All backgrounds are layered with gorguss girl notelets I wrote on throughout the year....A 2015 of practice....making the practices that help me stay healthy and happy part of everyday life and trusting that other things will follow or emerge as they are meant to. I've a page to start my 2015 intentions on and start the year rolling.
Here are the 2 small albums I've chosen for some portable art journalling and mandala drawing in 2015.My word for the year ahead is ' PRACTICE' with the goal of making things that keep me healthy, emotionally well and 'happy' a daily, weekly or monthly practices. One of the big challenges for the year ahead is to bring the practice of meditation into my life.Ive tried before to do this, enjoyed it, felt the benefits but not managed to be consistent with it.... without pressure I wish to continue my mindfulness through yoga and running/walking but also bring it into my life through drawing mandalas I have 20 pages at 4 X 4 to create them and then a plan to create some coasters from them at the end of next year....soo a little creative goal tooo. Ive an openness to the opportunities to meditate as I know they will present themselves without my having to struggle and make it very hard work.... as thinking of it as hard work creates an obstacle to my hardwiring soooo working with it in a different way.
I loved the inspiration that Journal 52 and The Documented Life Project provided and valued it soon much last year so I also have a small moleskin journal with 60 sides in concertina style pages to journal my weeks and months intentions, affirmations , reflections on achievements and savour my feelings of gratitude. I've also my other journals for larger spreads when I'm inspired to journal and art on a larger scale and delve into deeper level stuff as desired ...looking forward to enjoying the 'present' in 2015. Now the fun of prepping the covers and pages over the next few days.....more journal pages in progress using all my little reflections collected in my reasons to be grateful and positive in 2014 jar .....
....key to my 2014 achievements are
How focusing on love and being loved are essential to my happiness.
The importance of my close circle of friends are on all sorts levels and how I learn such a lot about myself and the world from them.
The comfort practicing gratitude has brought me.
The acceptance of ups and downs and going with their flow.
Reassurance that it is not life threatening to move out of my comfort zone and
the boost this has given to my motivation and enthusiasm.
The body and mind confidence Ive achieved by staying flexible and building core strength through yoga and pilates and the energy boost achieved from a some return to running.
The therapeutic value and sense of achievement obtained from arting,creating, baking and sewing.
This afternoon I will let my imagination guide me through some art journal long to embody these achievements ....my word for 2014 had been incubate and I am feeling my words for 2015 might be stronger or practice .......leaning more toward practice at the moment .....
Such a great time for reflecting and gathering inspiration for the new year.....At the beginning of 2014 I started collecting thoughts and small personal achievements ....here they are and tonight I will start to look through them and reflect ....
Well a busy weekend that was... lots of joyous energy...where I am proud to say i managed to stay centred probably until yesterday when tiredness n trigger conversation with mum caused a little splurge of irritation n annoyance better known as good old anger! my angry rebellious child surfaced momentarily to protect my wee frightened inner babe before being soothed by a little creative time this morning ... the good ole drama triangle pulls me in once again... but not for long.... fleeting feelings needing to be acknowledged and processed .... dealing with high as a kiteness energy and the 'new shiny expectation' n imaginings the weekend seems to have presented to my lovely mum and her forgetfullness that I am her daughter also and that the stuff my lovely sis went through as a child is ditto for me! ..... it was hard to feel I could hold that space for her when i felt the churning in my chest n gut of past pain tempered only with the relief and gratitude to the counselling n courage I know has led in some way to my healing and accepting it .. nursing my wee hurt little inner child and trying to present an adult self was challenging but hey I did OK n ok is good enough "i choose unconditional love n hope over pain n expectation" ... grateful, loved n supported thankyou universe x
Journal of course......
o.k I am in a phase of those early rises where yesterday I chose to lie with it and eventually slept...infact slept in! n felt better for it...after a week of 'work' and feeling the breath of the "time police" down my neck I figured it must be better for me to do that soooo I did......but today there are not enough hours in the day to balance my creative longings n my committment to others (which I am looking forward to tooo ).... and if I dont scratch my creative itch I WILL break out in a resentment rash sooo up at crack of dawn to outlet onto some journal pages and colour in mermaids... Inside this 49 year old woman there is a 9 year old girl...and its time to let her play.....
So early this morning I sat listening to the birds sing inbetween the rumblings of the airoplanes landing or setting off (we live near the airport on the flight path) pondering on how grateful I felt ...how happy I feel and how blessed I am. Aftermy cuppa n toast Ill scoot off to York see my lovely mum (n her doggy Ambz) we'll drive to the sea side and spend the day up n down a beach throwing ball n ambling....there is heaven on earth and this is it! although of course true heaven is having chel n mel there toooo.So this morning i used my wee jotter n jar to capture how i was feeling...Ive done this all year on top of my art journalling and its worked for me in respect of sometimes 'putting stuff to bed' so as its not wooshing through my head as i hit the pillow fuelling insomnia,gives me a way of savouring joyful feelings generating personal happiness and also this year contains some reference to my health goals and is creating a little progress map on that front.....of course to anyone else they look like random jottings in a jar but they mean so much more to me.
Before the new year I pondered and reflected on what I loved in my life and added wellness,space and was something I wanted to do more of....staying active can be a challenge these days as my energy levels are soooo up and down....I cannot do much about this and the one thing that enables me to listen to my body and work with whatever mindset or energy I have is yoga.... it is quite a gently transformational practice for me...I spent time pondering over how I practice and what my focus was...and I created an art journal spread to honour it....
When I was caught up in the frenzy of christmas I felt a surge of materialism that I was really pretty uncomfortable with....I find this pattern a stress provoker and although initially a buzz comes from frantically buying it really never quite hits the spot where love kicks in sooooo I really wanted to examine it with a view to being mindful about it this year and to challenge it ....again I thought pretty deeply about my values and beliefs avoiding judgements as they do not seem real to me they are a kind of game my thoughts play!.....and i came up with my spread highlighting all I needs is in me....ok food n water necessary! and enjoyed but giving love usually reciproctes love and we all have divinity within....these two spreads although not overly elaborate really embody some of my real focus and positive thoughts and reflections I did at that time......
Into my second week of intention for January...am following 2 projects but have gone small and simple for my journal as I want it to be really portable and easy to create my pages so as my practice is weekly,is mindful and full of thought and the focus is on intention and staying motivated with that intention in the weeks and months ahead. I hope to use some of the technique and inspiration from the documented life and journal 52 to do this .....and as ever it will be my perception and art that I create as authenticity is sooo important to me, and part of my journey, when expressing myself through art journalling..I hope to post a few pages in the facebook group but will probably blog here a little bit more in respect of my progress....some fab work going on in these two projects and am so grateful for the opportunity to tag along.
A lovely yoga tradition that resonates with how i want to approach this unfolding year and grow as a person...
chhttp://yogainternational.com/article/view/how-to-create-a-sankalpa#.UsbpvOxjfTc.facebook
