Finding A New Normal

Over the last eight months, I forgot what it was like to have a routine. The winter holidays turned into a breakup, then a move, then a world-wide pandemic. (Wow, that escalated quickly!)

I’ve been living in survival mode for a while and needed a vacation. So, I took a week off to relax. There aren’t a lot of entertainment or travel options right now, but I challenged myself to try to get out and experience something new each day.

It was a difficult challenge, and I did spend some serious time on my sofa watching movies, but it turned out to be a helpful motivator. Check out all the cool stuff I found:

Turkey Creek Trail in Emma Long Metro Park…
…my new favorite hiking trail!
Thunderstorm clouds rolling across the Texas Hill Country.
I played around with watercolor painting, a medium that I’m fairly new at.
I realized that I can tube in the river along a beach that’s only a 20-minute walk from my home. The water was perfect!

After relaxing for a week, I was excited to get back to work. One of the big projects I’d been putting off was writing a mission statement and 2-5 year plan. The time off cleared my head enough for me to answer all the tough questions and now I have a printed statement (manifesto?) up at my desk, a constant reminder of my goals.

The questions I tackled:

What are my values?
What habits do I want to cultivate?
Who am I?
What do I want?
What is preventing me from getting it?
Who do I want to meet?
What gift(s) am I offering them?

This turned out to be an especially helpful exercise when I realized that I wanted to make a new daily routine for myself. When I saw on paper that I wanted to do yoga regularly, I was reminded to add it to my schedule. There are bigger goals too, like getting my art into galleries in other states. It seems like such a long-term goal that I simply wasn’t including it in my schedule, but I’ve broken it down into smaller parts, making it easier to begin.

It’s only been a week on this new schedule, but I’m already sleeping better and feeling more grounded and healthy. And I’m so glad I started doing yoga again; I can’t believe how tight my legs are!

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WHAT’S KEEPING ME BUSY

Doing free online yoga classes every morning with Yoga With Adriene.

Listening to Why You Should Quit The News and Surviving The Looming Mental Health Crisis by Mark Manson.

Looking at the fun, sexy, feminist art of Robin Eisenberg.

Cooking Chorizo Sweet Potato Chili.

Re-watching The Fabric Of The Cosmos series on NOVA and trying to wrap my head around space-time. (Wish me luck!)

Adding art prints to my new online shop.