One of greatest of all impressionist painters was a man named Paul Gauguin.

He had a family and worked in the post office in Paris for many years.  But in the evenings he visited the cafés frequented by the painters of Paris, getting to know them and asking them questions.

He was fascinated by painting. The whole idea of painting absorbed his attention.  It was all he thought about, and yet with a family and a full-time job, there was no way that he could devote himself to the painting he wanted so badly to do.

One day after the age of 40, in a move that shocked everybody, he gave up his job as a postal inspector, left his family, and moved to the South Sea Island of Tahiti.  There he began painting.

His paintings now are worth hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars, and hang in the finest museums in the world.  He is considered by many to be one of the most important painters of the last 300 years.

[The article also includes the video: Brian Tracy – Unbreakable Laws Of Self-Confidence.]

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He points out, "Even the environment in which an organization operates is largely a function of its beliefs.

"When I do workshops for CEOs I tell them that the biggest barrier their organization faces is not in the world (competition, government, costs, etc.), but in the minds of their employees… employees will operate according to a reality consistent with their beliefs."

From his article How To Create New Possibilities In Your Life.

Dilbert strip by Scott Adams from Dilbert.com

It is important to examine that which you fear… We are so consumed by the physical manifestations of our anxiety or panic attack that we don't take the time to analyze what this sudden surge is all about….

Building up your self esteem is a process, but it is something that can certainly be accomplished and it will help you deal with your anxiety.

In this clip, Dick (Jim Carrey) is feeling exuberantly self-assured after getting a promotion, and sings "I Believe I Can Fly."

There are many variations of belief and attitudes that can keep us from "flying" and realizing our talents and dreams.

In his article Facing the Enemies Within – Courage and Fear, Jim Rohn talks about five "enemies we face from within" – indifference; indecision; doubt; worry, and over-caution. All can be fueled by our thinking and beliefs.

See Video: Causes Of Anxiety Attacks – by Charles Linden

[The image is Viktor (Bill Nighy), the cruel vampire king in the movie Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.]

Writers such as Nina Auerbach, and filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Alan Ball talk about the mythology and how vampires relate to our inner depths.

But first, here is a great video mashup: Buffy vs. Edward.

"In this remixed narrative Edward Cullen from the Twilight Series meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer at Sunnydale High. It's an example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward's character and generally creepy behavior.

"Ultimately this remix is about more than a decisive showdown between the slayer and the sparkly vampire. It also doubles as a metaphor for the ongoing battle between two opposing visions of gender roles in the 21st century."

[From site of video creator Jonathan McIntosh: RebelliousPixels.]

Vampire psychology – what do they mean?

In Our Vampires, Ourselves, Nina Auerbach writes about the meaning of the mythology: "My central idea: that vampirism springs not only from paranoia, xenophobia, or immortal longings, but from generosity and shared enthusiasm. This strange taste cannot be separated from the expansive impulses that make us human."

Those "expansive impulses" help make "Buffy" and "True Blood" and many other vampire literary and movie creations such rich pleasures – terrifying, but so appealing. These "creatures of the night" can do so much more, better, with more power. And they don't suffer harm from injuries and have their own version of longevity.

Video: interview with author and acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro.

But Director Guillermo Del Toro, author of the new first book of a planned vampire trilogy The Strain says he has never been attracted to the "Romantic languid young men sucking the necks of beautiful people" sensibility of the "Twilight" series and others.

The undead – hungry for life

He admits "Those strands will always be intertwined in the common imagination. But I'm attracted much more to the re-animated corpse hungry for life, which is the one that is common to most human mythologies.

"You can find them in Asia, you can find them in Europe, you can find them in America. The vampire is the ultimate anti-everything."

From article Guillermo Del Toro on Vampires, By Gilbert Cruz, TIME.com. Also see related photo slide show 90 Years of Vampires On the Screen.

This is a photo of Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) from the HBO series True Blood, which Alan Ball developed, about vampires living openly among humans.

Ball notes he made an off-the-cuff summary to an HBO exec that the series was "about the terrors of intimacy."

But, he added, "the more I think about it, the more I think that's true. It's about how terrifying it is to really let your guard down and open your psyche up to another creature.

"And with vampires, you're not only opening yourself up emotionally, you're opening yourself up physically – you could die."

Connecting – and letting go of negative concepts

Ball continues, "We live in a world where emotion and the need to connect with something deeper and more profound has been distilled into these negative doctrines – ‘Feel bad about yourself. You have to behave; you have to be controlled.'

