Yoga-think your life into balance

Sometimes it is just overwhelming to even think about one more thing to juggle, even if it is balancing out your life. Believe me, I know how it feels. So that is the time to stop thinking. And start consciously moving…into yoga!

• Move mindfully.
• Walk with intention.
• Breathe slowly and deeply, into your abdomen.

I find that one of the most important parts of doing yoga, is making the space and intention to do it. Once  I am in the studio, I know I will not leave until after shavasana. That is the part where you lie down and totally relax for 10 minutes. It is my favorite part! So I tend to be in the now moment for the entire practice, because I know I cannot leave for that hour.. Even if the going gets tough, I’m there. Shavasana and feeling balanced is my reward.

Oh dear, you are probably wondering what that has to do with life balance.

When you physically create a practice, when you practice breathing and moving mindfully, it begins to crossover to your creative, intellectual and spiritual habits. I find myself resorting to yoga breathing when I am in a stressful situation. For that I use the long deep in and out through the nose breathing. It is very calming. I find that I am more likely to do things mindfully and calmly.

What if you want to accomplish something, like writing, but are working two jobs and just can’t find the time?

• Be in the now moment.
• Breathe in and out slowly.
• Ask yourself to give yourself a half hour, 2 days a week.
• Treat yourself afterwards; perhaps a nap? a cup of tea?
• If you aren’t inspired, write anyway.
• Don’t judge yourself.
• Be regular and without pressure.

It is the intent and regular practice in yoga that takes you where you want to go. Many times in yoga, your ability to do a posture will change from day to day. You listen to your body.

As Madeleine L’Engle said in her book called “Walking on Water”,

To work on a book is for me very much the sane thing as to pray. Both involve discipline. If the artist works only when he feels like it, he’s not apt to build up much of a body of work. Inspiration far more often comes during the work than before it. because the largest part of the job of the artist is to listen to the work, and to go where it tells him to go…To pray is to listen also.

How do you ge ytourself gently back on track?

For more great ideas about focusing creative energy, absolutely visit the blog Write to Done. Also try Unwrap your Mind for another dynamic yet gentle approach to finding your way to reach your potential.

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How will you find a balance?

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There must be a hundred things I want to accomplish and at my vulnerable  points of the day I start to cave in and think of them all at once. As I am beginning to waffle  mid job- I remember my mind map. A feeling of calm comes over me and I know I can get it all done

I put this life juggler together over a period of time from many different sources. I want to always have an awareness of my ultimate life goals in front of me, so I don’t get off track.  However, I don’t like to be scheduled because I feel like I am locked in.

I’d like to share with you what I came up with. I actually find it to be fun and colorful and totally responsive to my needs. You  can adapt it to any organizational system.

It’s actually simple and fast!

• Meditate. Pretend this is the first day of the rest of your life! Guess what?  It is.This is the inward thinking part. Put your name in the middle of a page with a circle around it.  I used a pencil and crayons in my journal. Make 5 -7 lines radiating form the center where your name is. Think of 5-7 areas of your life to which you want to pay attention.

My 7 areas are:     art, spiritual, physical, intellectual, relationships, enviro nment, riches. What are yours?

I chose words that would spell another word, an acrostic, so that I would easily remember them all. Mine spells “aspirer”. It’s not exactly a word, but I like the idea of aspiring.

I also changed some words to make them more palatable. I like the idea of  taking care of the environment, but am not too excited about cleaning and  laundry all the time. But when I couch it in the true fact that cleaning improves the environment of home, it gets done easily.

Now choose a color for each area.

Armed with this little drawing and your custom  created categories, make up your calendar, using the colors to identify which category envelopes the individual job. For instance, cleaning is environment and it is green.  You can continue to use the crayons or colored pencils in your handwritten organizer or use the colors on your computer calendar.

When you notice you are chronically missing a color on your spectrum, pay attention. You need to fit some in soon!

Come to think of it, I believe I have some ironing to do. It will help save the environment and riches by avoiding the dry cleaners! Any action that covers two areas at once is a great motivator! Here are some posts to give you some ideas about reaching goals: A Boundless World and Zen Habits. Each approach is very  different, but then so are we all.

Keep me posted as to your own personal approach to deciding on and achieving your goals. What helped the most to inspire you?

