Nourish your inner self. Do you do this enough? I certainly don't, especially after becoming a mother, but I was never particularly good at it anyway. It is so easy to forget to take care of yourself when you are so busy taking care of others.
I've been granting myself what I'm calling "Creative Porridge*" to fill up again, to nourish my inner artist who I've been starving this past year. I plan to continue doing this and have a current recipe running at all times. Sometimes it might just involve drinking tea every day. Or watching a stupid comedy. But "Creative Porridge" will be a part of my life from now on. Things that are for me.
My current "Creative Porridge" recipe:
ONE PART VISIONARY MOM - Creative Mama e-coaching with Lisa of VisionaryMom.com. I've never, ever done any sort of "coaching" before but I was compelled to sign up for a four week coaching session and I'm so glad I did. Sure, I could have cleaned out my garage (and all the other stuff she forced me to do like icky collages - no, just teasing, Lisa) on my own, but I don't think I would have done it as fast nor with as much clarity.
ONE PART FISH BOWL - I also signed up for In The Fish Bowl:: Life as an Artist e-course with Marisa of Creative Thursday. Why am I paying to hang out with Marisa online when I can see her live and in person for free? (my husband asks) Well, first, because she has a lot of great stuff to say and I don't want to miss out on anything. Second, it is totally worth it! Making connections with new people. A dedicated space and time to focus on this sort of stuff. Marisa as our school of fish leader with her positive, calm and encouraging ways. I need this. I'm looking forward to seeing how the next five weeks unfold - both for me and also hearing about the others in our group.
ONE PART STUFF - And I've been buying stuff. Art stuff. Art supplies! It has been a long time since I treated myself to those types of creative treats and holy crap, I had forgotten how tasty they are. The arrival of a new glaze paintbrush or a blank sketchbook makes me all giddy.
So that is the current blend. Simple, but I like my recipes like that.
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Care to share your current recipe? Are you nourishing or starving your inner self?
*I adore that Wikipedia says porridge is "used traditionally in many cultures as a food to nurse the sick back to health" which is so incredibly appropriate for what I'm trying to do. Plus, we've actually been eating a whole lot of the real stuff on rainy mornings - like the photo above of my son's bowl.
