So much for the snow melting and opening up some some parking lots!
January 7, 2019
January 13, 2019
For me the word “nourish” in yesterday’s post doesn’t mean just the body, it also means our spirits — how to make our own sunshine on dismal days when we’ve been laid low by a cold or other illness.
One experiment I’ve been doing since last August is doodling/expressive mark making every day. It doesn’t have to be much if I don’t feel like doing it, but one of the books I bought, Drawing for Joy, has a page of circles in a spiral, we’re supposed to outline one of the circles every day we do some drawing.
The idea of the book is to spend 15 minutes a day drawing, both as a meditation and for skill development. But 15 minutes is too long for what I want — I just want to have a regular habit of mark making so (1) it’s there as a resource when I need it and (2) to communicate with my subconscious. I don’t know about you, but my subconscious runs my life, and I learned long ago if I wanted any say I needed to make friends with it and develop good communication.
So what do I doodle? Sometimes just squiggly faces, often smiling, and lately two themes:
The doodle on the left is a fellow pulling weeds and throwing them away. It’s shorthand for the mantra,
Pulling the weeds, nurturing the flowers.
I think of the good life as a garden that needs regular gentle attention.
The doodle on the right is of stairs leading up towards sunshine. A quick visual for when I need to make a change. It’s shorthand for the question,
What is one small step I can take right now to make myself happier?
Sometimes it’s just the sun with no stairs, shorthand for the phrase,
Sometimes we need to make our own sunshine.
That works for me, do you have special ways of nourishing your spirits?
January 13, 2019
I hesitate to say this because it really almost seems or sounds too simplistic.
and there’s nothing scientific about it! but like the old lyrics of a song… I just count my blessings.
I don’t mean I really count them. I just list them. either in my mind or as a child or young teenager I would make a real list and write each one down. they were not just things I was thankful for but everything that I genuinely loved as well.
from the smell of a pine tree with rain on it to the way my mother sneezed… to lamp light on a wooden table. I’m not sure what you’d call that habit. but I still do it. and it never fails to center me and get me ‘out of myself’ so to speak! whatever works!
Do you have a daily ritual to do that?
Mom says she has no artistic talent when it comes to drawing, even doodles. Even she can’t figure out what she has drawn. But she does love to do puzzles – all kinds – word, number, jigsaw. She finished a 1500 piece puzzle yesterday and started a new one today. She says it replenishes her. For us, let us outside – in that glorious SNOW!!!
Woos – Lightning, Misty, and Timber
I’m impressed about the jigsaw puzzle. I like smaller ones! I have been doing a lot of Word Jumbles the past few days. It gets us in a different space in the brain.
Lately I just listen to the inner voice. If it says it feels like reading, I read, if it feels like watching tv, I do that. I’m waiting for it to tell me to do something crafty 🙂 I like to doodle although I’m not good at drawing.
I’m not good at drawing either, that’s why I love the Klutz book, Drawing for the Artistically Undiscovered.
The trick is to experiment, toss away the sketches that don’t work, and savor the ones that do.
So, pen or pencil, paper, and a good wastebasket! (Or do it on the computer or iPad if we’re worried about the poor trees.)
I’m not suggesting anyone else should be interested in this, just giving myself a pep talk and lifting my spirits on this dreary day. 😀
PS I’m glad you’re taking a lot of moodling time. That’s so important.
You might think that I’m gonna say doodling too.
But no.
I’ve really thought about this one.
No, it’s gardening for me.
So kinda sucks right now….
So I watch YouTube videos for inspiration
Or get lost binging on a TV series on Netflix.
If there’s a lot of sunshine coming in the windows so that my house is bright,
I like to rearrange my furniture.
Wait a minute…. ok, none of that’s probably really nourishment
But rather procrastination
:p
No, I would have been surprised if you had said doodling. You have talent but don’t seem to have much joy in it. And I disagree that you’re procrastinating. You are clearly overworked and need more moodling time, not less.