How to kick start your eyes to actively look

  I want to share with you a way of keeping your thinking skills in top form. Just like the rest of your body, your eye/ brain connection needs regular exercise to work at optimum performance.

The best thing, is that you can do this anywhere with anything, just bring along your perception and focus. This is the first of 13 creative thinking tools as defined by Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein in their book “Sparks of Genius”.

1. Choose an object or a place that you are interested in learning more about.
2. Discern as much as you can about how it looks, color, shape, form, texture, size, line.
3. Even take notes, a photo. Make a sketch.
4. Also identify other sensations that you notice, such as particular sounds like in the space, , smells, what it feels like to be in the space. Identify what it reminds you of. re there any memories associated with it? Are there historical connections? Document all observations.
5. A journal is a good place to put tis information in case you should want to reference it in the future.

You have just done a little exercise that does not involve a specific time, place or fee. You are exploring something that is interesting to you. In the process you are  exercising your creativity, memory, intellectual capacity to make connections. This will help you to become more confident in your own observations.

These skills are essential for artists, musicians, scientists, writer, historians, teachers, students and doctors.

So carry your little journal with you and give your creative mind a workout. You will be surprised at how much more you notice about life! And don’t forget to let me know how it works for you. What did you learn?

Creative, clean living in 3 easy steps.

folding laundry in the light bvw

Do you start a boring job that has to be done around the house,  and plod through it?

I have begun many a task like that, and somewhere between the necessity of gettting it done and the annoyance of wasting my time with upkeep, I have discovered how to make it fun and creative.

First, I have to change my perception to take in the gestalt of laundry in my life. No research, just what it represents in my life. So I reflect upon  what laundry means  to me. Cleansing, layering renewing are concepts that come to mind.

Then  I observe laundry  as a way of exploring shadows and light. See how it looks in different lights. Look at it straight from the dryer crumpled in the basket and then folded crisp and clean.

Then I respond to the visual beauty that I have discovered in my ordinary day. What a blessing!

Because I draw and paint, I will document my experience that way. Other ways to articulate your laundry experience could to write about it , photograph it or tell stories about it. You could also begin to notice subtle variations in colors, trying colors next to each other that you never tried before.

I can’t say that this will get those chores done faster. In fact, I may take a little longer, especially once I get started on a painting.  But I have a real feeling of satisfaction when I complete the task , As I touch the laundry with my hands, transforming the deep clefts of shadows and mountains of light into folded patterns of crisp geometric shapes I am lead to understand the necessity for renewal, order and balance in my life.

What ordinary household or work tasks could you transform creatively?

If you can’t change your life, change your perception.

Making pattens in a corner with found objects.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all you have to get done?

Even the enclave of your home has let you down.

After a a great vacation full of sunshine, reading and sketching, I needed to perceive some  of that same order and beauty in my home.

I looked through a magazine to get some ideas for quickly refreshing my surroundings. Doing this always has the effect of transforming my way of looking at things. Sometimes, though, drastic renovation is not momentarily feasible.

Fortunately, I found a refreshing editorial by Sophie Donelson in HC & G. She addresses the real issue of the “debris of living”  that we never see in homes in glossy publications. Offering timely alternatives to gutting and renovating, she makes practical and reasonable suggestions that will quickly provide renewed focus and simplicity to your home.

• While acclaimed photographer, Michael Moran removes a window screen to get a crystal clear view for his photo shoots , she suggests cleaning your windows to add light and clarity to your own daily landscape just outside the window.
• Stylist Elizabeth Mayhew has a philosophy of bringing things you love into the  decorating. Don’t just organize, bring things out that you love, but carefully and with discretion.  Check the link above for a complete list of her suggestions. She has also written a book on the topic.
• Sophie suggests removing everything from a room and then bringing back in only what really inspires you.
• Look through your home to find new uses for old and forgotten items: for instance I’ve use an old galvanized pail for a vase; old mugs for storing paintbrushes.
• If you have a multiples of  the same item, use them to display in patterns. For example I place generous cubes of savon de Marseille for washing hands next to all of my sinks. I place them on beautiful plates that have no more partners.

