Unwinding to Recharge
It's amazing to me how a major milestone in my life that I looked forward to for many years could be over in a snap of my fingers and yet I still feel as if I hiked up an enormous mountain. That milestone I am talking about was my wedding day. Being an artist, I spent a little over a year putting my personal stamp on my own wedding by creating my own stationary, centerpieces and floral designs. I was tempted a time or two to put my students to work sweatshop-style working on my wedding decor, but little-by-little I finished it all just shy of my wedding day. Just like everyone says, it was all over after one amazing night and now after spending a week in sunny Mexico with my husband I am back at work trying to play catch up. It helped that my first day back was a professional development day and the entire staff was treated to an all-day Yoga workshop. As I sat with my head down on the table in an organized meditation, trying to pretend I was back under the grassy umbrella in the white sand of
Cancun, my mind raced around thinking about my next upcoming endeavor- Grad School. I applied to Boston University's Online Master of Art Education program starting on Halloween this year. I thought about taking out more loans to add to my mounting pile, I thought about writing papers again and checking to see if I cited sources in the correct format and I thought about taking time off next summer to complete the campus studio portion of the program. As I forced myself to think of the calm beach again with the soft waves lapping the shore I wondered if I piled too much on my plate like I did at the buffet on our Honeymoon. I may not be so great at traditional meditation, but completing the workshop made me realize that my mindless doodling and visual journaling was like my form of meditation. I feel the most calm when I am sketching, writing notes or even thumbing through a coffee table book for inspiration. All those things are similar to the yoga practices we were learning. I decided to make it a goal for myself, that even when I am busy doing school work or creating lesson plans, I need to carve out little sections of time for myself to focus on creative habits- even if it is just simple doodling or cutting out pictures from magazines- and I need to NOT FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT! No matter how many dirty dishes are in the sink!
