Thoughts & Art

The fear of the un-thinkable

Gerard S. HoffLeave a comment

We people are good in thinking the un-thinkable. Even when it doesn’t exist we tend to create a negative thought and make it the center of the earth.

HER17 Fight the Power

That can be pretty paralyzing, while the opposite is also true.

Imagine the way you came until now is on an uphill road and you reached the top*. Where does it leave you? And what will you do?

Hell yeah, you can stay on he top, looking around enjoying the view, asking what’s next, or enjoy the ride down hill. You deserve it.

And remember: use the momentum but try to avoid obstacles (real and imaginative ones). There’s only two things that can happen:

  1. The ride is only downhill from here and you’re lucky
  2. There’s an other hill ahead, so try to pick up as much speed as you can, you’ll get to that top easily for another ride downhill and you’re lucky again.

 
Every situation is an opportunity and depending on the way or perspective or from which dimension you look at it, it will create a new insight and new energy and sometimes even a new purpose.

I was thinking about the antonym of fear and found some great words, like calmness, cheer and happiness.
I call it freedom.
The freedom of the thinkable.

Enjoy the ride.

 

*The top is a matter of perspective, because either one continues the way to the actual top or turn around and make the current position the top.

The brightest colors are between black and white

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Thinking of black and white I thought of the term cognitive dissonance.

Heroic 15 say a prayer

It’s an interesting and ingenuous human trait (and many people do it automatically).

It basically comes down to reducing or rationalize the unpleasant tension that arises when knowledge of facts or opinions  are contrary to ones own belief or opinion.

It can also be based on behavior that is contrary to ones own beliefs, values ​​and norms. It is in other words, the perception of incompatibility between two cognitions, where the word cognition can be knowledge, attitude, emotion, belief or behavior.

The way we reduce it is by fitting it into what we already know, reducing the negative feeling.

The interesting question that arises is: “What would we do when we didn’t have that belief(-system) or opinion. Or when we didn’t have fear in embracing new things.

That of course is the  downside of cognitive dissonance. It’s that we try to explain new, disruptive, positively life changing experiences as well, with what we know.

But because it’s new and disruptive, but does that necessarily mean that they are bad? Of course not. It’s just new. But being aware of this trait already will make a difference, just because you read this sentence and that is great!

A few funny examples: When Henry Ford was asked whether people were actually waiting for an automobile he said no.
When you ask people what they want, they’d say a faster horse, so I just made it. The result we all know of course, he created the first in series produced T-Ford and sold millions of them.

Same for Steve Jobs of Apple. He said, don’t ask people what they want, because they don’t know. And when they give an answer it is based on what they know, or old. That’s why he introduced the iPod in 2001 (in the midst of an economic crisis) …

It is even said that the Inca’s weren’t able to see the Spanish armada, laying for the coast, due to the fact that their brains just weren’t able to see it, because it had never seen anything like it before.

That doesn’t mean new ideas, situations, opinions, experiences are bad. It just means we need to adapt to new concepts, to new ideas. We have to overcome the fear of the unknown. Creating a new or revised beliefs, values ​​and norms, instead of hanging on to the old ones.

Be aware, that the only way to grow, the only way to go the next level, the only way of becoming a new and improved you, is by deliberately becoming more creative.
Literally meaning ‘Creating your new reality’. Embracing new opinions, knowledge and behavior. Believe me, it is much more fun.

Not black, not white, just looking for the brightest colors in between.
Or beyond…

De-create

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Play5In order to create it’s is necessary the de-create.

Who we are is like Lego.

We have a baseplate, that are our genes. We can’t change them (although we can change the activity within the genes, but that’s a different story) and we have a soul, pure and eternal.

On that baseplate, as we start living, we put the building blocks of experiences, habits and routines. Layer after layer we build, new  on old , good on bad and vice versa. Our soul provides the energy to do so, but sometimes, with all these building blocks, it is getting dense and can get suffocating.

Souls don’t like that.
And we don’t notice.
Too busy, to preoccupied.

Until a point something or someone alerts us.
Then we realize we have a problem.

But this problem is a positive problem, it offers the opportunity to change. I use the positive definition of the word ‘problem’. It is the discrepancy between the current situation and the ideal situation, or the current state of mind and the new consciousness.

Back to the Lego.
In order to create you have to decreate.
Take a minute to realize.

Take of fthe blocks, keep the ones you like, no matter whether it is size, color, shape and set aside the once you don’t like or don’t need and give them away as good advice. Find or get new blocks, maybe even the nice transparent once.

Then start creating.

The new and improved you and the good thing is, you can take off the blocks at any time you want. Being aware of that is your new consciousness, it creates flexibility. All new experiences are new building blocks. Use them as you want.

So be adventurous, go out and find new experiences. every experience is a building block.
You can use it or give it away.

De-create is part of the Heroic series. The idea behind the paintings is to re-discover or inner child and release it. Letting the child free in you as an adult is an heroic deed! Not only your happiness gets a boost, you’ll make surroundings happy as well. Try it. Just start laughing hard, you’ll see others will start laughing as well.

