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Creative Journaling Challenge Day 18: Make a page dedicated to the things you are proud of.

I am proud of doing this creative journaling challenge. It has been more of a challenge than not lately to commit to this. I am reminded again tonight, as I set up my space, got out my paints, and began, that it is something that makes me come alive. It is hard to remember this when I am full of excuses and avoidance.

I do not judge myself for missing the days I did, because it is what it is, I just remind myself that in procrastination, things mount up, and the more they mount up the more pressure I feel. When I just begin with one small task, I find that I am so much more able to continue without having to look so far ahead. Let this be a reminder to myself! I didn’t find this as challenging as I once would have. I feel that through practice I have jumped and leaped over the hurdle of resistance to acknowledging myself. I feel like job interviews help with this hurdle. If you want to work on self confidence and self belief, apply for jobs, and go along to interviews. You are the only one who can back yourself in that situation, apart from your references. You have to back yourself, talk about yourself and the qualities you bring, and why these are valuable. I have recently been reminded of the nervous energy associated with interviews, and the feeling of resistance in “talking myself up”. I am also reminded of how with practice, you can become used to this, and it doesn’t feel so uncomfortable. It becomes easier to believe in your skills, because you have examples of those skills after all. You have achieved great things before. And you will continue too! So if you are wanting to work on developing more confidence, put together a job application and prepare for an interview, practice on people. This will surely help!

Creative Journaling Challenge Day 17: Collect a postcard (there are lots of free postcards in cafes around Melbourne) and make a page that is inspired by the postcard.

The postcard I was drawn to, a small yellow car parked on a road, seemingly watching the sunset, with intense colours and vibrancy. I see possibility, I see a journey, and the affect of the colours reminds me of a dream. I also was listening to a song about dreams while I was doing this page. The pink and yellow paper looks like it is an explosion on the page, that the postcard is being extended, the dream expanding with the force of fire. The gentle rays of the sun expanding.

I am noticing the patterns that are repeating in my pages lately- very bright colours, lots of pink and yellow. These colours feel warm and exciting, with much power and energy that is rising and expanding. I feel that this relates to me at the moment, because there are many changes that are in the process at the moment, that feel exciting and big, and also unsettling and unknown at the same time. I like how this postcard, and most photos in general, freeze a moment in time. This is a frozen frame of a journey, not quite sure where it has come from, or where it is going, but it is on the move.

Day 16: Start with a background (can be paint, colored paper, a magazine page etc.) Choose one shape that you are drawn to. Repeat the shape using different media, cutting and pasting, over lapping, drawing and whatever else you feel like including.

I am drawn to hearts. When I was in New York last year with my friend Dallas, she would take a photo of any hearts she saw while we were out an about. Even a piece of chewing gum on the pavement was shaped as a heart. It is funny- when you look for something in particular you see it everywhere. Like the saying FOMO… I heard it once last week from my friend Brigid, and then so many people were saying it! (It means fear of missing out- when you try to do everything and are so busy, and can’t say no to things because you are scared of missing out.)

Hearts:
So when I look at this image full of hearts,
I feel light.
I feel like I want to take a big deep breath.
I feel like I am still.
What I see is pattern, paint, colours, line, and many shapes that are similar but different.
There seems to be an upward movement to the hearts. Like they are flying somewhere off into the distance.

I am about to fly off into the distance, to far north Queensland. I am going to the Eclipse festival, and to see the total solar eclipse. The last total solar eclipse visible in Australia was in 2002. The next one won’t be until 2028. So it is an exciting time to be able to see it. I am excited to explore the symbolism, of transition, of change, of moving from old to new, of darkness and stillness temporarily removing part of our sensory experience, and then gifting it back 2 minutes later..

Day 13 Challenge:
Pick your favourite animal and dedicate a page to that animal. 

I chose a giraffe. I really love them. 

Wow- I learnt so much about the giraffe through this process. 

I met a friend, Christie who has recently got back from travelling. One of the places she travelled to was throughout Africa, and i have spent the afternoon hearing a whole lot of random facts about giraffe’s! Which I have included in this image, and which I love hearing about, because I have such a fondness for giraffe’s. 

I used Christie’s images from Africa as my inspiration for this page, so thank you Christie!

Day 15: Make a page by ripping  paper, magazine pictures or writing. Use layering, and paint and glue, but no scissors, only ripping. Write about the process and include the writing in the page.

I Love ripping! I love the pattern I can make with paper and ripping. I love how I can layer it, how I can put paint on top and make it look totally different. I love finding sketches in Frankie magazine and incorporating this into my own page. I love the uneven, imperfect, rough edges of ripping. It feels really human, really organic and really destructive and constructive at the same time. I love the sound that the paper makes when you rip it. I love that the shapes I make when I am ripping it is something I can’t control. I love how the paper curls as it gets smaller or thinner.