"We live in a culture that wants people to be afraid and protect themselves from everybody else, which is the exact opposite of what the human soul wants.

"We all have that part of ourselves that needs abandon. We all have a need for transcendence, so maybe people turn to this fantastic fiction for that."

From The Alan Ball interview that LA.com didn't want you to see, By David Kronke.

But opening ourselves up can have potentially negative consequences, he seems to say, when at one point Sookie says "The more open my mind gets, the more evil I seem."

Author Katherine Ramsland, PhD, a forensic psychology professor explains, "The archetypal vampires are larger-than-life, charismatic entities of power and mystery who once were human and now display abilities beyond human limitations. They can defeat death, seduce anyone of their choosing, obliterate their enemies and stay up all night. What's not to like?" [APA Monitor on Psychology (American Psychological Association), May 2006.]

In some creations, vampires are shown as having more life force and depth. The Wikipedia page on her novel The Vampire Chronicles notes that Anne Rice's vampires "are all excessively emotional, sensitive, and sensual, being easy prey to intense suffering and aesthetic passions."

The book Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture says, "An ambiguously coded figure, a source of both erotic anxiety and corrupt desire, the literary vampire is one of the most powerful archetypes bequeathed to us from the imagination of the nineteenth century."

The female vampire

Pam Keesey, author of Women Who Run With the Werewolves: Tales of Blood, Lust, and Metamorphosis, thinks "the female vampire is an incredibly empowering image, an example of a woman who has taken control of her life and her sexuality, not letting society dictate who she ought to be and what she ought to do."

From The shadow self page 4.

Energy vampires

Another dynamic involving real people, not literary characters, is the energy vampire.

Judith Orloff MD, an assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, explains, "Energy vampires are people who suck our energy dry. Everyone can benefit from skills on how to cope with them."

From post Energy vampires can suck our life energy.

But aside from that, fantasy vampires are delicious, so to speak. And may even tell us more about ourselves.

"The surge of adrenaline pumped through the body during an attack allowed early man to outrun deadly predators, or claw themselves out from an avalanche of heavy debris.

"Today, there are people who have experienced repeated panic attacks who are living half lives as a result."

Jen Crippen is author of the ebook Lets Get Physical: Anxiety Is Not All In Your Head.

"Einstein alone was impertinent enough to discard the notion of absolute time." Walter Isaacson, who wrote the biography Einstein: His Life and Universe.

Robert Ornstein, PhD, author of The Psychology of Consciousness declares, "If you spend too much time being like everybody else, you decrease your chances of coming up with something different."

From post Einstein and other non-conformists – the creative potential of eccentricity.

Rock the Boat

For her Happiness Project post True Rule: Rock the Boat, Gretchen Rubin shot this video of Debbie Stier (SVP, Associate Publisher at HarperStudio), who says: "My True Rule is that you should rock the boat. Don't let fear stop you, don't let what other people might think stop you, just push it as far as you can go – rock the boat, take risks, and experiment."

Here is a complementary message by Tama J. Kieves of Awakening Artistry, from her newsletter:

"I allow myself to be uncorked, unabashed, and showered with delicious good in every facet of my life. I don't need to fit in anymore, in the world of struggling, suffering, complaining, belittling. I am going nova and that's okay."

Self-censoring

Actor, writer, raconteur Richard Belzer talks about many topics in a podcast interview (with Dusty Wright).

One of his pithy comments is that when Reagan was President, "a lot of censorship became self-censorship," and often in fear or anticipation of someone else doing it, people "policed themselves. That's the most chilling thing to me. That's Orwellian. That's Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia."

His HuffingtonPost bio says, "Due to his ‘uncontrollable wit,' Belzer was politely asked to leave every school he ever attended."

Another form of censorship – and becoming a creative person in spite of it.

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Dean Radin is Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) – one of his books: The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena.

Sample Gift Box of Intentional Chocolate.

TDR page: Psychic Ability.

For many people, finding an outlet where you are free from worry is a great way to find some respite from the stress. Find time in your day to do something you enjoy.

Do you have a hobby you enjoy or an interest you would like to pursue but you haven't devoted sufficient time to it? Stop waiting and start finding the time to enjoy your garden, a game of softball with friends, your bowling league or walking on nature trails.

There are so many ways to find avenues of enjoyment and spend time with friends and loved ones. You need this time to recover from the stress of daily life and build up reservoirs of strength to deal with new challenges.

