Hello, beautiful,

I sit here in my studio tonight surrounded by Artworks for my upcoming SHOW. There’s fragonia and rose essential oils in my diffuser, sunflowers I bought for myself in a vase nearby and I am having a moment of feeling utterly grateful for the life I’ve created myself.

After a big week of prepping for my upcoming Intuitive Art Show (opening this weekend! Yay!), I was driving home this afternoon and found myself saying internally “I’ve worked really hard and done a beautiful job with my art show prep this week. I want to gift myself some congratulations flowers.”

I suddenly stopped and thought, “Did I just think that about myself?” How cool!” Then I pulled over and bought myself some flowers.

Being this kind and loving towards myself has been a slow, lifelong unfolding. It’s been a process of getting to know myself - taking the time to do so, thought meditation, art-making and personal inquiry - and then taking small actions each day, each moment, that feel like a loving choice for myself. In years gone by, I never thought I‘d be publicly sharing love for myself but now, I actually feel like one of the most special people I know. What a blessing it is to feel love in my heart for myself in this way. I really dig who I am, and who I have become. Even on hard days - especially then - I’m choosing kinder for myself.

It feels to me like us humans all have this beautiful capacity to love. And many of us have grown up thinking our loving kindness is best spent on others, but we rarely take a moment to shower it upon ourselves. I wonder why this is? I feel it has to change, if we ever want to heal ourselves and the world be now live in.

Loving ourselves is a beautiful thing. I’d go as far to say, it’s the ultimate endeavour in our lifetime.

Imagine how we could feel if we spoke lovingly to our eyes and our curves every day in the mirror, so much so, that we start to believe it. Imagine if we knew how healthy greens and fresh-cooked meals and dark chocolate felt good when we ate it, so we decided to do it for ourselves on the regular. Imagine if we noticed when our inner monologue sounded berating, and we stopped for a moment to give ourself a little inner-hug and some compassion instead. Imagine if we dated ourselves, with flowers and movies and beach walks and loving words, the way we wish others would unto us. Imagine if we taught our kids how to love themselves too. Imagine the impact we would have on our own life, and others’.

It seems to me that what’s missing in many of our lives, is love for ourselves. The more I practice loving myself, the more I realise it’s got nothing to do with being selfish, but everything about leaving the world a better place than it was before. A kind and loving heart, spreads kind and loving vibes.

So maybe it’s time to take that class we’ve always wanted, wear those special undies on a Tuesday, and be brave enough to tackle a big project we’ve always had our heart set on. Who cares if it doesn’t turn out, or what anyone else thinks about it - the fact that we are doing what we love and enjoying the process is a gift enough in itself. And with practice, we get better at anything we set our minds - and time to.

Art-Making for me has always felt like a gift: it’s a way to love myself where I’m at, capture that feeling insight in colourful form, and then share that love with others. Sounds corny, but it’s true. Doing what we love, deserves our time and attention.

So, I better get back to my evening. There’s a nice big painting behind me, calling me to paint her and I need some time to just play.

If you’re around in Brisbane this weekend, I’ve love you to pop in and check out my Intuitive Art Show at GROUND Cafe, New Farm on Sat 7th, between 11am - 1pm. I’ll be setting up a canvas and doing some Live Art while I chat to ya’ll visiting the show this Saturday.

Here’s an invite for you below, if you didn’t receive my last post, and a little sneak peek-video HERE of my exhibition paintings in my studio.