Creative Journaling Challenge Day 14:
Shapes and lines- cover the page with shapes and lines or scribbles. Fill in the gaps with colour or patterns

I was a bit resistant to this. I felt like it didn’t have enough meaning, that it was a waste of time, that it was pointless. And then I reminded myself of the purpose of these pages. It is not to “get” something, or to reach a “goal” or “change” myself in any way. I am doing this merely as an exploration, and because I KNOW that these processes increase my wellbeing. I find them reflective, calming, challenging, and liberating. I love that it gives me space to be and not think. I love that i tune into the colours and I love losing myself in creativity.

I ended up really enjoying this task, because it was so abstract and it allowed my perfectionistic aspect to take a break, because there was nothing it needed to achieve, it was just really good to keep things simple and simply fill in shapes with colour and line.

Now, looking at it, I notice that it is really full of bright colours, almost offensively so. It is so bright that it is a bit overwhelming. I think this highlights sometimes the extremities that I can fall into, and this reminds me how much balance and moderation are things I value.

Day 13 Challenge:
Pick your favorite animal and dedicate a page to that animal.

I chose a giraffe. I really love them.

Wow- I learnt so much about the giraffe through this process.

I met a friend, Christie who has recently got back from travelling. One of the places she travelled to was throughout Africa, and i have spent the afternoon hearing a whole lot of random facts about giraffe’s! Which I have included in this image, and which I love hearing about, because I have such a fondness for giraffe’s.

I used Christie’s images from Africa as my inspiration for this page, so thank you Christie!

As a part of week 3 of the 4 week creative journaling course I am doing at Abbotsford convent at the moment, we did a session about art to music. Each person in the group chose a song that they are drawn to at the moment, and we played each person’s song twice. Throughout the night we made 6 journal pages, with 10 minutes each.

The question I then asked myself was, how much do you get done, when you know you have a time limit?
Today in my work (program managing and facilitating work with children and teenagers) I set myself a list of tasks to do. The morning went so quickly, and the afternoon i got so many things crossed off my list. Sometimes setting myself deadlines works to my advantage, and I felt like I achieved so much and actually really enjoyed doing so. In the creative journaling course on Tuesday night, we only had about 8-10 minutes for each piece of work and I was amazed watching how quickly people can work if they know they only have a small amount of time. It sped up the process of getting into the “flow”.

I was amazed with the song and the artwork that came from this song; The Cat Empire “The wine song” was a funny flurry of movement, painting, drawing, snipping, glueing and pasting. At one point I looked up and everyone was creating to the rhythm, that was very fast paced at one point, everyone in succession was frantically creating their images. I loved seeing the similarities and differences after, the movement and the essence that was poured into the artwork only 7 minutes 22 seconds played twice. The different tracks made for different colours, strokes and energy, and we were able to experience each person through the song that they picked.

I love my job.
Thank you to my amazing creative journaling group!
See you next week.

Make a page of gratitude. What are you grateful for?

Although I feel that I am mostly grateful for the things in my life, I can get stuck in a cycle of complaining, of wanting things to go my way, and to feel safe and in control on the things around me, no matter how much of an illusion that really is.

Focusing on what I am grateful for, gives me such a warm feeling in my heart, and doing this page reminded me of how finding what I am grateful for can completely change my stage of mind, as can doing some sort of creative process for no other reason than to create, relax and explore.

What am I grateful for?
rain.
music.
a new friend who plays guitar and has a beautiful voice, and likes to sing missy higgins songs (makes my heart melt).
animals.
friendships.
traveling.
art.
expression.
love.
beauty.
birds.
stillness.
frankie.
writing.

Create a one word journal page. Pick a work that stands out to you and make that word the feature of your page. Use paper, pens, pencils, magazines… up to you.

I chose the word LEAP.
It feels like a word that is very relevant to me at the moment.
Leap, is what you need to do when otherwise you may fall into the crack in between things.
Leap is what you do, for joy, when it fills your heart so much that leaping is a response to the overflowing joy.
Leap, is what you decide to do, when you realise that the change that is coming is inevitable.
Leap, is what you do what something that you have been working towards happens. When the struggle and the fight have paid off, and you realise you are who you wanted to be, and you have been all along.
Leap is what you do when there is good news.
Leap is what happens when you get a fright.
Leap is what dogs do when they are happy, in between the bounding and tail wagging.
Leap is what I do when I am skipping, or when I am avoiding the cracks in the pavement as I walk.

Leap is a bold word, and it what I feel like is happening in many areas of my life and the lives of the people around me. That they are either leaping with joy or gratitude, or leaping from change and challenge, but still bolding leaping from one thing to the next, resting until the next leap creeps up.