Art-o-Gram: No more good intentions!

Are you one of those people who are now more inclined not to be persuaded to punish themselves in any way?

Neither from a dietician who recommends nutritionally worthless mucus that can be produced for pennies, nor from a fitness trainer who obviously doesn't think you're capable of properly strolling through the park on your own, but who also doesn't really motivate you to exercise more.

Nor from a language trainer who wants you to learn a certain amount of vocabulary every week, or from a computer course instructor who can't really explain in an understandable way why something works the way it does and not the other way.

Then why not just forget about those commendable New Year's resolutions this year?.

Why not approach the year in a completely relaxed manner, true to the motto of psychotherapist and Zen teacher Karlfried Graf Dürckheim: "Everyday life as practice ." Graf Dürckheim, whose full name is Karl Friedrich Alfred Heinrich Ferdinand Maria Graf Eckbrecht von Dürckheim-Montmartin, certainly had some controversial teachings, which will not be discussed here; however, he is certainly not entirely wrong with his idea of ​​everyday life as practice.

In most cases, it is the practice itself that prevents people from realizing their good intentions, and this also explains what is so wrong with the usual good intentions: They are always about going "from 0 to 100", from "no exercise" to "three times a week", from "not understanding a word of English" to "being able to hold perfect English conversations"

Most of these goals can be achieved quite easily if you practice, meaning start slowly and wait until your body or brain gets used to the changes and naturally demands more.

Perhaps you don't want to learn a new sport or exercise more, or eat less, or eat more of certain things in the new year. Instead, you're interested in perfecting your mind a little more? That's possible with practice, of course, but you might be surprised by the suggestion to start the "brain-perfecting" project with something truly enjoyable—namely, adding more art to your life.

Why is that? Quite simply, creativity is an important foundation for all people who enjoy using their brains. Creative people are more motivated to learn new things, enjoy trying out new approaches, and can be innovative together with others.

This fosters a desire for new experiences and gives courage to develop one's own paths to achieve desired goals. Every person has an inherent longing to be creative. Therefore, a creative life ultimately makes people happy.

But first and foremost, allowing more creativity into one's life is a change, and change frightens us—a legacy from uncertain, primal times that we can hardly escape. That's why approaching more creativity in life works so well through art.

It's not very frightening. If we look at more art, we can develop our own thoughts completely unhindered. If we start painting ourselves, we can develop our own ideas without having to fear negative consequences.

Of course, you can also choose completely different forms of expression, such as the tried-and-tested old photo album. It's an excellent outlet for creative ideas .

You can come up with new series of photos taken during your next walks or shopping trips and create new photo albums or photo books from them. Soon, you'll also need to add captions.

Such experiments gradually make you bolder; for example, you might get the idea to simply learn a new language on your own, without a vocabulary trainer, just with a few exciting books in that language and a dictionary (or the internet).

If you not only want to communicate but also strive for grammatical perfection, that can always be tackled later; by then, however, you will have already opened up a whole new horizon for yourself…

If one could even speak of a "good resolution" here, it would probably be: to look at more art, and ideally to pursue every crazy idea of ​​making something oneself.

Have fun and the team at Kunstplaza wishes you a wonderful New Year!