Reflections on Caring for Ourselves

Currently, I'm suffering from overextending so that it's difficult to write at all. So I'm looking for other ways to create and develop while my hand heals. Realizing that I'm nearly totally dependent and focused on the use of my writing/right hand, I now am exploring other ways to write.  Soon I will have voice software to help me out. I'll let you know how that goes.

Today, I'm inspired to rearrange and sort, organize and beautify my home and office. Maybe its the influence of Friday, the approaching new Moon in Leo, the progressing of my sun through the last days of Taurus before it enters its 30 year cycle into Gemini, or just a typical day or feeling the urge to sort and sift and beautify my home and office. This summer I've been teaching an early morning class in Portland, a nice long drive from where I wake up in the morning. I've seen a few sunrises, but generally don't wake up into full consciousness until some time after 10. Needless to say, it's been a long summer.  The end is in sight, and I'm actually enjoying the people who get themselves up early to join in our conversations and search to understand the spiritual paths we're all on. 

In conversations, I find myself sharing ideas for what works to develop those aspects of ourselves that we long to wake up, explore, or express.  There are three things that have been stable methods for me to develop the writing discipline and the practice of self care needed to maintain an artist's life. First is my regular writing practice. Regular journal writing (recording dreams, making lists, writing about life, writing, and more writing). At first, it was hard to get started (20 years ago); now it's hard to find a substitute. Started an online journal that I can speak into, but for now I'm using photography as a daily journal. Second, handwriting and typing, rewriting even dreams into online folders. Looking at what I do, there is very little that does not involve either handwriting or typing. Third, living life normally. What I call normal is being able to open a package, use a can opener (okay, sometimes I use canned goods. Sue me), slicing onions or even a banana. Driving my car (I have a stick shift). Buttoning or unbuttoning, zipping or unzipping. By now, you get the idea.

So how does a writer live without writing?  Once I went from the present tense to the past, ( I am working too hard to I worked too hard), the damage had been done.  My bad habits caught up with me. So now, to heal and reorient myself, I am learning how to do just about everything differently. This is not an article on complaining, for my simple problem with a hand is not the end of the world, and is nothing in contrast to what others suffer.  For an artist, the proper care of the body, the tools, the resources, the talent, the skills, and the heart and mind, is as necessary as it is for other humans who depend upon their physical, mental, emotional, and socioeconomic health to live.

Quite simply, the needs are pretty simple. As William of Occam, a medieval philosopher suggested in his Occam's Razor: "The correct explanation to any problem was usually the one that made the simplest use of the available information," and I would add, resources. Here's my plan for healing:

 

1. Rest and get enough sleep.  As anyone who experiences pain will tell you, pain zaps our energy. Rest more, take regular breaks (even if you have to set a timer, as C. Hope Clark suggested to me), and spend more time relaxing and sleeping;

2. Listen to your body. Don't work into and beyond pain.  There used to be a silly suggestion among athletes, "no pain, no gain."  This is just not true. Many times we artists try to separate ourselves from our physical being and needs. Not a good idea. Our body is the main resource we have to create. Listen to what it tells you. Notice how you turn off your pain receptors by working past tired, pain, and good sense;

3. Treat yourself well.  Get regular exercise and fresh air. Get up from your work every hour, at least. for every minute you spend hunkered over a desk, workbench, potter's wheel, or computer, spend at least as much time moving your body in the opposite directions. Learn some healthy stretches, yoga moves, or physical therapy exercises that will not only alleviate pain you get into but also will prevent the pain in the first place. Eat properly and regularly. Keep hydrated. Take a bath or shower, or better yet, go for a swim. Walk. Organize taking care of yourself into your daily calendar of things to do;

4. Remember that wonderful doctor, therapist, spiritual advisor, psychic, consultant, mentor, or guide you found and paid good money? Remember and follow their good advice. The best $75 I ever paid was to an osteopath 25 years ago who taught me a simple stretching exercise to do in the shower to keep from getting back and neck pain. When I remember to do it, it works. More recently, my wonderful Dr. Taylor Rabbetz and my healer daughter, Shanie Chambers (Z Health) both have taught me about how my body works and how my brain can be retrained to help me keep balanced, whole and healed. Listen to and follow the path you say you believe in. Practice what you believe to be true;

5. Live more harmoniously.  Balance is not a destination, it is a way of living. We seek balance as if it is a place or condition that we can achieve and then maintain. Life isn't like that, and balance isn't an end goal. Balance is a way of living gracefully. Living gracefully is done when we move from one activity and state of being to another, and when we face the areas of life which signal imbalance. Imbalance is indicated when we are out of sorts emotionally, physically, mentally, relationally, economically, or in any way that disrupts and disturbs our lives. Draw a chart and indicate in any 24-hour period how much time you spend doing what you do. Start now. Don't describe your ideal day; describe the life you actually are living. Notice where you spend the most time; the least. Make a list of your key priorities for being healthy, happy, and in harmony. Then rearrange the way you live accordingly. Find ways to live more harmoniously;

I started this article as a result of spending time sorting and rearranging my office and home, but what it has actually ended up being is a sorting of my own priorities. As I have gone through folders, notebooks, lists, and dreams of the last year, I have found words of inspiration, words of encouragement, and words and images that have touched me and led me to a wonderful new home. What I only envisioned, has become my reality. I sit in my own home, looking out at the river and the mountains, the sky and the birds, and realize that from my imagination, my hopes, my dreams has come the reality of my life. Now to preserve this and to ensure that I can keep writing and doing my photography and art, I must honor my limits as well as my opportunities and talents. I must give vent to happiness as well as to the expression creativity. I must embrace relationship as well as my individuality and independence.

 

I found this lovely poetry that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote of a woman he loved. For me, it is true of anyone we love, anything we love enough to take care of ourselves so we may love another day.

 

Dall su a pace la mia depende

Chel che a lei paice

vita mi rende,

quel che le incresce morte mi da.

S'ella sospira, sopiro anch io,

e ma quell' ira,

quel piato e mio

e non ho bene s'ella nonl'ha.

My peace depends upon hers [his};

What pleases her[him], gives me life. That which pains her[him] gives me death.

If she[he[ sighs, I will sigh as well.

Her [his] angers and her[his] sorrows are mine

And I have no joys unless she [he] shares it.

From the opera, Don Giovanni, by Mozart

 

Now, I'm off to practice what I preach, taking a walk, getting out for some fresh air and sunshine on this beautiful summer day in July. Let me know how you take care of yourself and your art.

 

 

Comments

[Tammy Von Payens]

Intense yearnings for solitude and reflection hit me during a very awkward time. I needed to be present in the material now- busy working, socializing, going about the dailies with a energy and zeal I usually have.
By not honoring these yearnings, I was prohibiting a conversation my creativity was trying to have with me.
A wise friend appeared with sage words right when I needed them. We all need the quiet time to create with what we've been experiencing. We need these cycles.
A meditative walk by the river started silly sparks. Bead making out of seeds, blossoms, natural things. It was fun and cleared the way for more serious projects. The importance of fun in creation is giant for me.
Now I am working on a painting. Oil in a folksy-dreamy style. Small canvas, vivid fun.
Making a space for myself amidst the noise of the day is not just nice, it is mandatory. There must be an outlet of some kind for all the perceiving that happens every day.
We all must find an outlet. The creative yearnings call us to it.