©Laurie Pace Graphics One Design 2023
30 x 30 inches by Laurie Pace
“ For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Judges 5:31
I still look back with love at these paintings from 14 years ago. When I would paint my horses they varied in how I approached the canvas. Sometimes with under layers and sometimes with a palette knife and lots of paint. This is the later... knife and paint. Most of these were from a time that I spent working daily painting large paintings and selling them as quickly as I painted them. My mind was in a good place, my natural instincts were sharpened to know what was needed as I created each piece. It was all intuitive. This horse painting happens to have my heart color on the base of the horse... a periwinkle color. From the time I was 8 years old I had a periwinkle room... up until my sophomore year in high school and I went white with lots of sixties colors! Including my closet doors. It is blurry but I think you can tell it was a two panel sliding door closet of that vintage and my parents allowed me to paint away my sophomore year on my closet door.
Our Natural Instincts
Right now with the stress our family has been under, my cardiologist is concerned there is too much of it for us right now to function well. Stress is basically the response your body has to any 'demand' for change. Expected, or unexpected. From fall of 2022 through today... Summer 2024... that is almost 2 full years of CONSTANT stress. Does not matter what it was... ALL of it has been life changing and heart challenging.
I looked at Dr Fay and said,"I am doing the best I can. My faith leads me through much of this and I step back often and trust in God. It works most of the time, but then come the days I cry out of nowhere." I cannot control the situation that hit us. No one person is totally responsible for it. It is why I am not painting or moving forward very fast with anything. This blog will explain stress and what I do to combat it.
I wake up with the greatest intentions... only to be side hit by something new relating to our situation. I cannot fix it. I cannot do anything to change anything. It is like waiting for a car wreck to happen right in front of you.
I need your thoughts and prayers to encourage me to paint. I actually have something small drawn off on a wood cradled wood piece to paint. I have wanted to start it almost daily and have not. Our anniversary was yesterday... today we have been married 33 years and one day but have known each other for 62 years. Yep age is catching up! We were helping out family on Saturday, and today we went to church studying Chapt 22 in Revelation This chapter is like pure hope to me. I am a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ. This stops the stress in it's tracks.
So let me ask you, have you ever thought how your own body reacts to stress? As your body begins to feel or perceive a threat, an alarm goes off, just like your alarm clock or your Apple watch. Something is not right. In your brain, the amygdala area is the one that handles your emotions, your memory and your survival instincts. When the alarm goes off immediately your stress hormones are released signaling your body's instinct to react to danger. Over the years of your life, you have developed your own pattern for your body. I have seen some people freeze and unable to move when they perceive danger. Other people may have bodies that respond by kicking into survival mode setting off more body alarms. This can be triggered by sound or anything like harsh rain storms with wind or by traffic sounds and airport noises.
Your body actually has this automatic response. It will continue to release stress hormones, like cortisol. Cortisol is basically a steroid hormone that is produced by your adrenal glands, the endocrine glands on your kidneys begins to produce and release it. It could be acute stress, chronic stress or traumatic stress.
- Your body can release Adrenaline, which will keep you at a high alert. The adrenaline release triggers the release of glucose for fast energy you may need.
- Cortisol has some control on how your body may use fats, proteins and carbs for energy.
- It spurts is out! The cortisol will boost your immunity by limiting inflammation. If this happens for a long time it can weaken your immune system.
- Cortisol can at time increase your blood pressure OR smaller amounts of it can lower your blood pressure.
- Cortisol seems to have an agreement with your pancreas as to sugar regulation. Too much Cortisol and it raises your blood sugar. That could lead to Diabetes.
- THEN it can also affect the dreaded sleep wake cycle of your body. Seems like it plays a large part in your body's circadian rhythm.
What to do? I walk at least four days a week on the treadmill at over 4 mph and I walk 3 miles. I need to push to 3.5 and then 4. Since fall 2022... I have managed to do 3 miles four times a week. Time to step it up.
Secondly... I go to bed earlier. My sleep cycle loves more sleep. 5-6 hours does not cut it. This is early morning sun now before six a.m. I make sure I am in bed by 7:30 or 8pm on the stressful days. (normally it would be 8:30-9:00) We pray together earlier and I watch about 15 min of TV and lights are out and I sleep. I am one of those quiet sleepers on my back and I rarely move at all. Should tell you I am usually up by 5 a.m.
Third, as I have shared in prior blogs, listening to the Bible with my Bible Gateway app... I chose the deep voice max man and often start in Psalms. Usually I never make it past the 23rd psalm. I also can chose to listen to 10 hours of rain and thunder on Spotify... oh yes... peaceful... and my third option is Chirp Audio books. NO MEMBERSHIP required. Wait for the books that are $5 and under. I had to stop pre-buying them... I have a mixture of faith based books, and I love John MacArthur, and CS Lewis etc... and some simple fiction along the way. This works. Worse case ... I pick up a pen and a nearby notebook and I write. I write to GOD... emptying my heart and mind. Sometimes it is wise to start with this... and then move on. It usually makes me cry...but I feel better!
My wish for you my friend, this peace that I have found despite the stress. You can depend on Him... no matter where you are bound. Where ever you are, I will pray for you.
Follow the Spirit of the Paint... with Laurie Pace
Laurie Pace - A Texas Artist aka OMA
Laurie is an international artist, her paintings are collected in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, DuBai, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, St Thomas, Romania, Greece, Croatia, and Ecuador.
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© Graphics One Design 2023
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