Sunday, February 26, 2012

Your Future Success is Tied to Your Outlook

"Breaking Free" ©Antonia Ruppert - Acrylic, 8x16 inches
Something happened today, yesterday and will continue to happen to people everywhere:

The average person will generate 25,000 to 50,000 thoughts per day.

This was reported by David Carnes of Livestrong.com.  He quotes Hara Estroff Marano, Editor at Large of Psychology Today magazine. 

Many of these thoughts will be surprisingly negative. Billions of earthlings everywhere will think and act on these thoughts.  Many of us, myself included, are becoming more intentional about our thoughts. I'm getting more creative about keeping a positive outlook.

My painting "Breaking Free"(shown here) illustrates the pushing past of negative thoughts.  The words say, "No" and "No not you." At some point, the hands come up to push aside the negative words.

This is important because "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..." (Bible, Old Testament).

Working at Being Positive
 I work daily on being positive by:
  1. Calling friends when situations got dicey.
  2. Calling upon my believing mirrors when I just don’t feel like painting.
  3. Catching up with my artist friends and checking in weekly about artsy stuff and family stuff.
  4. Focusing on what I have to be thankful for.
I try to maintain a positive outlook, despite the fact that my outlook does not always match my situation.

For example, yesterday my youth art class, “Artists with a Purpose” started in Tinley Park, IL.  This unique class will raise money for a local charity by creating 100 acrylic painted panels and selling many of them.  As I drove to the class, I realized that I had not grabbed all of the acrylic paint--nor did I have gesso(acrylic primer) for the 24 panels I wanted my students to work on.

As I was strapped for time, I made the decision to be on time for my class and not make an emergency run to Hobby Lobby. At first, during my journey, tears were in my eyes as I thought of the “disastrous” class that awaited me.  Then something shifted, as I thought of my daily affirmations:
  1. I Thank You God that your gracious hand is upon me.
  2. I Thank you God that your favor keeps my enemies from triumphing.
  3. I Thank You God that your favor will make a way.
  4. I trample all obstacles and roadblocks to receiving unlimited
    prosperity.
  5. The more grateful I am, the more reasons I find to be grateful.
 I had no idea exactly how it would all work out.

When I arrived, I met art teacher Carolyn - who was just finishing her class.  A master teacher, she told me she had been teaching at the Tinley Park Park district for 18 years. 

Without me asking, Carolyn and her aide Linda started helping me set up for my class.  First, Carolyn gave me tips on making my first day of class great.  Second, Linda actually helped me place newspaper on the tables to protect them - saving me loads of time.  Third, Carolyn pointed out that there was a bag of new acrylic paints in the supply cabinet. 

I felt overwhelmed with God’s favor.  In conclusion, the first day of “Artists with a Purpose” was awesome.

Final Notes about my Artistry
As promised in my last post - here are some of the work shown at my last show with artist Sylvia Westbrook at the Meet the Artist Night at Acorn Library in Oak Forest, IL.

This is "Happy Friday"...

"Happy Friday" ©Antonia Ruppert - Mixed Media, 9x12

and this is "Delivered and Set Free"...

"Delivered and Set Free" ©Antonia Ruppert - Acrylic, 8x10

I’ll leave you with this quote by LeAndria Johnson, Grammy winner -best gospel/contemporary Christian music:

“Always be positive.” “Don’t focus on the negative things in your life. Focus on the positive. The yes in you will be the yes for somebody else.”



2 comments:

Vanessa said...

Hi Toni! What a wonderful message. I believe that everyday it gets harder to maintain a positive outlook on life. There is so much negativity around us, media, people, associates sometimes... We have to actively remember to stay positive until it becomes a habit don't we? I saw a quote on twitter today that just reinforced it all:

"Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind" - Christian Larson

Keep the creative energy flowing!

Unknown said...

Vanessa, thanks so much for sharing here. I love what you said about actively staying positive "until it becomes a habit."

I'm curious now to know 1 or 2 ways YOU make being positive a habit.

The twitter quote is beautiful. Peace of mind is so important to all of us and especially those of us wanting to express creativity.