Heartbeat

 

What makes your heart beat faster?

It's funny how both fright and excitement can have the same effect on the heart. So when your heart quickens, ask yourself - are you scared? Or are you thrilled? 

Especially ask yourself this when you feel this way in creative endeavours, as both can be showing you the way forward. You might be scared because you are moving out of your comfort zone, which isn't a bad thing, just uncomfortable. You may discover something new.

Or maybe you're thrilled because you're in the sweet spot and what you are doing delights your heart.

So listen to your heart. 

Guidance

What is your guidance system?

Do you navigate by the stars? Is your GPS invaluable? Or does it send you down the wrong road sometimes, insisting that you've arrived at your destination when you clearly haven't. 

Who do you take advice from? Who are the wise people in your circle that you can depend upon when you're at a crossroads? Why do you listen to guidance from some people but not others? How do you decide?

Ebb and flow

Ebb and flow. Life is full of rhythms.

It's okay to feel less creative at some times than at others; to have less energy some days; to feel less sociable. We can't run full throttle all the time. If we try to, we burn out. But if we lean in to the natural rhythms we can keep going with smaller peaks and troughs than if we try to overdo it.

Be kind to yourself.

New triptych

 

Recently I've found myself using this palette a lot. Starting with a black background definitely gives a lot of depth. These are repurposed canvases, so I scratched through the black paint and the colours come through, although they don't show up so well in photos. 

Sometimes it takes me a while to work out what I am painting about. This is about menopause. Not surprising, really, as it is a big transition.

I think these pieces are finished, but I'll give it a couple of weeks just to be sure.

Do you know what you're art is about before or after it is finished?

Travel well

 

Life is full of ups and downs, barriers, and obstacles. But each day is a new start with new opportunities. The thing to do is travel as well as you can through life. 

We can whine about our circumstances or we can tackle and overcome them. Attitude makes a huge difference.

Environment

 

Where do you thrive? Sea, estuary, or fresh water? Your environment affects you.

Once I'd put the red lines on this page I couldn't see them as anything else but eels. After leaving them for a few hours,  I gave in and added the eyes. And that set me to thinking about eels and how they move from salt to fresh water, and what that means for their biology. 

Our environment affects us. It can cause us to change the way we behave. You only have to think of children raised in a domestically violent situation who become people-pleasers because that's how they survive. Or LGBTQIA+ people who hide a big part of who they are at work because, sadly, it is safer for them that way. 

What environment suits you best? What do you need to thrive? I keep coming back to this topic - or rather, it keeps turning up in my pages so it's obviously in my mind. Even when we are in not-so-good situations, we still have some control over our 'environment' in terms of making sure to carve out time to do things that nourish us, to get enough sleep, to eat as well as we can. 

Pivot points

Pivot points. 

Those times where you change direction, because things don't always go the way you planned. Like making a birthing plan - it's good to have one, but you have to be prepared to let it go if things don't go in the direction you thought they would. I wanted a natural birth and ended up having a caesarean to save the baby. That's life. 

We need to be flexible in our plans because life - and other people - sometimes throw obstacles or unexpected circumstances in the way. Flexibility is a friend of resilience, helping us to cope with the vagaries of life. So be prepared to pivot.

Just because

Just because everyone is doing it doesn't mean you have to. 

It's something that mothers say when we do something dumb, but it applies now, especially in the days of social media. "Everyone has a YouTube channel, everyone is on TikTok, you have to be an influencer." But you don't! We don't have to follow everyone else. We can carve out our own way of doing things. What works for one person doesn't always work for another, so don't worry about being different. 

Learning

Learning from all of it.

Even from the bits that don't work. The thing is to learn from all of our experiences, even when we learn how not to do things.

My SALA experience wasn't all that I hoped, but I learned from it. One of the things I learned is how I would do it if I were running it myself. These are things that I can squirrel away for the future, just in case.

 

Counting the days

 

Those of you who have passed a certain age know what I'm talking about - the whole reset and start counting again during perimenopause. When you get to 90 days and then have to start again... Well, let's just say I'm not best pleased! I have to keep reminding myself that going on for longer is better for my heart and my bones.