I trust myself, do you trust yourself?

If you’re ready to trust yourself I can help.

Stay Mindful

Chris

Interruptions

What’s makes an artist genuine?

I am actively working on no longer giving people the benefit of the doubt.

It can be so easy for me to be pushed or pulled off balance extending respect too quickly to others.

Recently I was on a social media platform having a conversation about authenticity and integrity, One of the audience members went to my website and came back with a question.

“Do you use AI to assist you in any of your artwork?“

To which I responded…

“yes I do it’s about 40% of the artwork on my website itself, but most of what I sell is all created by me alone. I just enjoy playing with the AI generator and also enjoy sharing it.

Based on that information he claimed I was being hypocritical in my authenticity. That I wasn’t a true artist. Using AI Art generation at all is immoral, And I admit, I felt wounded.

Am I a poser? Am I full of crap? Or am I just pretending to be an artist and I pale in comparison to the true artists? Am I a phony?!?

Now imposter syndrome is a thing and I’ll admit it was most likely playing a part for me in the situation. I worry about that every day, and I know there are plenty of others who share that worry for themselves.

After thinking about it long and hard, and probably longer than I actually needed to, I came to a realization. This person judging me didn’t care anything about my feelings. You see I informed the person that their words wounded me, and I did so as kindly as possible so that they wouldn’t think I was attempting to fight or wound them in return.

They responded by telling me that they’d be happy to help me with my website sometime like they’d be doing me a kindness.

But what they did not do was address the wounding, and that was the key point to me. They were informed that their actions led to a wounding of my ego and chose to completely disregard that. I recognize that a wounding of my ego is a me problem and that it would be up to me to re-balance my mind and body. I know that the individual who said the harsh words isn’t responsible for my feelings. I also know that people with empathy care about how others feel after they give advice or cast judgment.

Having come to that understanding I am going to completely disregard their opinion on whether or not I am a genuine artist. And I will be much more mindful of those who believe they’re entitled to do so without empathy.

If you have an opinion but do not show genuine empathy, I have no interest in your opinion, and won’t respect it either.

I am an artist. Not a perfect artist. Not in any way measurably better than anyone else. Because, to me, that’s not what art is about. Art is about expressing yourself in creative ways, And at its true heart, art cannot be owned, only shared.

So for all of you pretentious entitled arrogant insecure artists out there who take shots at other artists I’ll say this. Your opinion doesn’t matter to me, and I decide what matters to me. If I believed you actually cared about me then things might be different.

And for all you artists out there looking for ways to genuinely express yourself, not steal or lie or cheat, but honestly express yourself. For all of you I say don’t give up, and don’t stop. Keep searching for ways to peacefully express yourself, and let the haters hate.

Live and let asshole

Stay mindful

Chris

The Illusion of Separateness

Insight -InteGritti Wall Art

My thoughts on the illusion of separateness

There are a great number of examples of human beings, either individually or collectively, behaving as if they are separate within themselves and from others. For the individual this manifests as belief in the ID, the subconscious, the shadow self, and/or a soul. When it comes to groups of humans this illusion manifests itself as tribal behavior fighting over territory and resources. Humans group up, label another group of humans as “other” and in that moment create an illusion of separateness. Like it or not but this manner of behavior very closely parallels that of chimpanzees,

Quite a lot of humans believe they are cosmic visitors transported to Earth from another realm entirely. How is this ongoing energy migration happening? According to humans who believe this theory, there is a “separate” essence, or soul, that enters a human body at some time during gestation phase of pregnancy but it’s vague. That same essence pilots the body during the human’s mortal life, and then migrates back to wherever I came from after the body expires. These humans spend the majority of their lives strongly believing they are a combination of separate things working together like a team. If the separate entities of Mind, body, and soul learn to work together they can collectively share the fulfilling experience of a human mortal life.

Do any other life forms on Earth do this? Does every life have this cosmic essence driving it while it exists? Do chimpanzees have souls, or elephants, or dogs, or octopuses, or birds? We have no evidence or reason to believe that any other life on Earth is not native to our planet. So it’s just humans???? I don’t buy it. We know animals exhibit behavior that strongly suggests feelings of some kind, and we know plenty of plants species that do as well.

I believe that the so called soul is the equivalent of Dumbo’s magic feather. Dumbo didn’t believe he could fly, so his friend gives him a feather and tells him it’s magic. Without his fear stopping him he took off into the sky. Humans are afraid of their mortality and therefore afraid to live, but with a magic “eternal soul” there’s no need to be afraid. So they live their lives less fearfully because they believe their soul is immortal.

They live their whole life with the strong belief that they are not one whole being, but many. I say this is another example of the illusion of separateness.

I am an individual consciousness. A contained human unit. My mind is a product of my biology. There is no real border within us mentally between the “mind” and the “body”. We discuss them separately because breaking complicated concepts down is how we learn and attempt to understand. We create the illusion of separateness to study ourselves and our world, but it is still an illusion Nonetheless.

I am one complete human being. Complicated and difficult to understand, but complete regardless. I am not half a heart searching to be completed by another. For that to be true I’d have to create an illusion that I am lacking in some way. It Doesn’t resonate as a healthy or wise mindset to me.

Before I go too far down the rabbit whole here with illusion of separateness within a human individually, I’d like to touch on the tribal groups and their illusions of separateness. I will attempt to be concise, but I promise nothing.

Humans are one group, not separate. However, we are a part of the great ape family. Sooooo then maybe I should say: Apes are one group, not separate.

Note to reader, if you just felt offended, you are responding like an ape.

But wait, apes are a member of the mammal family as well. That would make Mammals are one group, not separate. Remember differences and diversity aren’t relevant in this context. We are exploring the illusion of separateness, but hopefully you are getting the idea so I’ll speed this up a bit no make it less repetitive.

Mammals are a part of the Animal family, and the animals family is a part of the organic life family, and all life one Earth shares the planet as home, even the innert matter such as rocks are a part of our existence here on Earth.

Earth is one group, not separate or incomplete. Earth is a part of the planet family…now hopefully I’ve made my point.

Separateness only exists through conscious perception, which is limited in its capabilities.

The Universe is one group, not separate.

I only share my individual subjective perception here, and if my perspective is uncomfortable for you dear reader please know that is not my intention. I simply wish to share my mind on this matter of the illusion of separateness. Perhaps a wiser human could express it better, and if so I hope someday they will.

Stay Mindful

InteGritti