From my Ten Tips for Building Self-Confidence

TIP TREE: MIRROR OF TRUTH

Attempting to ignite a flicker of self-esteem by repeating aphorisms is akin to thinking about walking while walking—you soon become self-conscious and fall out of step. Gaze into the mirror of truth.

Do you trust your emotional intelligence, are you open to new concepts and risks, and are you undeterred by setbacks?

If you’re secretly riddled with self-doubt, acknowledge it by losing the bravado—knowing that fulfilling your dharma will one day indelibly infuse self-confidence into your psyche.

The Buddha

From my book, An Artist Empowered:

While art is the essence of the artist’s self, it is the artist who must deftly trim the taut sails controlling his reaction to acceptance or rejection without being at the mercy of either tempest. This is self-discipline.

A seeker asked Buddha: “Are you a God?”

Buddha replied: “No.”

“Are you an Angel?”

“No.”

“Then what are you?”

“I am Awake.”

Remember, rejection is nature’s way of thinning out the herd to separate the posers from those on a mission.

Moon Series Invitation

One afternoon, I walked into a gallery in West Hollywood to see the work of another artist. After a bit of time the gallery owner looked at a few of my smaller ink pieces that I had with me. He immediately offered me a solo show.

The gallery owner wrote the following blurb that appeared on the other side of the invitation:

“Eden Maxwell’s work is a pure celebration of spontaneous creation and the marvelous potential for expression within us all.

“In Eden’s work, a single viewing is just the beginning. Over time and at different distances and angles, his artwork grows increasingly intriguing and satisfying as more complex shapes and subtle forms integrate into a seamless panorama of the humor and drama of life—an act of artistic alchemy that cannot be planned or duplicated.”

Opportunity can appear anywhere.

Native American

As a seasoned poker player will tell you: know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em.

If you don’t posses a natural immunity to a disabling disorder, then the remedy resides in building up resistance under controlled exposure—an inoculation. Consequently, the most direct way to get around rejection is to go through it with a positive mindset along the way.

Let’s be clear, thinking positive thoughts is admirable, but it is a temporary bandage at best if you are secretly harboring doubt and fear in lieu of awareness.

What is the point of polishing an apple that is rotting from the inside out?

George Orwell

Artists who want nothing to do with politics will be among the first to be either censored or executed by a tyrannical regime.

Beware the Ides of March:

When I first read Orwell’s 1984 vision of a dystopian future where the sociopathic socialists ruled through a constant and fabricated state of war, I thought it could happen here at any moment. Most at the time did not agree with me, saying that it’s paranoia.

In Orwell’s prescient mind the government ruled the brainwashed citizens by controlling the media, doublespeak, up was down and good was bad, and where the Ministry of Love dispensed fear, torture, and death. And the Obama regime labels illegal immigrants as Americans in waiting.

Do we not have this precisely going on in America today? Can’t say Muslim terrorist and politically correct defaces the language and meaning. Now, Obama and his minions want to control the Internet by way of a corrupt FCC that will forever take away our press and information freedoms with a pen. The leftists lie about their charitable motives.

When the socialist destroyers of ingenuity control the Internet medium they will also control content, which is already happening with a Pravda mainstream press complicit in lying for Obama at each turn.

Other than Impeach Obama now, I don’t know how to stop the assault. I do know that being informed is at least the first step, as the founding fathers had envisioned.