A Good Move to Asheville, North Carolina for Raphaella Vaisseau and Heartful Art

     During the three and a half years I took care of my parents in their final years, I thought about all the places I have lived in my life and where I might want to go next. I picked Asheville, North Carolina.
     I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and lived there for forty years. Next was Los Angeles for ten years. In 1997, I committed myself to being an artist and moved to Ashland, Oregon. I stayed there three years and then moved to the SF Bay Area and opened Heartful Art Gallery in Sausalito in 2001. In 2008, I moved to the Gulf Coast of Florida to be closer to my aging parents, and in 2015, I moved to Miami to be their caregiver. They wanted to stay in their own home as long as they lived and my going there to help them allowed that to happen. So grateful. They had been happily married for 73 years, and both passed fairly naturally at age 96. By December, 2018, I had completed handling their affairs in Miami and set out on a journey to my new home in Asheville.
     I had never lived on the East Coast, and was attracted to the Blue Ridge Mountains, the forests, and the thriving art community in Asheville, a town of 92,000 people. I loved the idea of being able to have Asheville as a home base and take short trips up the East Coast to NYC, Boston, and Maine, travel to the North Carolina coast for a weekend, or explore the surrounding states of South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and beyond. This country is vast, beautiful, and has so much to offer.
     I've been in Asheville for six months now. There are many "best parts" of living here, but my favorite is nature. It is accessible. I don't need to seek it out or drive anywhere to get to it. I simply look up, look around, pause, and enjoy. It's everywhere, around every turn in the road, on every path.
     Mountains surround Asheville. To me, they are living art, with the sun rising and setting and splashing shadow or color on them, clouds and storms moving over them, trees blossoming in spring and turning colors in fall, and birds singing everywhere.
    For a nature lover like me, this area is perfect. I'm told there are sixty waterfalls close to Asheville (I've hiked to only 3 so far), and neighboring Transylvania County has over 250. I love trees. Being in a forest is a breath of Heaven for me, and I now have hiking boots, trek poles, and a backpack. I'm all set.
     True, Asheville doesn't have an ocean. However, I so cherished the Gulf Coast waters of Caspersen Beach when I lived in Venice, Florida, the ocean lives inside me now. Also, I know winter does exist here, since I arrived in the middle of an ice storm last December. But the weather here is moderate, especially compared to the cold of Minnesota or the heat of Miami.
     As for my required necessities, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and EarthFare provide plenty of organic, healthy food. Then there's the bonus of family and friends. My sister-in-law and niece both make their home here and have families of their own. Friends from California and Florida live here now too, and, being the gregarious person I am, I'm blessed with wonderful new friends as well.
     So, that's the story. In my life, I like to move toward my next adventure and this is it. I'm happy here. I'm painting, creating, and thriving. Onward.

- Raphaella Vaisseau

Unconditional Living and the Law of Attraction - New Heartful Art by Raphaella Vaisseau

What is unconditional living? Students of the Law of Attraction believe that what a person thinks, says, and does creates a vibration that attracts more of the same. Like attracts like.

Everything in the Universe is vibration. Some vibrations are higher than others. The more a person is in alignment with the vibrational essence of their desire, the more likely it is to manifest. Abraham-Hicks teaches that we each have an "emotional guidance system" (our feelings) within us that is our indicator of how close we are to vibrational sameness with our desires. This is key. When we feel negative emotions, such as sadness, fear, or worry, we are separating ourselves from that which we want, and, because we are on different vibrational wavelengths from our desires, they cannot manifest.

If everything in our world is vibration, and higher vibrations get me closer to God as well as manifesting my desires, I want my vibrations to be as high as possible every minute of every day. All year in 2014 so far, I've been waking up in the morning with the intention to pick a word that resonates with me for the day that can keep me on a high vibration. I pick words like confidence, exhilaration, clarity, happiness, appreciation, and hundreds more, and I write them on a chart I have on the wall. When I began, more than eight months ago staying aligned with the high vibration of the word I picked for the day was more of an effort, but now, with practice, it is easier.

We've all heard the phrase "unconditional loving" and many people strive to practice it. In my studies, I've been practicing unconditional living. I don't want to feel happy just when good things happen, I want to feel happy all the time. I don't want to feel clarity just when I've had a good night's sleep or a great cup of coffee, I want to know clarity and have access to it all the time.

The practice of unconditional living is something that has evolved for me over the past couple of weeks as I've made a point to notice when I'm happy or sad and why. I observe if something happened to affect my mood, and yes or no, I've made a deliberate effort to stay on, or get back on, the higher vibration regardless of what happened or what is going on. As an example of what this might look like in real life, before I go to the mailbox, where I often find checks waiting for me, I remind myself that I intend to stay in a good mood either way, checks or no checks. That's just one example. But perhaps you get the idea.

I created this Feel Good poster to put on my wall to remind me to do just that - Feel Good regardless of conditions. Besides, I love it so much, it makes me feel good. So, I'm happy to share it with you too. You can click on the poster to go to my etsy shop where you can buy it if you'd like. Enjoy it, share it if you'd like, and feel good.
-Raphaella Vaisseau