The Requirement to Be an Artist

"What was that? An Exhibition? We need emotional content. Now try again!" What did Bruce Lee mean by "Emotional Content?" He was describing the feeling of being totally present in your body and connected to your own life force. A spiritual life force that is the energy of creation. This force helps you become a human being from moment to moment. When you are creating emotional content, you are creating in awareness, openness and receptivity to everything around you. You are in a state of relating to your surroundings. You are not in isolation—you are connected. "Don't think, FEEL." Don't pull yourself out of a real moment by thinking and intellectualizing. Stay in the moment and be totally present for the total experience. Emotional content is also about the creation of art. Art is the communication of authentic feelings. We are all artists of our own lives. Bruce Lee believed that art is the work of enlightenment. And the origin of enlightenment comes from understating your own heart and living whole-heartedly. Action step for this week: release yourself to spontaneous action when you're inspired by your own spiritual life force. #AAHA (Awesome Asians and Hapas) This week's shoutout goes to Olympic fencing champion Alexander Massialas. Alexander is part of the US men's fencing team that won the bronze medal in Rio and he also won an individual silver medal in foil fencing. Alexander is a Hapa, born to a Greek father and Taiwanese mother. Thanks for representing the US with such excellence and athletic mastery. Alexander, you are awesome! #BruceLeeMoment (Bruce Lee's philosophy in action IRL) This week's #BruceLeeMoment comes from one of our listeners David Hunt: I wanted to share a Bruce Lee moment that I experienced that actually encouraged me to embed it into my university's graduation speech :) The Story At the time, I resided in Philadelphia and traveled back home to Charlotte, North Carolina for winter vacation. The day was nothing less than relaxing - I caught up with old friends, tried some new food, and walked through the mall all in solitude. A few hours into my excursions and my cell phone died. Uh oh - no calls and more importantly no uber to the family dinner that was fast approaching. The weather was unusually warm so I decided to walk the five miles and take a chance that I'd show up for dinner on time. Along my walk I came across a stream. In some areas the water was swirling around, others it was still, and yet other places the water was moving extremely rapidly over twigs or rocks. I thought to myself if I took an empty glass and collected some of that water, it is the same exact substance although separate. And if I poured it back in, it would merge seamlessly. In a cathartic moment of clarity, I began to question - why can't we do that, why can't us humans interact on such a collaborative level? Placing appropriate attention on our similarities while still acknowledging our differences. Water exists as vapor, liquid, and ice. Humans come in different races, ethnicities, align with different religions and so forth. Yet water always retains its...being of water flowing through vastly different environments adapting itself and always merging with its different forms in some capacity. That's when it hit me - I viewed water as love, this egoless aesthetic of oneness. And not oneness in the sense that we don't have uniqueness but oneness in the sense of how we can interact with each other peacefully. In that moment, it became my mission to be love. When love wakes up in the morning, I want it to say, "I want to be like David." Cheers. Wishing you all a wonderful day and thank you so much for all that you do. I listened to my first Bruce Lee podcast yesterday on Honesty and thought I'd share this moment with you since you all inspired me. With Palpable Vibes, David V. Hunt Share your #AAHA and #BruceLeeMoment recommendations with us via social media @BruceLee or email us at hello@brucelee.com