Painting on the Beach on Humpy Island
This past week I had the absolute pleasure of hosting a call with Kate James, author of Believe in Yourself & Do What You Love.
The call was for our Gentle Business Mastermind members and getting to connect with Kate was such a heartwarming pleasure. She’s one of those people who oozes authenticity, gentleness and calm.
I don’t have many hard copy books onboard the boat (there’s simply not the space!), but I do have three of Kate’s books. On the call, I was interested to hear Believe in Yourself & Do What You Love has been her biggest seller (I’ve read three of her five books and they’ve each been wonderful). Which made me ponder how common it is for us to long for the courage to believe in ourselves and do what we love.
It’s not an easy thing in our world.
Our culture is certainly not focused on supporting us to do what we love. It is built on capitalism, and that usually means being bombarded with copious amounts of advertising and messages tailored to have us feel bad about ourselves so we want to buy something to make ourselves feel better. That’s simplistic, I know, but when we pause for a moment and look around, it is largely true. It’s the dominant message in the western world, at least.
But there is a simple pleasure underneath that noise, if we can tune into our hearts long enough to hear its whisper. And the good news is it might be easier than we think to take a moment to do what we love.
Often what is needed is a dollop of self-compassion, a dash of curiosity, and a willingness to slow down, even if only for a little while.
Part of the conundrum, however, is knowing what we love to do.
When we’ve been running on autopilot, trying to keep all the balls in the air, bills paid, fridge stocked, house (or in my case, boat) clean, meals made and health covered, there can be little room left for wonder, pleasure, playfulness and curiosity. Little room left for doing what we love.
Even amidst this lifestyle of cruising the coast on a boat, which probably seems more exotic and fancy-free than living on land, it is easy for days and weeks to go without pausing and doing something just purely for fun – because it’s what I love to do.
Which was why, when I finally figured how I might be able to paint on the beaches as we sail up the coast, I was pretty excited.
I made a little video of the adventure to share with you.
As you watch, I hope it inspires you to consider something that you love to do, and see if there is a way you can bring even a little bit of that into your days, weeks and months ahead.
It took me a fair while to get all my ducks in a row (and for the French Box Easel to arrive) before I had this lovely day to myself.
Not everything is possible right away, but if we can remember to prioritise joy, play and doing what we love, I do believe we can often find a way around challenging circumstances and find a way to be kind to ourselves in our day to day life.
And isn’t that all we really have, anyway? The here and now? I don’t want to reach the end of my days and wish I’d spent more time doing what I’d enjoyed.
I’d love to hear, what is something you love to do, that you haven’t done for a while? Hit reply and let me know. I’ll be so excited to cheer you on in taking even a small step towards welcoming more of it into your world.
Wishing you a beautiful week ahead.
With my warmest wishes,
Nicola x
PS. Did you hear? I have exciting news…!!!
My very first print collection is now available. Which means, if you love my paintings, you can now acquire a fine-art, museum-quality print on archival paper or canvas to hang in your own home.
I’m currently offering FREE shipping worldwide too. Even if you don’t want a print, you can see how the collection looks and all the artworks for sale in my new Etsy shop. I’ve added some larger sizes since the last email, so check them out and see if any call to you.