Buddhism has many schools of thought so You may find the Karen Armstrong’s book ‘Buddha’ a good introduction.

Gautama Siddhartha is ‘called’ to ‘Go Forth’ only after becoming aware of life as suffering, – unable to reconcile life with death. Being Lost it seems is the best place to be to start, some might say the only place to start such a journey!

Its seems like a paradox however in Buddhism becoming more “positive” is not about positive thinking but about seeing ‘life as it Is’ and then at a profound knowing that ‘Life as it is’ is LOVE… This ‘knowing’ opens the door to compassion and love for all Life – all of it even the parts we might label and experience as wrong. The question of being “positive” dissolves no longer needing to be asked or answered.

These awakening to Life as it is no longer attached to a false concept of self/egotism that responds to ‘Life as it is’ with a NO and demand to change what cannot be changed – the source of  much of the suffering we create for our self.

We suffer not just from the experience but the story our egotism creates by attaching the ‘I’ to the experience. The self (small s) is an illusion, you are not your ego, you are not your memories, you are not your experiences. Letting go of egotism and the unskillful stories we find we can be “happy” engaging in Life as it Is.

As an Artist it might be interesting if you can allow your art to become part of your ‘meditation’ practice. That you allow your art to inform and ‘create’ you even as you create it.  A kind of alchemy of the soul. Imagine what the journey your art might uncover as you work to free it from attachment to a ‘I’