Scappy and the Echo

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Play4To set the scene right away, Scappy is the contraction is of Scary and Happy and it is the way we are generally raised as children. We’re happy, but are continuously reminded by our parents (and other adults) of the things we don’t do right. That’s the scary part.

The Echo is about the fact that our parents were raised by their parents who grew up Scappy as well.

The way children are raised by parents is often an echo of the way our grandparents were raising our parents and the great grand parents were raising them, etcetera. Take that plus the changing environment (we got phone, radio, black & white tv, color tv, computer, internet, smartphones, emancipation, short skirts, wealth, …) and you probably catch my drift.

Times are always changing. The way we judge our parents is based on the now on the us, not on the then and the them. And generally, let’s face it, we’re all trying well, and do as right as we can, without deliberately giving trauma’s to our children. But it happens, with only good intentions, so how objective are we.

Well we can and we should, and yes, sometimes that’s hard.
The good thing is however, you can change the past as well as you can change the future. Just hold on the positive , but put the negative emotions from the past in a different context.

Negative experiences can be the best teachers as long as you recognize, understand (you don’t need to solve them), confront them and use them in a positive way. Not trying to be right, but feel right. You’ll grow a stronger person.

The thing is, when you keep living in the past, you’re wasting so much good for the future. The negativeness will prevent you from it. So I have a simple rule and it starts with reading the words.

Every day, and one day it’s a part of you:

No Blame, Creates Gain.

Scappy and the Echo is part of the Heroic series. The idea behind the paintings is to re-discover or inner child and release it. Letting the child free in you as an adult is an heroic deed! Not only your happiness gets a boost, you’ll make surroundings happy as well. Try it. Just start laughing hard, you’ll see others will start laughing as well.

Careless Caremore

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Caremore

When a child acts crazy and ludicrous, we find it cute and adorable.
When an adult acts crazy and ludicrous, we find it odd and disturbing.
That’s why we don’t do it.

We don’t-do a lot of things, because we think other people, might not like it.
It goes the other way around as well, we do things we think others might like

The bottom line here is that a lot of our behavior is influenced by our subjective filter of what other people might think…. That sounds exhausting, doesn’t it?

It is! Not only are you fooling yourself, you also fool ‘the other’. You think what you do is good for the other, without asking. It is a guess. That is in fact impolite.

Probably you think, not me, I am not doing that.
Well you do – and we all do because we’re so used to it, we don’t notice it anymore. It has become a habit. And if you don’t believe me, then tell me, when was the last time you acted crazy and ludicrous? Or laughed so hard it hurt…?

Q.E.D..

I made the decision to care less about what other people think, and care more about what my heart tells me. My true heart. My child’s heart. Being without restrictions. I am working on it and it feels really good.

Not only is the Careless liberating, by doing so I realized I was actually ‘Caremore’. By being Careless about what other people might think, I cared more about them. I trusted them. I gave them the true me, including my big amount of stored child-energy. Without fear. It’s a good beginning, but I still need to grow in it.

I was thinking about some kind of an exercise and the following popped my mind:

Look in the mirror and talk to yourself.
Say for example “Hello, how are you? Tell me, how do you feel?”
And laugh really hard.

Now do he same with your hands behind your ears.

That is how other people hear your voice.
This is your pure voice, not the voice you yourself hear. That voice is disturbed by the trembling of your body and the muting of the surrounding.

And now say “I love you”
and start a conversation with
the child in you.

 

Careless Caremore is part of the Heroic series. The idea behind the paintings is to re-discover or inner child and release it. Letting the child free in you as an adult is an heroic deed! Not only your happiness gets a boost, you’ll make surroundings happy as well. Try it. Just start laughing hard, you’ll see others will start laughing as well.

Universe

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I saw this painting of my sister and instantly the word Universe popped up in my head.

Universe

At the same instant, I realized my ‘universe’ is growing and wondered why I had that thought.

uni
verse

Funny how looking at a word makes that word come alive. Becoming a friend that tells you a wise story.

In this case:

uni, from unite or united.
I found my soulmate and together we’re so much more then our parts. Not even counting the happy big bang impact our 2 unexpected children had on our existing universe.

For me this part of the word means, open up your soul, finding true friends, a partner or maybe just family to feel good with or all together. Without it, it’s hard to get to the next.

verse as in group of lines of a poem of a song.
This is about continuity, about the story and one of the things I defined for this is the circle of happiness.

Sometimes it is hard to make (emotional) decisions, because most of the time, the decision is – or seems to be – sub-optimal.

My rule of thumb is that the net result of a decision must be positive or how many people will have a positive happiness impact. The bigger this circle of happy people, the happier I become, the more happiness I can give.
Happiness is energy.

Happy universal living.

 

Universe is part of the Heroic series. The idea behind the paintings is to re-discover or inner child and release it. Letting the child free in you as an adult is an heroic deed! Not only your happiness gets a boost, you’ll make surroundings happy as well. Try it. Just start laughing hard, you’ll see others will start laughing as well.

