Meditation is Life - Heartful Art by Raphaella Vaisseau

I was asked today to share how I built my meditation practice.
Here's my answer:
     Currently, my life is a meditation. I meditate off and on throughout every day, while walking in nature, waiting in a checkout line etc. It started in 1975 with a 6-week enlightenment experience I had while traveling from Minneapolis to Niagara Falls, across upstate New York in the most glorious autumn ever, to Boston, and back to Minneapolis. The intention I declared to the Universe was, among other things (like a closer relationship with my daughter and making new friends) to have greater spiritual inner awareness. A longer story than this, but the final message from the Universe to me at the end of the six weeks was, “Contact Anja. Her teacher will be the one to get you off of the planet.” (Exact words.) I knew Anja was a patient of mine at the dental office I worked at so I went to work, found her file, called her on the phone and asked, “What are you into. I have to know.” She invited me to an MSIA seminar she was hosting that night. I didn’t have a car at that time but I took 3 buses and walked several blocks to get there. I was cautious about the seminar but it seemed straightforward to me so at the end of the evening I asked, “What’s next?” Someone suggested a little poetry book called, The Spiritual Promise, which I bought. I journeyed home and when I got there, not wanting to disturb the people whose home I was staying at, I sat on the floor under a tiny lamp to read. While I read the book my heart opened. So magical. I knew I was home. As Spirit would have it, MSIA is an acronym for Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (note the almost exact words I declared to the Universe). My conscious journey in multi-dimensional consciousness began that night, on November 15, 1975. Three months later I moved into an ashram in Minneapolis with 17 other MSIA students, including Anja who has been my best friend since then. She and I traveled the country singing our original spiritual folk music, thinking we were the very ones to bring in the New Age.
     I take my studies seriously, as you may know. The meditation I learned how to do was active, not trying to empty the mind but rather to chant tones and/or focus on breathing. The tones I started with were HU (God) or Ani-Hu (empathy with all creation). Two years later I received my 1st initiation, was given my own tone, and from that point through this day, I used/use my personal tones from that and future initiations. Living in a spiritual ashram made it easy to be consistent with meditation because we were all committed to spiritual enlightenment and were meditating at odd hours all the time. It was glorious. There was a period a few years later when I no longer lived in an ashram, and instead was married (to another MSIA student) when, after I claimed the meaning of devotion as “living out my vows” in the world, I made a commitment to meditate for 2 hours a day, which I did for 3 years.
     At a time when, a few years later still, after having moved to LA and deciding to leave my marriage, I found a lump in my breast that was cancer. The doctor gave me 10 years. I thought, wait! I don’t want to leave yet. In meditation I had strived to be one with God. Instead, I course corrected, changed everything about my life, continued my spiritual studies but in a more balanced way, and I started living my life for me, expressing who I am (rather than taking care of everyone else). My entire company was created after that point. I have been supporting myself with my art for over 25 years. Meditation now is like breathing. I pause and consciously sit to breathe my tones, but I also feel them always around me as I drift to sleep, wake up, be in nature, share with others, even while I’m working at the gallery. Meditation is life.

- Raphaella Vaisseau

Lightbulb Moment Number Two Million and One - Heartful Art by Raphaella Vaisseau

I am a forever student of Life. One of my currently favorite teaching organizations is Good Vibe University (GVU), founded by Jeannette Maw.

During a recent class I had a lightbulb moment that is changing my life (again). I had been caught in discouragement regarding lower than usual sales at the gallery in the first 3 weeks of March. Wanting clarity, I shared my concerns with the group. When Jeannette asked me, “How are you supporting yourself vibrationally?” I instantly felt a huge shift within me. After the call, I attuned myself with my Inner Being in a different way that I had understood prior to that realization. The Universe immediately responded and today, 17 days later, I surpassed the 30-day goal I had set for the 4-week class.

Most conscious creators know the value of self-love and sincerely practice it. For me, this is slightly different. Plus, I often say the very words. I tell people who visit my gallery that I’ve been supporting myself with my art for over twenty-five years. Interesting, right?

I’m learning there is a subtle but important distinction between loving myself, supporting myself financially, and supporting myself on other levels (vibrationally, emotionally, physically, intellectually, etc.). It feels like I am awakening (once again) to a more profound understanding of how to be, and it feels like falling even deeper in love with my Inner Being.

I’m listening, feeling, aligning, and realigning. Even when I’m sharing with others, it feels that I am sharing more authentically because it’s through a lens of supporting myself. Inside, I’m fine tuning. I’m placing a priority on what I want and need on subtler levels. Like breathing. I’m noticing my thoughts and replacing anything less than fabulous faster with thoughts of things I love and want more of.

It’s curious that no matter how conscious we are, or how much we’ve studied, and how much we know and understand the laws of the universe, there is always more to learn and know. There is always a deeper level of understanding. How great is that?

-Raphaella Vaisseau

Follow Your Dream - Heartful Art by Raphaella Vaisseau

My Kindergarten teacher at Munger Elementary in Duluth, Minnesota in 1953 told me I was an artist. She asked me to paint the mural that's behind our class in the photo to the right. Every day at my Heartful Art Gallery in Asheville, NC, I share with gallery visitors that it's probably because of this teacher that I feel I am in "perpetual kindergarten" as I create my art and work in my art business. Growing up, my parents acknowledged my artistic talent even though being practical they also said, "You can't make money with art." A college degree was required in my family so as a Senior in High School I picked the fastest degree available and became a dental hygienist. It wasn't until much later in my life that I saw an artist making money and the childhood myth I was taught by my parents was shattered. I was at an art fair in Los Angeles and the artist was Vicki Leon who creates amazing glass sculptures. She had long lines of buyers waiting in line with arms filled with $400 pieces of art. I was shocked. I stood in line as well and when it was my turn I asked her, "What's different about you that you don't seem to have poverty consciousness?" She shared a few things with me, and then I asked if I could volunteer at her art shows over the summer to learn her way of being. She agreed. I did. And at the end of that summer I started my own art business painting flowers and blessings on greeting cards. Six years later, in 1997, I quit my executive secretarial job and moved to Ashland, Oregon to live my dream as an artist. That was 23 years ago.

When I read a quote from Abraham-Hicks in this morning's email, I was inspired to share my story. Actually, a few more stories as well. When I shared my dreams with my ex-husband and said, "I'm going to do this or that," he'd say, "I bet you won't." And, I remember saying to my Mother as a young girl, "I want to sing on the radio." Her response, "You can't, you weren't born in Hollywood." Her saying that to me was like cold water thrown on my face and on my dreams. At the time I didn't know how to process it, but years later, while driving on the LA freeways with my friend Rob Hanson, my song came on the radio and we heard it!!! It was on an NPR station and they were showcasing local singer-songwriters, which I was at the time. To say that experience was a thrill, and a HUGE confirmation from the Universe is an understatement. We screamed and hollered in the car as we listened and I told Rob the story of what my Mother had said to me all those years ago. I sang on the radio after all.

It wasn't always easy for me to break away from the traditions of my parents and their goals for me and forge my own path in life, but I am so glad I did.

-Raphaella Vaisseau