creative way to live and spreading love to others

Title : Living Artfully Author : Sandra Magsamen Review By: Kamal Firmanshah Kamaluddin

Each of us wants to connect more closely with the people in our lives. We want to know that we belong, that we are loved, and we want to make others feel the same way, too. We want to do something that matters for them and something that is also meaningful to us. Each of us also has a basic human need to create. The desire to make beautiful, meaningful moments and things is an undeniable part of us. It’s in our spirits. This book celebrates the creative ways we connect each other, the ways we live artfully.

Life is a work of art and we are it’s artists, born with the tools, our innate imagination, curiosity and playfulness to create anything we can imagine. Living artfully is expressing who you are through these objects and moments that you create. To live artfully is to live life fully, with meaning and purpose to bring beauty into being.

We all make choices every moment of every day, from how we fill our hours to how we decorate our homes to which gifts we will share with the people in our lives. Living artfully reminds us to expand the possibilities of how we do all these things. It asks us to imagine, to dream big, to believe in ourselves and celebrate the people in our lives, to make each day count, dance when the spirit moves you, laugh out loud, and let your voice be heard. It reaffirms our belief that every human being is a beautiful, unique work in progress. Living artfully is a call to reawaken your creative spirit. It is your personal call to action. It is also your personal call to pleasure.

The author want to inspire you to create the life you imagine: to create something with your hands, create a garden that exudes beauty, create love, create a home that nurtures yourself and your family, create a home that nurtures yourself and your family, create a memory, create a quilt to cover someone with tenderness, create a moment, create yourself, create a friendship, create an experience you will never forget. Living artfully is a force that can transform your life and how you view your role in life. As it shifts your perception, once you begin to see the possibility of art in everyday things and moments, you will never look at life the same way again.

There are ten principles in this book that can guide you to the heart of living artfully. This principle teaches you to:

• Be you - Living artfully is expressing who you are and celebrating the people in your life through the objects and the moments that you create. Stop censoring your actions. Be you, the only you there is. No one else is qualified for the job. Have fun, identify and embrace what you love, define what you believe in, dream. Be the person you are meant to be.

• Act on the desire to connect, to belong, to loved and be loved. You are driven to communicate, your desire to communicate is innate a shared, basic human need. Follow your heart, act on the desire to connect, to belong, and to love, and you will make a difference in the world.

• Come to your senses. Use your whole self as you engage in the world each day. Engage your senses, they are the most valued resource for living creatively. Remember, the joy of the journey is in the ride. Slow down and see, taste, touch, and hear life.

• Expand the definition of creativity to include all aspects of living. Let creativity become as much a part of the fabric of your daily life as are your everyday routines, like making the bed, cooking meals, cleaning the house, and caring for the people you love. Fill these everyday, seemingly mundane tasks with spirit, individuality, fun and life.

• Cultivate and use your own language. Ultimately to find happiness, you must find your own unique way to express yourself. You have your own style and an abundance of creativity to express and share. Do things your way, make choices that reflects your beliefs and purpose and aesthetic. Bake, write, paint, sew, talk, work, dance, plant or hug. Every gesture or word you use to communicate love and caring will resonate and multiply. Through your creative personal language, you can communicate important messages that you cannot convey by words alone.

• Create moments that matter. Every moment is an opportunity to live fully, openly, and with heart. You have the power to create meaningful moments that matter, to bring beauty into being. Fill the moment with ideas, value, beliefs, purpose, people and actions that define who you are.

• See the beauty in everything. When you focus on what is right, lovely and beautiful. You are living artfully. Look for the positive, the opportunity, the good in people, ideas, experiences and places. The way you look at life is the way it will be. When you see the beauty in a place or situation, you imbue it with a renewed purpose and enrich it with meaning. It’s a beautiful thing.

• Play. Play more, smile more, laughed more. Play rejuvenates and revitalizes you. It helps you see the world from different points of view.

• Imagine the possibilities. There are no rules. Life is a work of art and you are its artist, born with the tools to create anything you imagine. Living artfully is recognizing and embracing your own gifts of imagination, curiosity and playfulness and having fun.

• Live life passionately. Embrace each day as if it were the last. Follow your heart and dream big. Live consciously and enthusiastically with your focus on what you can bring to the moment. Life is precious. Each heartbeat is a gift. Allow care, compassion, empathy, understanding, forgiveness, generosity, and kindness to guide your decisions, actions and life.

There is purpose and beauty in each thought, action, choice and gesture you make. Play, laugh, dance, care, understand, have patience, try, imagine, create, invent, dream and love, for these are the tools that you paint your life with. Every moment is an opportunity to live fully, openly and with heart. If you follow your heart, and act on the desire to connect, to belong, and to love, you will make a meaningful difference in the world, and your world will be filled with happiness and meaning.

Availability of book

Please visit Sabah State Library’s online catalogue at www.ssl.sabah.gov.my or call 088-256192 for more information.