Innocence

Gerard S. Hoff2 Comments

InnocenceInnocence, when did we loose it and why?

It is exciting to think of the properties a baby has when it is born. Pure, un-influenced, not able to understand or think, just be. So what are these properties?

I think there are 9 things to consider.

Wonder: In the eyes of the natural child all is interesting and exciting. Everything, per definition is fun and interesting. No prejudice or ‘yes but’s “.

Optimism: A child has a natural spark of life. The journey of discovery is based on intense optimism. No fear, only happiness.

Naivety: The naivety of children is one of the reasons why we find them charming and attractive and is the core of their innocence. Children live in the now and are pleasure oriented.

Dependency: Children are by nature – and not by choice – dependent and full of needs and that is good. That’s the spirit.

Emotions: Laughing and crying. They LAUGH very loud and when necessary CRY very loud as well. Don’t stop, let it go.

Resilience: This is the ability jump up again after emotional stress, again and again and again, with a positive and optimistic attitude an a strong wish to go further and keep on going.

Free play: Children have a natural sense of freedom and when they feel safe they move with great spontaneity. You can see it and it’s contagious.

Unique: Although a child’s immature, he has an organic sense of wholeness, the I AM. In other words, from the inside-out it feels an integrated wholeness. That is the essence and not vice versa.

Love: Children are naturally set to love and affection. They’re open for it like sponges. It is therefore easy to give it.

Thinking about that is beautiful. I thought about them for myself and realize that I am fortunate to still have a big number of these properties still actively present. The ones that I don’t have I am re-embracing.

Enjoy the innocence.

This painting is part of the Reformation series.
 Reformation is embracing new knowledge and insights in order to rewire existing patterns in the brain and ones natural behavior. Reformation is phase One and internal. Phase Two is Transformation the external result.

Walk on the wild side

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Wild side

The brain is programmed to spot differences. So when things look the same, sound the same, smell the same, the brain doesn’t notice it.

Before we were humanoids, a long time ago that was handy, because when nothing changed, we felt at ease, but when something did, it was danger and we ran away as fast as we could.

The part of the brains responsible for that reflex is the amygdala; also called lizard brain, a very old part of our brain. It senses danger.

It’s also the part where instincts and gut feelings originate; primal thoughts; subconscious or involuntary processes. Here’s a nice contradiction in terminus.

I mean, when everything stays the same, it is boring, but gives a save feeling. Point is, it is also a status quo: Nothing changes.

On the other hand, when we follow our gut, there’s a good chance things will change and sometimes radical. For example, buying a house when there’s a crisis or just follow your heart when you’re in love.

Both cases create a brand new situation, out of the ordinary, so the lizard brain is scared and wants to run, but our gut feeling says: “Hey, it’s OK, I like this!”.

Well, HUSH the lizard brain I say! Even when it’s hard and the lizard brains is screaming the alarms and sirens, follow your gut.

Walk on the wild side, it’s a good place to be.

Distraction

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Distraction

It is like going to an appointment. An important or less important one, but it would be good to be there in time. In order to get there, you have to walk to a market.

But on this market merchants are calling at you and want to sell beautiful, nice, good tasting, attractive, great looking or cheap stuff.

It is hard to resist and very tempting to stop or even buy things or just have small talk or trying to get rid of that particular persistent merchant….

At the end of the market you realize you’re too late and out of money.

Well, that is OK, as long as you had a good time and a good experience, but make that mental click. Make it clear and lasting. ‘Good time versus not reaching the original destination’, otherwise there’s a risk of having regrets. Not good.

When your objective is to reach the destination, be aware of the merchants. They’re always there, with great offers. Smile, nod, wave, laugh, but don’t slow down. Keep focussed on the destination, enjoying the ride.

No distraction, your direction.

First impulse

Gerard S. Hoff1 Comment

Reformation 8

I was going through the digital photos we took since the birth (and that is a lot!) of our son and I noticed a peculiar thing.

With digital cameras it is easy and tempting to make a lot of pictures.

So when something ‘happens’ we click a way, but…. I found that in 8 out of 10 pictures, the first was actually the best. Even when the photo wasn’t sharp, the scene was the best.

I liked the discovery I made, because it was something I sometimes forget. It is the first impulse that often is the best thing to do. It’s an intuitive thing.

Something directly from the sub-conscious maybe and the way I see it, the sub-conscious is sensing a lot more thing then the conscious ‘us’s’.

After that, rationalization kicks is and we change our minds. Doing things instead of Being. I decided to live life more like an analogue camera. Reacting on the impulse, doing my best to make it sharp and click.

And even when it’s not sharp. The memory won’t be less ‘umpressive’.

When the film roll is developed, I’ll see the result. In the meantime, I enjoy the film roll of my life.

Oh, one more thing.
Make sure to create enough situations that are worth photographing.

Happy shooting.

This painting is part of the Reformation series.
 Reformation is embracing new knowledge and insights in order to rewire existing patterns in the brain and ones natural behavior. Reformation is phase One and internal. Phase Two is Transformation the external result.