Original Acrylic Painting on Wood, Hand-Cut by Tilly
Ready to hang
Hanging wire on back
Sealed with Winsor & Newton Professional grade UV Protectant to a Satin Finish
Painted with Winsor & Newton & Liquitex Professional grade Acrylic Paint
Life has taught me a lesson: I don't really know anything.
Many times in my life I was under the assumption I knew quite well whatever it was I set my mind to figuring out.
I have bounced back and forth between the polarity of belief systems leaning hard to one side then swinging hard to the other like a pendulum. Now I rest more in the middle, neither believing nor unbelieving.
This piece is about logic and reason, a cognitive skill, part of our intelligence! The ability to connect ideas while involving our personal perspective.
What I am finding is that no amount of logic or reasoning could bring me to any conclusions, at least ones that last into the next phase of life with all its new perspectives and experiences.
Recently someone said it so well, he said, “My whole life has been a series of realizing I was wrong in my thinking.” I resonate with that!
You really could drive yourself mad trying to get to the bottom of reality and find answers to every question. For each of us, it’s a matter of coming to terms with our own beliefs in our own head. You cannot force yourself to believe something you don’t.
Where does mental health come in? Where is a safe place for our mind to rest? I certainly have my own answers, but even those answers are surface level compared to all I don’t understand.
There's a lot of things that we will never know, perhaps we're not meant to. Straining one's brain to comprehend the "uncomprehendable" may not be the safest place to reside long term. It’s fun to speculate or to watch answered prayers and make conclusions, it’s even a safety net for some to look outside themselves for answers to rely upon. But ultimately it is a personal discovery. An awareness of trial and error, looking to results and consequences to navigate our mental health.
When we practice finding some kind of solid ground to stand on amid a turbulent inner working of the brain, that’s a mental health practice of metacognition; awareness of our thoughts; mindfulness.