The Art of Aliveness

The Art of Aliveness is a collection of 14 ideas to let your life feed off a creative practice and vice versa, rooted in personal anecdotes, backed up with practical exercises, and full of inspiration to live a rich, well-integrated life.

Bowley accomplished any passionate creative’s dream in her 30s: She could live entirely off making her own art. To her surprise, she felt lonely instead of fulfilled.

A friend prompted her to try teaching. Flora didn’t know if anyone would show up to her first workshop or even how to teach. What started as a totally improvised class including yoga and meditation later became her signature “Intuitive Painting” style.

“For the first time ever, I felt like all the parts of myself were invited to hang out in the same room,” Bowley says. But it took a step into the unknown to figure out this part of her calling.

Now, Flora uses a metaphor to keep the balance between comfort and risk: baskets. Your basket contains all the tools, techniques, and knowledge you’ve acquired throughout your career. It’s always there, ready when you need it — but it’s important to keep your basked behind you when you’re working, Flora says.

It’s easy to go back to what we’ve mastered, but if all we do is rely on familiar knowledge, habits, tools, and decisions, we’ll never learn nor create anything new. We also have “life baskets,” Flora says. Sometimes, those need to stay behind as well. “The alternative to growth is stagnation—and stagnation is the opposite of aliveness.”

How do you find the courage to let go of comfort and step into risk when it’s necessary? Ask yourself one question: “Would I rather be comfortable and stagnant or uncomfortable and alive?”

Legendary dancer and author of The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp, believed that “before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box.” Bowley confirms this. Flora is a free spirit, but too much freedom doesn’t lead to perfect self-expression. It just leads to “creative decision fatigue.” Having once meditated 10 hours a day at a Vipassana retreat, Flora knows restrictions can be liberating. She calls them riverbanks. “[They] can be anything, as long as they limit options and invite focus.” One time, she decided to use Prussian blue, some sketches of trees, and a triangle-shaped potato stamp for her next painting. “With this simplified framework in place, I felt my shoulders start to relax.” Freedom is great, but it’s not a cure-all. Often, less is more. Constraints help us think and zone in on a goal. Try the following exercise: Make a drawing or collage of a river. Write your goal inside the river.…