On Sunday last weekend, I sprained both of my ankles. Yep, you read that right. I sprained both of my ankles. The pain was unbelievable. I spent most of the week crying and laying in bed. Being off my feet for so long has proven to be very difficult. With having so many responsibilities and a household to run, being off my feet has been extremely stressful.
I suppose I am having to learn how to trust other people to do the things I do, no matter how it’s being done. That is very hard. I am a bit of a control freak. When you have been doing things on your own, in your own way it’s difficult to allow other people to help. Especially when the said person you have to rely on makes you feel like they don’t really want to help.
As I am writing this it has been a week. 7 days since the fall. I am so over it. I just want to stand and walk but I cant. I don’t want to hurt myself more.
Anyway, I wanted to write this because I can’t believe how I have taken my feet and my ankles for granted. I just want to remind you all to be thankful for your bodies. Every part of your body takes such great care of you, keeps you walking, keeps you functioning. Be thankful, join me and be in the moment, be grateful for your body. It is a blessing.
What Meditation does for me, meditation is so important and such huge part of my life. To give a little background on me; I used to be a pretty strict Buddhist, I practiced Zen Buddhism. My life had so much peace but then my mom got really sick and I relied on some bad influences. It happens to the best of us. We are human and life is hard.
So yes, meditation was a staple for me and I have just recently gotten back to my health and well being. I can’t stress enough how important getting back to meditation has been. I have healed so much already. Meditation allows me to find silence in the noise, find peace in the chaos and smile to myself and all the difficulties. I smile and greet everything with kindness. Meditation has brought so much back into my life. I am so thankful.
What does meditation mean to me? EVERYTHING.
How do you guys feel about meditation? What does it do for you?
I can’t seem to get enough of my pinks and purples lately. So I looked into it.
I have always heard how the color purple relates to the imagination and spirituality. It stimulates the imagination and inspires high ideals. It is an introspective color, allowing us to get in touch with our deeper thoughts. It allows us to delve deep into our psychic abilities. Purple has always been my favorite colour, purple has to be in my home for it to feel like home. I have always linked purple to a feeling of safety.
On the other hand, I never liked pink. I hated pink throughout my life. Though, when I hit my mid twenties I started gravitating towards pink. Pink started making it’s way into my life. The color pink represents compassion, nurturing and love. It relates to unconditional love and understanding, and the giving and receiving of nurturing. That meaning makes sense for me. I am in a constant reminder of stress and trauma right now, not in a threatening way, just health stuff and of course I would need some pink in my life. Our home needs pink.
So when looking at the meanings of the two colours it makes complete sense that I have been using some much of the colours in my art lately. I need those colours in my life.
Which colours are you attracted to? What do the colours in your life mean?
I have always had my favourites, they change often. When my health changes then my favourites change too. When I first started practicing yoga my favourite pose was butterfly pose. I have always had problems with my hips. My hips are very annoying. This is how I describe it. My hips can manage poses when they go out (like butterfly) but they really struggle when they have to go in (Reverse Pigeon pose) It’s weird I really don’t know how to describe it. So my favourite poses do tend to be very gentle.
Every yoga pose does something different for your body, for your health… physically and mentally.
Here are my current favourites!
Child’s Pose!
How I love this pose! That moment to relax and melt. Take a deep breath and sink into it.
Tree Pose!
Talk about balance! I love working on my balance. This is my go to.
Wheel Pose!
I have always had a flexible spine so I really enjoy this pose, the only down side is that my strength isn’t great right now.
So there it is folks. My favorite poses at the moment! What are your favorites?
I know this is a short post but I enjoyed writing it. 🙂
I am very guilty of not taking good care of my brushes. They dry and fall apart. Oops, my bad. So I thought I would write this post not only for my lovely readers but for myself too!
Perhaps if I write it all out, then I’ll do it for my poor sad brushes.
So here we go!
Step 1
First thing you’ll need to make sure of is to keep rinsing your brushes between use. Don’t let paint get dry on the brush! (oops.)
One thing I have always remembered from my childhood painting sessions is the little basin where I used to wash my hands and brushes. My mother was an artist and she taught me everything I know about painting, she was good at cleaning her brushes.
By the basin she would keep some soap, the soap was always blue which I loved because when you cleaned your brushes and rubbed the brush on your hand, the soap would look like paint.
Step 2
Get that soap on your wet brush!! You don’t have to get fancy and buy brush cleaning soap, as long as the soap is gentle, then that is all that matters. My momma always used hand soap, it works just as well.
Step 3
Now you are going to rub that soapy brush in circles on the palm of your hand, creating a whole bunch of foam, getting that excess residue of paint off the bristles. Massage the bristles gently to coax out any paint stuck in the middle of the brush. Rinse well and repeat until the foam and water are clear.
Step 4
Lastly dry your brush with a cloth, gently rub the bristles making sure not to bend them. shape the brush and let it air dry the rest of the way laying down flat. Once completely dry you can put them away.
So that is it guys! Super easy and little me really enjoyed cleaning the brushes… I really need to get back into it again.
I hope this was helpful and I will catch you next time.
I don’t know about you guys but sometimes when I’m really in the art zone, everywhere I look I can see something abstract or something that will inspire me to paint something abstract. It might be shapes, colours or people. It is usually nature, the shape of a leaf or the movement of a cloud.