Inspired, I took the dried lavender I had purchased out on the east end of Long Island and after splitting each bouquet into four bunches I hung them from my wooden fold up clothes dryer in an unused corner with paperclips. The bunches create a patterns across the horizontal wooden bars with subtle shadows and the heady lavender fragrance perfumes the air when I pass by.

Next, I’m going to clean the windows to take that grey cast away. After that, I clean my office area.I will share the visuals and processes on a later post.

How would you transform one small part of your house to highlight the beauty and your inner vision?

Painting the hours of the day…

I am continuing my exploration of daily hours, by observing the light on objects and places that I inhabit.

I find patterns in the images themselves and then again in my repeated actions and routines. I document the hours, based on the times of the day remembered with prayers in monasteries, to find meaning and express gratefulness for the richness of my life. 

The more I observe the moment that I am currently in, the richer and multi- layered my painting sketches become.

I see things I never took the time to notice before. Does this occur in your life and if so, how do you create the space to see more?

Because of this attention to the sacredness of each moment, I love to visit the site Gratefulness.

lauds

vigils

Life as art…a balancing act

 

note to self with crayon

I look at ” life as art “. It makes sense to me that the very act of being requires creativity and can improve with self-reflection.  Reading, meditating and experimenting have allowed me to put together a holistic , creative way of balancing life.    I have created a  mindmap of the areas in my life in which  I want to be sure to develop and unify. 

When you are creating art, it is always good to take a step back and reflect on it, asking whether it needs color, a certain linear quality, a better balance. These are some of the elements and principles of art.

The elements of design are line, form, color, value, texture and space. These concepts are organized by  the principles of art . The principles of art are balance, movement,repetition contrast, emphasis, balance, pattern and unity. So, I decided  to  apply these elements and principles to the big art of my life and see what would happen!

The materials that I build my life with are artwork, spiritual growth, physical needs, intellectual development,  relationships, environment (surroundings) and riches (both financial and other). I knew it would be difficult to remember these areas on a daily basis, so I made them into an acronym, ASPIRER.  I like that word , so I remember it easily.

Each day, I plan my activities and goals around these seven areas. Some occur more often than others, but I generally touch base with each of the areas at least once a week. No real pressure, just a gentle reminder to balance myself with my goals.  Kind of a visual nudge, I guess.

Color is constantly influencing me from choosing what to wear, to creating an appetizing meal,  to seeing a rose -to -lemon sunrise on my way to work! Its broad spectrum and depth delight me everywhere I look!  Color changes in relation to its surroundings. This brilliance of color color and its changeability cause me to be aware of the corresponding qualities in my life. It reminds me, also, how who or what I am near to has a great influence on how I perceive things!

Color, anyone?

Life as Art

 

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Drawing and  painting  has always been  an insightful and energy producing adventure in my life.  The process of creating it is as fruitful as the product!  I  have come to realize that all creating uses the same skills as making artwork….. including shaping my life! Using the process of creating can give  a template  to transform your life.

So what is “art” anyway?  According to Eric Booth, in the  extraordinarily insightful book  the everyday work of art

“At he birth of the word”art” it was a verb that meant “to put things together.” It was not a product but a process. If we can reclaim that view of art_ as a way of looking at and doing things, as a series of experiences and experiments_ all of us gain a fresh grasp on the proven practical ways to construct the quality of our lives.”

So let’s look at the definitions of both work and art to divine the process!

According to the Visual Thesaurus the verb “to work” is to 

“exert oneself by doing mental or physical work for a purpose or out of necessity; apply through; think through”

and defines”art”   as

“the products of human creativity; works of art collectively; the creation of beautiful or significant things; a superior skill that you can learn by study and practice and observation”

Michael Kimmelman, art critic for the NY Times and author  of the book, “The Accidental Masterpiece; On the Art of Life and Vice Versa”  clearly articulates the process of art making in our daily lives! He integrates stories of artists in his book, demonstrating how their way of working  can easily be applied to our lives.

“…art provides us with clues about how to live our own lives more fully… creating, collecting, and even just appreciating art can make living a daily masterpiece.”

 I have come across blogs that are created with the attitude of an artist.   “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin is one.  Her journey into the ways of attaining happiness share depth and  balance. I always leave her site with at least one new perception. It is definitely worth checking out!