Day 4 - Aesthetics - Vulgarity

 Aesthetics      (Goal Number:         )            Vulgarity

artistic,  beautiful, good taste,  decorous, pleasing                 coarse, discordant, unrefined, low, disrespect for the lovely

AWAKE TO THE GENUINE VALUE: 

Within you there is a deep appreciation of beauty. You see loveliness surrounding you. You make sure your environment is beautiful. With your sense of good taste, you make even the most humble sparkle. You have an artistic flair that puts things together in such a way as they are pleasing to behold. Even in difficult times, you bring the beautiful to wherever you are. Others feel good being with you, partly because of your inner beauty that is reflected in all you do. You appreciate a wide variety of beautiful expressions. You appreciate the good taste of others. You love artists, composers, and designers for the beauty they create. You celebrate the natural beauty all around you, the flowers, the trees, the sky, and all that it displays from rainbows to the fascinating clouds. You refuse to have anything less in your life. 

LIVING IN THE IMPOSTOR VALUE: 

You make everything around you vulgar. You bring together the coarse and unrefined and allow them in your immediate environment and within you. You have discordant energies in your trappings and in your circle of friends. You draw to yourself that which is low and unrefined. You even have disrespect for the lovely and may do your best to make lovely things ugly. You do not honor artists, composers or designers. You may even make fun of those who find aesthetics as important. You may call them names and sneer at them. In extreme cases, you may have such low respect for works of art that you try to deface them. From your environment to your choices of friends and ways to spend time, you show a predilection for the vulgar.

What to do:

DECISION

In order to make a shift, it is essential to decide between your options, consciously and with full consent. Begin by closing your eyes and visualizing what life for you would be like if you lived in total vulgarity for the rest of your life. Let yourself come into full understanding. Expand your mental picturing now to see what the world would be like if everyone lived in total vulgarity.

Now visualize what life for you would be like if you lived in total aesthetics. Let yourself come into full understanding. Expand your mental picturing now to see what the world would be like if everyone lived in total aesthetics, participating fully in the lovely and the beautiful.

Choose. Which do you want for yourself and your world? Which way would you like life to be?

FOCUSING YOUR MIND

Going for the target you have chosen

In order to achieve the things your inner self longs to achieve, some refocusing of your mind will be helpful. Begin by redefining yourself. Select one or more of the following statements to repeat with great frequency in order to develop your new mindset. Choose the statements according to your conscious listening to your intuition. Copy your choices on 3x5 cards to keep with you and use during your day.

•     I am willing to only surround myself with that which reflects beauty.

•     My eye is opening to be able to distinguish that which is beautiful from that which is vulgar.

•     I appreciate good taste.

•     The minute I find myself in any kind of ugliness, I am inspired to bring beauty into that moment.

•     My ears listen in a new way for sounds of beauty.

•     My eyes constantly see that which is beautiful.

•     I am a beautiful person, inside and out. This is reflected in all I am and all I do.

•     I find examples of aesthetics everywhere.

•     The vulgar no longer has any hold on me. I embrace the lovely.

REINFORCING BEHAVIORS

Action steps to take to get off the log

•     Find areas of your life that are not aesthetic. Alter them so that they are aesthetic. If you are out of practice, invite suggestions or help from a friend or professional  to help you. Be sure they exhibit loveliness in alignment with your sense of taste.

•     Go to the library and look at magazines and books that show good taste, great art, and the beautiful.

•     Go to an art museum and slowly contemplate the works that appeal most to you.

•     Go to a concert and listen to the incredibly lovely sounds of the music.

•     Listen in a new way to the radio. Try the classical station.

•     Drive or walk down streets and look for examples of aesthetics in landscape and architecture. Perhaps send a note of appreciation to some of the outstanding examples, thanking them for contributing to the beauty of the community.

•     Go through your closet and eliminate clothes that are not aesthetic, that you do not feel handsome or beautiful when you wear them. Perhaps give them to the poor. When you shop for new clothes, take plenty of time to make sure they are aesthetically pleasing to you in all ways --- color, style, etc.

•     Join a project in your community to beautify some area or some building.

•     If you find your life slipping into vulgarity, stop, take 3 deep breaths, and use one of the focusing statements, repeating it until you are focused again. Now, ask yourself what would be the aesthetic thing to do here, listen, trust and take action.