requires just that; a conscious direction-change. Ever so gently, step by step. But with increased focus on where the heart longs to go.

Want to know what my first tiny step was? It was a really easy one (the first step should be small and easy, otherwise you won´t do it; you are after all in the middle of a swamp…). I watched this wonderful video with two love-beaming power ladies, and felt embraced, seen and inspired.

With wishes for loving but firm leadership of the parts of us that sometimes can be lost in swamps.

Love from Lise.

Lise Meijer profil (10 of 21)

New art: The river of my heart (and about being stuck in emotions…)

I just finished this, one of my bigger paintings:

“RIVER OF MY HEART”

"River of my heart/ Hjertets flod" - 31,5 x 47,2 in/ 80 x 120 cm, acrylic and paper on deep edge canvas. Price: 925 $/ 6.500 kr.

“River of my heart/ Hjertets flod” – 31,5 x 47,2 in/ 80 x 120 cm, acrylic and paper on deep edge canvas. Price: 925 $/ 6.500 kr.

“The river of our heart flows continuously. It contains every emotion, every color, light and darkness, and also all our greyness. Sometimes deep, sometimes low and shallow, and always weaving through life’s landscape of narrowing and widening, wild forests and fine gardens. Its task is to FLOW. And it wants to flow freely, and in return it brings joy in abundance when we dare let it do just that.”

– Lise Meijer

– Lately I have been pondering how emotions are like the weather: they shift according to all kind of outer influences – like high or low pressure, warmth or cold, and also pollution and many other outer or inner causes. It takes a lot of skill to learn to predict the weather, and even when the expets have done their best – they can be wrong! The weather color very much how we experience the day & the world, and it is NEVER permanent! Also, there is always, always a blue sky or a crisp clear starry night to be found behind the clouds.

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Above: Celeste (11) recently did my hair with an upside – down heart which I loved!!!

It is the same story with emotions: they move through us all the time and  like the weather they can never be completely fixed. They appear due to the processes we are exposed to, inside and outside ourselves, but it can be hard to always determine what caused them to turn up. And even harder to change them when cloudy emotions seem to fill the whole inner sky. The best cure of cloudy emotions I know is MOVEMENT! Any kind of movement; physical exercise, a walk, going to the cimema, doing some cleaning or tidying or creating something. It is also the last thing I want to do when stuck in heavy emotions. But once I do, things slowly shift. It often takes a while, but there will be a shift.

And believe me, I had many (MANY) mornings in my life where I had no idea of how to get myself unstuck enough to begin working! Especially during the latest years where all I had to do was to get up, go upstairs and get myself to create. Wonderful when you FEEL like it! And seemingly impossible at other days. But I have sincerely come to love the fact that there IS  something I can do about that state, even if I don´t feel the effect immediately.

I love the fact that I can change my inner weather!

And when nothing else works, I go to the chapter “Mood shifter” in this wonderful book. Highly recommended!

With love from Lise.

PS: as always, I ship worldwide with joy, both items from my shop with prints and cards and original art!

The sound of A sudden stillness

HealingHearts

(“Healing hearts”. Text reads: “In the quiet spaces lives JOY – CREATIVITY – CONNECTION + CARE. Healing of our hearts. To purchase this original painting, contact me.)

The other night I sat down in my living room together with Rune after the children were put to bed. During all the busyness of life we have learned that if we want to have some time together we best put it in the calendar, at least once a week. But often, when we reach that point of the day where the dinner has been served + cleaned away and the children has got their attention and love and are put to bed, we are both a bit frazzled. And it takes quite a shift to move into anything new. So, that night, we agreed to just sit for a while. And take a moment to breathe.

And there I sat and was completely STILL. For more than 5 minutes. at 8.30 pm. Wow!

Lise Meijer profil (2 of 21)

(Me, on a beach on Bornholm)

As I settled, I began to notice the many fine sounds in the room. The calmness of the evening, inviting us to listen to the inner voice and find peace with whatever IS. And I SAW my life, and me in it.

I began noticing how much I have in my life to be grateful for. It is a lot. And I felt the healing of being grateful for what there IS, rather than to long for what IS NOT.

It hit me almost as a chock how I very rarely just SIT.  Without having some specific inner or outer activity going on. I have many wonderful practices. I consider my painting process as kind of a meditative state, a deep inner quiet and a connection to fine things. I do running and pilates. And I walk. I also write morning pages. But just sitting without doing anything has not been part of my practise, so far. From now on it will.

And to be quiet together with someone I care for before engaging is a beautiful way to start a meeting.

Thank you, Quiet moment. Once again, I am grateful to be alive. I will try to remember.

Tree of Dreams - Drømmetræet

(“Dreamtree”, original sold – signed prints available HERE)

Hello new year – hello transformation and new visions!

Let it be no secret! I love doing this:

Creating vision maps

Walking with visions

finding images for Vision maps

….Yes, I love it when we honor our sincere wish to make life count, and when we use creativity as a tool to make that happen.

That is why I, in the beginning of every  year, work with my visions in words and pictures. That is why I create Vision boards. And that´s why I love teaching Workshops using that and other creative tools.

This year, however, it seemed like an uphill process. At least at first; no inspiration, no joy. No feelings of anticipation when trying to catch my visions for 2015.

That´s when a group of ladies asked me to make a workshop and help them create their vision boards for 2015. “Oh no”, I thought, “I haven´t even created my own yet, and I honestly feel a bit stuck”. But that is the trick with these or any process. They DO work, but only if we DO them! And I had been stalling in “no action land”, which is exactly what so easily happens when what we need the most is to simply begin. And keep going with small steps. We humans can help each other so much, and sometimes asking someone for help might be the very thing that will help that person too. Good to remember!

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So, inspired by the request I gave it a go with my own visions. It helped. I found out several things that I had not seen, that explained the resistance I felt. I saw that I needed to give myself permission to search for new ways – with business and with other areas of life – to really ask again from scratch what route it I wanted to take, and to be willing to make some changes. To say more boldly NO to things that no longer fits, even if it looks like it will generate an immediate income. To insist on working from a core of joy and service, rather than pushing myself into areas that clearly steals my energy. To dare not meeting expectations, my own and others. To dare listen, every day, to my intuition, which has proven over and over again to be a most trustworthy tool.

Slowly but steadily the fog lifted, and I began feeling that childish anticipation again. If I can, I know you can too! You can read more about creating a vision board RIGHT HERE.

Or, if you live nearby (Sjælland, Danmark), you can join my New years Vision workshop on saturday the 24th of january. A FULL day of diving into you own visions, using some wonderful creative tools like writing, movement and “Vision Boarding”. Sounds good, right? So, if you live in Denmark, this might be for you, I would love to meet you there:

Nytårs clearing 2015invi

Till soon, love from Lise.

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