work – Page 3

Today I really don’t feel like being creative.

I’m tired. I started a new job this week and have to get up very early to get there before the traffic starts in order to avoid a long commute. It was pitch black when I left for work this morning.

I already get up early to journal, so an earlier start with the new job is tough. It will take me a while to adapt to this.

So tonight when I got home, I had a hot shower, made myself a hot water bottle (it’s winter here!) and climbed into bed.

As much as I love being creative and using my time after work to do pages in my art journal, or create found poetry, or do any number of the ‘productive’ things that bring me joy – today I’m just too tired.

And that’s ok, too.

I think to myself, what would I say to a friend who told me that she was tired from starting a new job? I would say:

Just rest. Be gentle with yourself. Treat yourself kindly.

Often I think we pride ourselves on keeping busy – people rant about all the things they have to do as if to show how important they are because they are so busy. We associate busyness with importance, with meaning.

And we have come to associate rest, quiet and slowness with a sign that something is wrong.

But I think there is as much joy to be found in being gentle with ourselves, in resting, as there is with being productive.

It is in the quiet time, the time between the rushing and the doing, that we nurture ourselves. By choosing a book and a cup of tea curled up in bed instead of my art journal and paints tonight, I am listening to my body and giving it what it needs. I am refilling the well of creativity inside, so that I can be productive and creative another time.

It’s all about balance: you need to receive rest and nourishment so that you can create and share your gifts with the world.

Take time out to rest and nurture yourself this week.

In 1949 at age seventeen, Sylvia Plath wrote in her diary:

Somehow I have to keep and hold the rapture of being seventeen. Every day is so precious I feel infinitely sad at the thought of all this time melting farther and farther away from me as I grow older. Now, now is the perfect time of my life.

So often we are focused on what we want in the future, dream what we hope to gain or achieve: a promotion, losing weight, getting a new car, house or spouse…

But what about right now?

I once described to a friend how things were going well for me at that point in my life. I said, ‘it’s all working out perfectly’, to which she replied, ‘how could it be anything but?’ She was suggesting that there is a perfection to the universe and the way things are in each moment, even if they are not as we intend them.

Sometimes we get so focused on what we want in the future (or what we miss from the past) that we forget to notice the perfection in our life right now, as it is.

There’s this line in the last episode of The Office where Andy says, ‘I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days, before you’ve actually left them.’ Even if where you are right now is not exactly where you want to be, there will most likely come a time when you look back fondly on something that you have right now.

>>> Prompt:

In your journal, note down all the wonderful things about your life right now. Regardless of what you hope to achieve in the future (and those are, of course, still good things to hope for!), try to really hone in on what it is that you like about your life now. It doesn’t matter how small or insignificant it may be, whatever you can think of about your life right now that makes you smile.

You could write this in list format, as a mind map, or just stream-of-consciousness. Use different coloured pens if that takes your fancy.

If you are visually inclined you may wish to create a page in an art journal or a collage of photographs, or words/images from magazines.

Here’s a few of the things I came up with – What I love about my life right now:

My washi tape collection
Spending time with my puppy
Journaling every day
Playing in my art journal
Getting a regular paycheque
Spending time with my partner
Watching The Office (obsessed much?)
Nurturing myself creatively every day

Happy journaling!

Tag: work

Be gentle with yourself