Honoring Your Own Truths-Chapter 2

Chapter 2 — Honoring Your Own Truths-The Healing Garden Collection

If Finding Beauty was the spark, Honoring Your Own Truths is the flame.

When I painted this, I was injured and exhausted in a way that's hard to explain. I wasn't showing up for myself. I wasn't honoring my own boundaries, my own needs, or my own truth. I was going with the flow because I simply didn't have the energy to do anything else.

So I threw myself into learning to draw and paint flowers.

And I started going to the beach. Every single day.

That's also where my love of watercolor began — acrylics don't travel well to the sand, but watercolor does. Something about sitting at the water's edge, listening to the waves, with a brush and paint started to gave me a chance to decompress.

Working with the public for years, and in relationships in general, you learn tact. You learn to soften your words, read the room, keep the peace. And that's not a bad thing — it's actually a gift.

But somewhere along the way, tact can quietly turn into compromise. And compromise, when it happens often enough, starts to chip away at your boundaries. A little here. A little there. So gradual you barely notice.

Until one day your body notices for you.

I had spent years editing myself. Softening my edges. Playing small. And I didn't even realize how much of myself I had lost along the way.

Maybe you know that feeling too.

No one would have known from the outside. This was entirely an inside job.

I was playing small. Staying quiet. Letting myself get smaller to keep the peace, to save energy, to just get through.

My body knew before my mind caught up. It was nagging me every single day — this is uncomfortable.

In fact, I was being hard on myself for it — all I could do was paint and go to the beach. I didn't see it as healing. I felt it was a lack of motivation, and commitment.In all that indecisivness my body was quietly crafting a solution

It wasn't until two years later, when I named this painting, that I truly understood what I had been feeling. The painting knew long before I did.

This painting took the first step in honoring my own truths.

This is what honoring your own truths looked like for me. Being true to who you are,no matter how painful it can be.

Every wild, colorful, gloriously imperfect part of you.

The original is available — and I hope it finds the person who needs this reminder on their wall every single day.

Fine art prints, Canvas Giclee Prints,fine art cards and gifts are also available, because this is a truth that belongs to everyone.

The garden is open. You are welcome here. 💜

Ms. Laura Jones Paints | Creatively Beautiful