November 7th 2020
The gut.
This is the baddest boy in the group.
The real deal.
The big dog.
This is him.
The gut is amazing.
The nerves in your stomach and the nerves in your mind, know you better than you know yourself. Now I am not a doctor so I won't be going through scientific evidence on why this is true (you can research it yourself), but what I will tell you, is the gut and the brain work well like Ying & Yang, Bonnie & Clyde, tin & copper and other things that work well together (just use your imagination, will ya?).
Before I had started to have the slightest inch of faith in my gut, I would overthink, become passively distracted by the goal, remain confused for days or even weeks... I would become depressed and bring down the house while walking my mind in circles until I would dehydrate and stress myself out. I refused to believe that it was that "easy", when it really was. I'm telling you. Overthinking has eaten my from the inside out. You can ask my family, friends, neighbours, your cat or the postman. I am telling you. When I found out this 'life hack' or this 'cheat', I could not believe it. It's like, I knew the answer all along, but chose not to pick it because "it was too easy".
I didn't think "it would be that easy" to switch this around, you feel me? And if I did, I would tell myself that it can't be true. Why? Just because.
I knew things were starting to pick up for me when I started going with my own intuition and my gut feeling. I used my gut to help me make every possible decision in my life, from my moods, my cravings, my designs, my financial status and my emotions. The choices started to be easier & I found myself smiling more. I found myself to be less stressed. My designs were growing and my overthinking started to dissolve. I had started to just let it flow and dig into the batch that I had. I just let it be.
Instead of writing up a whole plan on what to design and how to do it from the start to end, I would just open my program and let my gut do the work. I had halted the overthinking and the over planning which had caused passive delays in every department I had walked into. From trying to understand the composition, the colours, the shapes, the silhouettes, the canvas size, and a thousand things before hand to simply opening up and going with the flow. This to me, is a medal winning game changer. A big win.
In conclusion, we already kind of know. We already have a slight idea or a clue before we start the egg hunt. Our gut feeling is really what writes and signs off for us. It's our set of lungs that keep us going. I believe our lives are not meant to be as stressful, hard and at sometimes, unenjoyable as they are at times, and majority of our pains could vanish away if we just just let the auto pilot, do what the auto pilot is supposed to do.
Thanks for reading.
Luv yew.
June 30th 2020
Welcome to another episode of Mannys Mind.
With trying my hardest not to overthink my choices and life decisions, I struggled to find my true foundation as my main goal was wanting to create something, but without knowing exactly what it was. This was due to all the clutter that I had going on in all corners. My main motive to write this piece was when I had found out about the power of subtraction and how powerful it is. Now, I'm not talking about some prosperous-filled book or some catchy tagline, I'm talking about being minimal.
What I mean by 'being minimal' is cutting out the fat and the unneeded bits that are holding you down and halting your progression. This can be taken as a physical sense in terms of losing weight or decluttering your life or as a mental sense which would assist you in decluttering your mind and letting go of the unneeded.
I had used this method (and still do) for two of the biggest reasons in my life which had turned out to be game changers.
The first time I took a minimal approach on something in my life was during November of 2014. This was the first time I took a good, hard look at myself, my choices, my decisions and especially, my time management. The second time was during July of 2019. This is when I learnt that in terms of my designs and artwork, that sometimes 'less is more'.
I had found myself full to the brim. I'm talking friends, clothes, choices, decisions, subscriptions, people, money going here, money going there, games, jobs and more friends. Just a cluttered life, inside and out. Excuse my french, but I had shit everywhere. Everywhere! And why is it called 'French' anyway? And am I supposed to capitalise it because it's a country? Anyway, the decluttering began. I had sorted my friends and cut ties with anyone whose grass I was done watering. I had donated more than half of my clothes to the homeless and threw away those which had their days well and done. I cancelled the majority of my subscriptions and sold my extra games, consoles and my 'fan' items. I had even sold my PC at the time due to the fact that I hadn't used it in so long with all this new time I had gathered. I started spending more time with people who brought substance to the table and less with those which ate my time away (which was half my fault, obviously). I then started giving myself limits and capped my choice marks so it wouldn't keep me in a loop of thought. My bedroom had become simpler, my wardrobe was more minimal, my friendship circles were smaller which gave me more time to focus to water the flowers that I really liked, especially when they bloomed. Man, I'm telling you, it would take me 2 hours to create a design and I would then spend another 4 hours and a half overthinking one stupid shade of red just in case the head designer of Vogue had a peek at my artwork and judged me. Gosh I hate my brain sometimes. I'd spend hours adding things and changing things and then adding them again, right after I had already changed them multiple times and then stress myself out and then decide to not post it 'because people have seen better". Then I thought to myself, instead of adding and multiplying, maybe try subtracting and taking away from the canvas. This simple, little thing took me so long to learn. Just to subtract and not overthink it. What this did, was it created more room and space for other things to become highlighted and even more bolder than they originally were. This is when I really learnt the cliché saying, 'less is more'.
Now, I'm not telling you to cancel anything, change your life full circle or cut ties with anyone. All I'm saying is that this was a way for me to feel a lot more 'lighter', which had then given me so much more room for me to do me, properly, without the outside clutter. Everyone has a different template their working from, and maybe this could help you out.
Maybe not, but whatever.
I don't want to call myself a 'minimalist' because I'm not and I think titles suck, but I try to be as 'minimal' as I can in everything I do.
P.S: I may have some spelling errors
P.S.S: I do. I just checked.
April 15th 2020
From as long as I can remember, I had always wanted to create something.
Like, a little group, a squad, a gang, a bunch of something. Something that ran with a positive intention but was vibrant and unique in its most original and authentic form. Something that represented who I am and attracted like minded individuals.
Then I started to write.
I wrote about everything I had liked and why I liked it. I brainstormed, did note taking, sketched and read to help myself, to really understand myself, because there is no point in creating something you don't genuinely believe in. You won't have any juice to throw in, you know? I needed this to be authentic and had no stench of any lies. I wanted to create a visual illustration that represented 'Mansour Tawk' as a simplistic art piece. I would dive into my likes in music, art, sports, athletes, colours, cities, designs, characteristics, attitudes, silhouettes, shows, movies, animals, games, friends and more, much more. I found that, just like it is explained in 'The Alchemist', after walking around the globe, you will always come back to where you started, and that is the easiest way to tell you that the gold is already within yourself, you just need time to explore it out.
My goal wasn't to sounds very 'positive-like' right there either.
Anyway...
In the end the 'squad' had begun when I found out that my main goal is to use your passions, talents, skills & God given abilities to create something, and then share it. I truely believe that if I didn't sit down, write and read ask the world my questions, I would not have understood myself from a foundation and fundamental perspective. I made the notepad my best friend and worked with my brain to withdraw everything I could possibly know or remember about myself.
Thank you for reading my first blog.
Luv yew.
Disclamer:
Overthinking causes the whole process to delay.
Don't overthink kids, it's not worth it.