I think it’s wonderful how life actually supplies us with such beautiful art, everything we see is art, it may be human or nature but it is art. Everything we see is an expression and how we see it is an expression. I like to take that expression and let it inspire me. I make my own art out of the art of life.
When do you draw the line? How do you know when to be strict with yourself?
I have been working pretty damn hard lately and I’m feeling it but when I get into the zone I just can’t stop, so I will keep going for hours and hours in front of the computer. Never leaving the position I’m in. I have done this exact thing again today, and I could slap myself. I work from home, I can get up and walk around. I can take breaks, I can go outside and play with my dogs but when I’m in it I’m in it. I’m sure I’m not the only one with this problem.
I should find a way to force myself into proper breaks. The only time I step away from my work, is just to take care of my other responsibilities (of which there are many). I should dangle something tempting, like…. going out for a nice cup of coffee.
I will try to be better and gentler with myself. I deserve a break and some selfcare. Do you guys have any tips or ideas?
I have a pretty big decision to make and I am on the fence. Often times when I can’t make up my mind about something it’s because I’m scared. I’m scared of what people will think and say because of my actions.
With this decision in particular, it started out as a thing to better myself and then it turned into impressing people…. TOXIC! That isn’t good at all, I am such a little people pleaser and I get a huge amount of satisfaction when people are not only happy with me but impressed. I know, I need to learn this lesson and grow. The problem I’m facing is that it did start out as something for me, just me and it warped and morphed into so many other things that it became stressful and hard. Now I can either carry on or call it quits… I don’t know what to do.
I know I should go with my gut and my heart but I’m so petrified of disappointing people that in the end it’s really holding me back.
I have to have an answer pretty soon, I know what I want to say… I want to say no, thank you but I can’t manage it right now. Life is too hard… and you know what? That’s okay! I know in my heart that it’s okay to struggle and to say no because it’s just too damn hard. It’s okay to choose yourself over other people. So why am I still struggling? I know that all of these things are okay… so why? I presume that this is something that gets to many people, I personally think it’s just part of life at this point, the way we grow up… so many choices and expectations put on us from such a young age. We are not taught to sit and listen to our heart, to breathe, to smile, to be grateful… humans are taught how to succeed and ultimately how to fail.
Today my Yoga teacher gave us a seed thought during meditation…. It was along the lines of, we are not happy when we don’t get what we want and we are not happy when we do get what we want. Finding the middle ground of being happy with what we have is the key.
I have a choice to make. I will come to my answer when I look at how my life will be changed if I say yes or no, then I will place myself in the middle… I will be grateful for my life now. I think the answer will come to me then.
Try to find that middle ground and I truly believe that when we stand present, looking at what we have, what we are blessed with then we won’t even have the need to find something that makes us happy because we’re probably surrounded by the things that make us happy already! Family! Our homes! Food! Nature! That tree you see over there, that tree can make you happy!
Find those things with me, find the middle ground with me… let’s be less hard on ourselves from now on. What do you think?
Today I just felt like talking about something else. I just spoke to someone from my past, not too distant past, last time I saw her was probably a year ago. I used to see her everyday for about 3 years, but life changed and it took me on other adventures, crueler times. Times where there wasn’t really any time for nice coffee in the garden or jokes out in the sun. I won’t go into too much detail.
Things are slightly better at the moment, or it could just be that I have found a comfortable spot to sit in the chaos? A way to navigate through the darkness so that I can still see the light? I’m not sure, but it is better and I am grateful for that. Anyway, I spoke to this lady from my past and it just reminded me of all the times I had with her and our friends, the love and comfort, the kind words and the laughter. I can still have that, I just need to step out of the darkness once in a while… leave the chaos behind for a few hours a day. I will always have to return but I do have the option of taking a break. That’s what my yoga classes do for me, so why can’t I go see old friends too?
My point is, just because you haven’t seen someone in a long time doesn’t mean they don’t love you anymore, it doesn’t mean you can’t connect again. If you feel the need to reach out, then do. It might put a huge smile on your face! It might make you feel fuzzy inside! It has the potential to make your day, make the sun shine a little brighter. Don’t be scared of rejection, if someone rejects you, they don’t deserve you. If someone is nasty to you, then you shouldn’t have that person in your life. Keep what’s good for you, keep love and respect. Let go of what feels toxic.
Be kind, be open to receiving love and it will come to you in beautiful ways.
What to do when the inspiration stops coming, the flow becomes less flowy?
If I am feeling particularly stuck I turn to music. I close my eyes and imagine a story to go with the music. I see the scene playing out, I give the characters names and lives. Sometimes I star in the scene. I find this is one of the best ways to get my imagination going again.
Since I am also a writer, I find this pretty natural. Creating characters is an old comfort of mine. As rude as this may be, if I don’t like the person I’m with, or the conversation I will imagine another person, I’ll create a new character in my life, in my space… with whom I can chat to and that way I keep myself entertained whilst having to put up with people or conversations I don’t like. That sounds really bad but it’s fun.
I’ve been doing things like this since I was a little girl, and I still find it helps me get through the tough days where there is very little or no inspiration.
Paint and My Mat 