Back to basics

A month on from my last post, and I am struck by how perspectives can change so much in a short time. I was feeling very under-employed in January - now I am feeling the opposite, and at times, I've been quite overwhelmed in the past week, as I've struggled to adjust to this 'new normal'.

Self-care was a topic I wrote about last month, and its actually a constant theme in my thoughts, as I work in a stressful and emotionally demanding area, as a therapist with children and families. Increasingly lately, this has been impacting on my sleeping patterns, which are becoming unhelpfully unreliable.

Last night, whilst awake when I didn't want to be, I tried imagining an 'anxiety monster', as this would be something I might ask my clients to do.  This is how it looked in my mind, sort of. Its more 3D than this, and I am planning to make a soft textile version...

 I have tried to keep drawing, and posted some of my daily drawings on Instagram for a week.

I can see self-care creeping through in this drawing! Its been important to me to try to stay healthy and keep up my exercise regime and meditation practice, but the meditation has been slipping of late, which I suspect is impacting on my sleep. Everything is connected, somehow.

This collage was prompted by a dream of walking along the muddy banks of a river, probably the river Dart, which flowed through the town I lived in during most of my childhood, Totnes in Devon, South West England.  It was completed in my peer supervision group, and it is also anticipating some exciting new work projects.

I attended a great training workshop with Liana Lowenstein, a Canadian social worker, and prolific author, who also works with children, in private practice. And this week I am going to another of her workshops, this time in Sydney. The drawing is of my family as Brassicas, which I completed in Liana's workshop.

My younger son has been overseas, and this has been inducing some anxiety, although its also given us an early taste of having the proverbial empty nest. And that has been fine...

A chapter I co-wrote with a colleague has been published in a new book on working cross-culturally in creative therapies. This is really exciting. There is another chapter on the way, in fact, just about to go to the publisher, which has some great research results for art therapy. That may take a while to be published, but its even more exciting, as its the result of collaborative work with two of my colleagues over almost a decade.And I believe its ground-breaking.

There is certainly a lot happening on the work front. And its mostly all good. I just hope I can keep a good perspective on things, not get overwhelmed too often, and get back into daily mindfulness meditation.

I'll keep you posted, excuse the pun.

Namaste.

more later

the grammar of happiness and eat, fast, live longer!

frangipani in my backyard


 drawing a day: yourself. multicoloured pencil crayon

This drawing is the first in the 'drawing a day series', it is 'draw a picture of yourself'.  I enjoyed using the multicoloured pencil (that I also gave to everyone I work with for christmas). I do look severe/serious here! But for a quick drawing I quite like it.

From Inside the Russian Doll: Looking Out.
collage, pen and pastel drawing

 I did this a day or two earlier, but they seem to go well together - something about the eyes perhaps?

This is going to be a quick post, as I need to eventually look at my assignment, and I am very good at distracting myself (so far, I have vacuumed the house, gone shopping, got my haircut, put on and hung out washing, read other people's blogs, written this one - you get the idea).

I wanted to mention the Grammar of Happiness,shown on ABC on Monday night, about the Brazilian Pirah tribe, which has no past or future tense in their language. This is interesting from a linguistic point of view, which is the angle of the film, but also from a psychological perspective, since living in the present seems to be so important to our well-being and, you guessed right, happiness.And language is deeply implicated in psychological well-being. In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, the relationship is analysed in detail via Relational Frame Theory. Interesting.

In addition, I came across another book/documentary, Eat, Fast, Live Longer, mentioned in the Guardian by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, of River Cottage fame, who is currently trying to lose weight using the 5/2 approach. This involves fasting for 2 days out of 7, and eating normally the rest of the time. The idea being that this does not get boring like most diets. Although not clinically tested, it seems to work for a lot of people, and reduces their risk of a number of chronic health problems as well, for good scientific reasons outlined in the book (by Michael Moseley and Mimi Spencer). Moseley is a doctor, and the presenter of the original Horizon program, shown in 2012 in UK, I don't think it has been on here yet (or I must have missed it).

Anyway, it sounds interesting, I think I may give it a try...if I can cope with the carbo lows, hunger pangs, and keep exercising.

now for that assignment...


more later

Another heatwave: going back to work, keeping it smaller

 tiny house: pencil drawing

I like this because it is small. Its a small drawing of a smaller piece of china. in the form of a small house. It sort of looks like a face, as well. To me, at least...

Its been hard to go back to work, apart from the air-conditioning. I think I am still in a heat-induced veil of vagueness. Left my purse at work, on the first day back...I am in no hurry to get back into top gear, though. I want to keep things smaller, for as long as possible, before they get impossibly BIGGER!

I was just reminded of this the other day:

I am always looking for a new creative challenge...perhaps I wont do it everyday though, just in my own time. That way it might not get BIGGER!

And I will post any drawings I do.

And now for something new:

 Garden of Enlightenment at Chenrezig

Garden of Enlightenment at Chenrezig

Chenrezig is a Tibetan Buddhist retreat centre at Eudlo,  in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.  I went there for the first time the other day: although I had heard a lot about it, I had never actually been. It was a nice, relaxing visit, on a hot, hot day (another one!). 

This part of the garden is on the roof of a shrine building, and consists of a number of stupas, which represent the Buddha's mind, and whose symbolism is explained in the link. The four corners at the base represent Love, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity, which seems like a good basis for life, or even, Doing what Matters. I am certainly not a Buddhist, but there is something very universal about these values, which probably explains the growing appeal of Buddhism in the West.

I have received my first politics assignment back, and here is the link to the blog I had to post. 

more later.