AN artist can construct a whole new world with the tip of her paintbrush. She can breathe new life into each colour. She can change the darkest hues into symbols of hope and joy. She can transform the dullest shades into captivating points of intrigue. She can even dampen the salience of the brighter colours so that they become part of an obscure and unnoticeable background. To the artist, the world is not just what she perceives it to be; it is what she chooses it should be. She can take control of the seemingly uncontrollable chaos by changing the meaning that lies behind each symbol in her painting. As she does so, she alleviates the pain inflicted upon her by the unpredictable elements in her own life.
The idea of changing the meanings behind age-old symbols is rather eccentric. After all, how can the colour black represent anything but sadness and darkness? How can yellow or orange represent anything but joy or hope? How can pink or red represent anything but love? The very thought seems paradoxical. Yet accepting these strange ideas might be the key to leading a fulfilling and peaceful life.
In a way, our lives are pictures that we begin to create from the moment we take our first breaths. Our choices are like the strokes of a brush. Although there may be unpredictable splatters of paint or irreversible errors, we are ultimately responsible for the final picture we create. As we gradually create this painting, our emotions become the colours that serve as a vessel for what our lives turn out to be. Whether we realise it or not, every thought we have and every action boils down to one thing—what they make us feel. Then the emotions that are precipitated by one thought or action will go on to power the next ones.
In this manner, our emotions control our lives. We make the choices that we make because our emotions make us feel a certain way. Upon discovering this fact, many begin to believe that the only way to control their lives is to suppress their emotions and make decisions solely through rational reasoning. This, however, is not a real solution. It will only lead to an empty, unfulfilled life or a sudden implosion created by the painful pressure of suppressed feelings. We cannot simply ‘turn off’ our feelings to stop them from negatively impacting our lives, but we can give them new meanings.
A skilful artist can change the seemingly intrinsic nature of a colour by allowing it to evoke a paradoxical emotion from its viewer. Similarly, we can change how each emotion affects us by transforming the things we associate with it. Whenever we feel hurt or sad, we can choose to see the feelings as transient growing pains rather than an ache elicited by loss. When we feel disappointment, we can choose not to linger on the prick of emptiness but rather on the new space that has been opened up for us to fill. Even anger can be used as fuel to create and achieve rather than as a weapon to hurt.
We do not have the power to control the things that evoke emotions from within us. In fact, we do not even have the power or the right to suppress our emotions, as they are what make us human. What we can do is decide how we allow our emotions to affect us, and more importantly, what we choose to do and think when we feel each emotion.
It is easy to feel out of control when we feel emotions like anger, sadness and disappointment, but we never fully lose control of our lives, even when it seems like we have. Even when we are standing at the edge of a cliff or at the bottom of a deep pit, we can always pull ourselves back to the place where we are meant to be. There is always something else we can try to get to the destination we hope to reach. All it takes is giving our emotions a new meaning and our hearts a new reason to hope.
