Dear First name,

I'm sitting on top of *my mountain.

I've just done my weekly Sunday climb.

Tuesday (my dog) is still moving along the trail. The air is cold. The sun is warm.

Its rays catch Tuesday’s rust colored fur and makes him glow.

 

I marvel at Tuesday. I marvel at him the way I marvel at all wild creatures who are unaware of their beauty and therefore breathtaking. 

 

Tuesday is unaware of his beauty because he does not know to be aware of it. He is a dog. He does not care. What he cares about is sniffing. And running. And finding sticks and dog sh*t he is not supposed to, but inevitably puts it in his mouth. He cares about how far he can run away from me without getting in trouble and how many strangers he can get to pet him, as well as how many of their butts he will get away with sniffing before being shooed away.

 

What Tuesday cares about is instinctual and makes him happy which makes him so alive that almost every stranger we pass DOES stop to pet him, because Tuesday, in his utter aliveness and total ignorance to beauty, is absolutely irresistible.  

 

Are we not like Tuesday? Are we not most beautiful in those moments when we are not concerned with beauty, but are instead following our instincts? When we are in wild pursuit of what makes us feel alive instead of prioritizing how that pursuit might appear to others?

 

I am most beautiful this way. 

 

I am most beautiful In the burn of what lights me up. 

 

I am most beautiful when I am creating. 

 

I am most beautiful when I am making photographs of you, perceiving the essence of  your strange beauty.  

 

I am most beautiful on my mountain absorbed in the softness of the earth beneath my feet and the colors bleeding all around me. 

 

I am most magnetic when I am lost in my senses and aliveness, just like Tuesday.

 

 

I'm sure this is why the man in the cargo shorts was drawn to me that day I got asked on a date while walking this same mountain path. Not because I was trying to be attractive or gorgeous, but because I was bathed in the beauty of the mountain's reflection. In that moment, I was not the shape of a perfect form, but I was the shape of my own heart.  I was on fire with awe for this place and the radiance she shines on me. What could be more stunning than that? (promised update: Yes, we went on that date. No, its not an interesting story, as much as we would all love it to be. Yes, we got to first base. Jk, we only hugged. Is that first base? No, cargo shorts and I were not a love match. sigh).

 

I believe our deepest beauty is rooted in our essence. I believe our essence is best revealed within acts of loving.

 

That means, often my face and yours is most lovely than when looking at someone or something we love. 

 

Sometimes when I’m taking your photographs, I use this as a trick to coax your essence into the photograph. I ask you to gaze back up at the tree you were just wondering at, or your daughter who was making you laugh just a moment before. I often don’t have to prompt you any more than that because you immediately relax into uninhibited adoration. 

 

The point is, when we give ourselves to what we love with reckless abandon we are not only our most essential, beautiful selves, we also become our most magnetic. We radiate a warmth like the sun, impossible to ignore and resist. 

 

Most of you know I teach artists how to market. I get asked lots of complicated questions about marketing. But the truth is making good art is good marketing. Doing what we love and sharing it authentically with others is good marketing. 

 

But to do so we have to know and make time for what it is we love in the first place. This requires effort. Prioritization. Commitment.

 

We also have to tune out all the societal noise, pressure, and shoulds when it comes to what we find meaningful and instead and tune back into our own inner voices, our own nature, our own instincts, our own intuition. When we achieve this, everything in our life elevates. Our relationships, our work, our art, our days, our live get. When we come into our own natural rhythms we become untouchable.

 

Much of my life’s work has been about coming into rhythm with myself and guiding others to do the same. Maybe it sounds self explanatory - afterall didn’t we know all this instinctively as children? Or maybe as dogs in past lives? But oooohhhh how quickly we forget.

 

 

 

My biggest life decisions and creative successes have been rooted in sparks of intuitive  knowing. Sometimes ideas strike all at once, fully formed like lightning. Sometimes they are little flecks of light illuminating only one step at a time. But it is when I listen to my intuition that my work rings true and my business thrives. Come learn my secrets of tuning into intuition so you can reconnect to yours. You must be registered for this class attend. 

 

I fill it with songs that make me feel something I can’t describe, I can only recognize. 

I hope you vibe too.

Xx,

Yan