A place for beautiful art and inspiring a life of bliss and fulfillment through mindful living.

Hi my lovelies, my name is Cristina! I’m an abstract artist living in North Carolina, with a passion for inspiring people, advocating for self-love and self-worth, and giving my tribe the tools they need to excel in life.

You might wonder why my site is called “Art and Mindful Living,” and holy moly, did I wrestle with that website name over and over again! To help you understand, here is my story.

Why Art and Mindful Living?

The back story.

When I graduated from college, I had a BA in Business Marketing and a minor in Studio Art, I was the “creative business strategist.” I packed up my bags and moved from Michigan to Charlotte, North Carolina (warmer weather, heck yes!). However, my primary reason for moving was to live close to my sisters and nephew and to find a job in marketing. I started working for a small technology company called ProductStack and was working there for about a year when a few key realizations smacked me upside on the head. I had no idea that they would change my mindset forever.

The first spark

My CEO at the time always told me, “To be successful, you can’t just be good at one thing. If you can excel in two areas, you will stand out from the crowd.” Okay. That makes sense. I love strategy, design, business, marketing and art. Ahh! There were so many areas that I could see myself falling into. But what was I naturally good at? What was I passionate about?

We all struggle with this from time to time. We want life to tell us the right route to go, but there is no right route. There is only trusting your intuition and not being afraid to follow it.

With my creative background, the need to flex my creativity was bursting through the seams. I realized that design and art needed to be a critical part of my future.

Three reasons why mindful living crept into my path

1. I’m an over-thinker, always second-guessing my choices, always asking “why,” always trying to find the best way to do something - to avoid failure. But I was painting in my spare time and it got me out of my head. It stopped me from ruminating in my thoughts and helped me see things more clearly. Mindfulness and creativity truly go hand in hand, helping me live in the present moment and get away from my thoughts.

2. I wasn’t getting to the gym. It really hit me when my mentor told me to “stop thinking and start doing.” It may seem like a simple statement but think about it like this. You want to start waking up earlier so you can get a better start to the day. Let’s say 5am in the morning. Your annoying alarm rings and you decide to sleep in because you’re “too tired.” What’s wrong with this picture?
   
   We let our minds stop us from doing what we want.
   
   We’re trapped in our bad habits and it’s easier for us to do what we always do. But what would it be like if you shut off your thoughts at that moment, and went through the motions of getting out of bed, then made a b-line for the bathroom and started brushing your teeth? (While still keeping those thoughts off?) You start to train your mind to not let you procrastinate those tasks that you want to do so bad. Anyways… this spoke volumes to me.

3. I traveled to London, England. I don’t know about you, but traveling had always made me feel a little uneasy. I feared the unknown. I liked familiarity. I liked being in control. When I traveled to London my entire perception of travel changed. It was the same concept of painting every day. Traveling forced me to appreciate the present moment and take in my surroundings.

I wanted to tell the world what I realized - that a life of mindful living can bring joy into everyone’s life.

Throughout those years, I reconnected with my love of painting, improved my designs skills and learned to leverage my marketing brain to help people. This, combined with mindful living, is why I started a community where I could empower people to follow their dreams and help them realize they can do anything through self-love and worth, strategy and hard work.

So what can you expect by subscribing to my community, Art and Mindful Living?

A combination of abstract art, marketing designs, and the tools and articles you need to learn how to live a more mindful life.

With love,

Cristina