He goes on to write about Stanford psychologist Phil Zimbardo who "discussed the research presented in his book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. Zimbardo explained the power of situational influences that push otherwise good people to do bad things.

"But just as fireflies use an enzyme luciferase to create their glow, Zimbardo believes there may a positive flip side to the Lucifer effect."

Continued in Fireflies and Flourishing in Numbers (IPPA Insights).

"The research found that anxious individuals find it harder to avoid distractions and take more time to turn their attention from one task to the next than their less anxious peers."

> Continued in article Anxiety's Hidden Cost In Academic Performance.

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To live a full life, we need to deal with extreme and self-limiting levels of feelings like anger, anxiety and depression. But too often, people run away from or try to suppress emotions that help make us human – and creative.

Below is a brief clip from one of psychologist Michael Britt's outstanding PsychFiles podcasts.

In this episode – Thinking Positively – or Running Away from Your Feelings? – he talks about the article Happiness: Enough Already, by Sharon Begley.

The value of sadness

"The push for ever-greater well-being is facing a backlash, fueled by research on the value of sadness," Begley declares.

Begley (and Britt) refer to the book Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy by Eric Wilson.

She writes, "Wilson trots out criticisms of the mindless pursuit of contentment that philosophers and artists have raised throughout history—including that, as Flaubert said, to be chronically happy one must also be stupid.

"Less snarkily, Wilson argues that only by experiencing sadness can we experience the fullness of the human condition.

"While careful not to extol depression—which is marked not only by chronic sadness but also by apathy, lethargy and an increased risk of suicide—he praises melancholia for generating ‘a turbulence of heart that results in an active questioning of the status quo, a perpetual longing to create new ways of being and seeing.'

A more ‘negative' mood can be more creative

"This is not romantic claptrap," she continues, and quotes University of Illinois psychologist Ed Diener: "Studies show that when you are in a negative mood, you become more analytical, more critical and more innovative. You need negative emotions, including sadness, to direct your thinking."

(One of Diener's books is Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth.)

Begley points out, "Abraham Lincoln was not hobbled by his dark moods bordering on depression, and Beethoven composed his later works in a melancholic funk. Vincent van Gogh, Emily Dickinson and other artistic geniuses saw the world through a glass darkly.

"The creator of ‘Peanuts,' Charles M. Schulz, was known for his gloom, while Woody Allen plumbs existential melancholia for his films, and Patti Smith and Fiona Apple do so for their music."

From Happiness: Enough Already, Newsweek Feb 11, 2008

[Image from post Paul Pearsall on Beethoven and thriving – finding courage and resilience.]

Dealing with depression is a way to stay healthy

A "dark mood" may be natural at times for most people – or more often, for those of us who are melancholic of temperament or have episodes of clinical depression. Staying in that kind or level of mood disorder is not healthy, nor is it a way to enhance creativity.

One way I deal with my tendency to be depressed (most of my life) is to use St. John's Wort daily, and other herbal preparations for occasional anxiety – PureCalm or Kava Kava.

Especially with all the advertising that promotes "effective cures" for depression or "the blues" and other "unacceptable" moods, many people may be running too fast and far from emotions that can enrich their lives.

In his article The Art of Seeing Depression, Tom Wootton (author of the books The Bipolar Advantage, and The Depression Advantage)
says, "When I went into depression the first time all I saw was darkness and pain. At the time I thought it was unbearable, but looking back and comparing it to some of the far deeper states I have been to since, it was really nothing.

"As my perception has grown I am beginning to 'see' things I never knew were there. In 'seeing' them more clearly, I notice that they don't affect me so negatively any more either."

Alicia Keys has commented about being overwhelmed by her dark moods: "I was feeling so sad all the time, and I couldn't shake it. I started burying my feelings, and it got to a point where I couldn't even tell my family or my friends, ‘I'm twisted,' or ‘I'm exhausted,' or ‘I'm so angry.' I became a master of putting up the wall so that I was unreadable."

From my post Working with depression

Maybe it's a matter of continually exploring the balance of feeling the depths without being swept into an emotionally destructive pit – and at the same time finding real pleasure and happiness in our lives.

Related posts:
Too much pursuit of happiness? (part 1)
Creativity and madness – Rollo May and Emily Dickinson on mental health and creative people

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Related page: Identity

"People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates."

In the following clip from one of his many podcasts, Leo Laporte quotes internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis: "When times are tough, you invest in yourself…"

From podcast: Leo Laporte – The Tech Guy 570

Book: Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth – by Steve Pavlina.

For more self growth books and products, see Personal Growth Information.

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