I had a few “off” days at the end of last week. I couldn’t really tell if I was just tired, if my allergies were acting up, or if I was getting a migraine.
It didn’t even occur to me that I might actually be sick until Saturday afternoon when my head suddenly weighed about ten thousand pounds, my throat was sore, and I started sneezing.
Luckily, I didn’t have many plans this weekend and I could easily shift things around to make room to rest.*
Here’s what that looked like:
I wasn’t quite in ‘lie-around-and-read’ mode so I spent a long time playing with paints and markers and paint markers.
While drinking approximately 1.5 million cups of tea, of course. **
My favourite Tarot card – The Empress – on a mug sprinkled with gold stars. You probably could have guessed this was mine. 🙂 Image description: My mug is sitting on a folded red cloth napkin and both are resting on my worn wooden kitchen table. The mug is white with a black handle and black interior. The white parts are sprinkled with gold stars and in the middle is a black and white image of The Empress, a woman in a crown and flowing robes with a scepter in her right hand.
A video from Art Therapy with Sana called ‘Feeling Overwhelmed? Try this Klimt Pattern Art Practice. Still image shows a patterned painting in shades of red, brown, and gold. On the left side of the image is a woman in red robes, the woman’s face is cut from a magazine. The rest of the image is made up of vertical sections framed in wavy lines and each section is filled with a different pattern – spirals, ovals. dots. Behind the first artwork is another work that features a collaged image of a woman with patterns drawn around her in gold and black.
Here’s what mine turned out like:
My version of the first painting from the art therapy video posted above. The colours are shades of red, purple, yellow, pink and gold that work well together (I hope!) Near the centre of the painting I have drawn a woman’s face looking out between two sections that form a robe. The rest of the painting is formed from wavy lines that mark off different sections that contain different patterns of squares, circles, dots, lines and spirals.My version of the second painting from the video. I cut out a picture of a woman in a blue and green patterned dress – you can see her from the waist up- she is leaning towards her right shoulder and looking down. The rest of the painting is divided into sections filled with patterns – squares, spirals, grids, circles, and squiggles, all patterned in green, yellow, and blue.
And since I like to listen to podcasts while I draw, today I chose Old Gods of Appalachia – a horror anthology show with incredibly strong writing, world-building, and performances. (Yes, I do like spooky stuff!)
When my head got too heavy I tried the exercises in this video. They helped a lot.
My husband thinks it’s pretty funny to fall asleep to ghost stories but the stories on Classic Ghost Stories are more ‘creeping dread’ than ‘scar them with the horrors’ kind of tales and Tony Walker is an excellent narrator.
My weekend wasn’t all art and ghost stories though, I also did my usual stuff – walking the dog, making meals, puttering around, but at a much slower pace than usual.
It is no fun to be sick but being ‘too sick to go out’ and ‘not up to doing much at home either’ was a great reason to prioritize rest, creativity, and taking good care of myself.
What are your go-to activities when you are feeling under the weather?
*As I write this on Monday afternoon, I am feeling better than I was on the weekend but still not great. I actually ended up having to reschedule a dentist appointment AND a mammogram so I could keep my germs at home instead of taking them on tour to various medical facilities.
** Don’t worry, it wasn’t all caffeinated. I alternated between Cold 911 from David’s Tea, Ginger Peach, Chocolatey Chai, Wild Sweet Orange, (no caffeine so far!) and black tea (there’s the caffeine!) with the occasional foray into boiled water with lemon, candied ginger, and honey. I also drank regular old cold water.
This is another of those weird posts where we consider the idea of ADDING something to your day to create more space.
Martha’s 2020 post for December 15 was about doodling and I am HERE for it. I love drawing patterns and shapes in my notebooks and I often create doodle art. I find it relaxing and fun, and when I doodle during meetings, seminars, and events, it helps me concentrate.
Doodling and other creative practices are excellent ways to make some space for yourself in your day.
Sure, on the one hand, it feels like ONE MORE THING but when you consider how relaxing and restorative creativity can be , adding something extra actually means taking away some stress and frustration.
You don’t need to add a huge create practice to every day, you can just add a little doodle time, a little writing time, a little singing time, a little knitting time, or whatever practice feels easy and accessible for you.
Remember, the goal here is for you to make space for yourself in your day so whether you do that with these videos, with a creative practice, or in any other way that serves you well. I wish you ease.
(The chatty part of today’s post is below.)
This workout from the City of Coquitlam YouTube channel is entitled “Five-Minute Seated Cardio and Core Workout with Raquel” and the still image has a teal background with a photo of the instructor’s smiling face in the upper right corner, the title of the video in the centre and text reading ‘Coquitlam Spirit’ and a heart at the top of the image.
This is a different sort of meditation – a visual one. The point here is to watch the brush strokes and the colours while listening to the gentle music and letting yourself just relax into the images. If you aren’t able to see the video, or if visual meditation isn’t your thing, I’ll include an additional meditation below.
A visual meditation video from the Creativebug Studios YouTube channel entitled “5 minute relaxing meditation for creativity: Episode 2” The still image shows swirls and splatters of watercolor paint against a white background.
A”5 minute guided creativity meditation” from the Karen Sepluveda – Guided Meditations YouTube Channel. The still image. Shows. But looks like outer space. Mostly purple but with some blue at the edges with bright lights (stars?) scattered throughout.
The Chatty Part
Creativity is not just beneficial for its mindful aspects. Creativity also helps you to be a more effective problem solver, to approach challenges from a new perspective, and it gives you a touchstone of enjoyment in your life – something you can return to to feel joyful and more grounded.
Whether you are naturally creatively-inclined or if it hasn’t really occurred to you to seek a creative outlet before, creativity takes practice – especially if you want it to be part of your day-to-day life. You may have to remind yourself to doodle or to try new dance moves.
The fact that your mind is not constantly bubbling over with new ideas or new ways to express yourself doesn’t mean that you aren’t creative, it just means that you aren’t in the habit of being creative at the moment.
You can form that habit the same way you form any habit – by consciously choosing to return to it on a regular basis, by giving yourself time to figure it out, and by starting over whenever you get out of practice.
If you’d like to seek out the fun and relaxation benefits of creativity, here are some resources:
Last year, for World Creativity and Innovation Day in April, I did a post about exercise and creativity that includes links to useful articles and a few workouts for creative people.
And if you’d like to try some small creative exercises, feel free to download and print this creative prompt zine I made (it’s stored on my Google drive so it should be easy to access.) Each prompt will take just a few minutes and you might just find it fun. (If you need zine folding instructions, here are some good ones. )
If you want to use creativity to loosen up your brain so you can focus at work, these creativity exercises might help.
My first forays into drawing as an adult were with meditative pattern drawing like the ones in this Craftwhack post. I especially liked that, if you make a mistake, you cover it up rather than erasing it.
If you want to get creative but none of these ideas are sparking your interest, google ‘creative prompts’, ‘easy creative exercises’, or ‘drawing prompts’ and I am sure you will find something that works for you.
Whether you choose to get creative today, or you choose to stick with the tried-and-true but with a little extra peace of mind or if you try out the videos that I’ve shared, I wish you a restful rest-of-day.
Please be kind to yourself out there.
About Making Space 2022
About Making Space 2022
In December 2020, Fit is a Feminist Issue blogger Martha created a tradition – a series of reminder posts to take good care of ourselves during this last month of the year when it is far too easy to get swept up in your to do list, no matter what you are celebrating or not celebrating. Last year, it was my turn and after an introductory Go Team post called Give Yourself Some Space, I created a series of reminders called ‘Making Space‘ that offered a suggested short exercise video and a suggested meditation in case you needed an easy way to find space for yourself in your schedule.
For 2022, I’ll be doing the same thing but I’ll also be including a link to Martha’s post from the same date in 2020 and I’ll offer a few extra ideas for relaxation, creativity, and self-kindness here and there.
These posts are not about insisting that you do more, more, more during this busy season. Instead, I want to encourage you to remember that there IS a *YOU* who is doing all of the things and you are worth taking good care of.
Perhaps the things I suggest aren’t what you need in the moment. That’s totally ok. Perhaps you can use something else to create some space, something that will help you feel more relaxed or more in charge of your day.
Creativity is beneficial for its own sake, of course. Not only is creativity enjoyable, but the mindfulness and presence required helps us to relax and to focus. It feels good to get in a creative ‘zone.’
And since the abilities that we hone in creative practice are helpful for solving problems, our creativity is also good for the world.
I quote this at least once a week to someone. It’s an excellent argument practicing creative thinking. Image description: A photo of a tree and a path in the foreground and a panoramic of water, hills and trees in the background. Overlaid text reads ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. – Albert Einstein’
And now that you know that Wednesday is World Creativity and Innovation Day, you can also think of your workout tomorrow as a warm-up for any creativity activity or problem solving you have to do. (And, as Sam reminds us, warm-ups are very important.)
Lots of people swear that going for a walk helps them to be more creative and think of new solutions to the challenges that they face.
But, if walking isn’t your thing, any sort of moderate exercise seems to help so choosing your favourite exercise can help you prepare to be part of creative problem solving tomorrow.
Adriene even has a practice that may help you:
Have you found a connection between your exercise plan and your creativity and problem solving abilities?
Tell us about it in the comments!
PS – If you ALREADY have a creative practice in place, here are a few stretching programs I found that can help keep you feeling good physically while you think creatively.
Here’s a Dr. Jo video showing some hand, wrist, neck & shoulder exercises for artists.
And here’s a video showing some specific hand exercises for artists and animators.
And this is one of my favourite Yoga with Adriene videos – Yoga for Writers
