My Word of the Year

     My word for 2014 is STRETCH. I want to go beyond what makes me comfortable and safe. Now, there's nothing wrong with comfortable and safe but for me it stops me from taking chances and doing new things. I want this year to be about stretching myself both physically by getting into better shape and mentally by trying new things. I don't want being scared to stop me from what could be really great things in my life. I plan to write way more than I ever have. I want to have dinner parties and art journal nights. I may even be thinking of opening my own little business. 2014 is going to be full of new opportunities and I am so excited to see what happens. 

I was blessed to receive this amazing canvas with my word of the year from Anna Meade. Anna does custom artwork. If you have a word for this year and would like a visual reminder to help you along take a look at Anna's website. 

  

In my head....

    

      I've been writing posts in my head for weeks now. I know I've been gone for awhile and there really is no good excuse. I could blame it on the holidays or that I moved but really I could have been posting through all that. Truth is I wasn't sure if I could get out what I wanted to say in a way that made sense to me much less to anyone reading this.

     I'm going through a period of finding out what direction I want my life to go in. I'm allowing myself to really be honest about what I enjoy, what I want to spend my time doing, and what type of people I want to surround myself with. It's been only a few months that I've been having these thoughts and talking to myself about it. I never really had those thoughts before and didn't think a great deal about where my life was going. I was just taking things one day at a time and going with the flow. But now I want more than just being carried away by time. I want my days to be meaningful. 

     

     

Feeling invisible

        I woke up this morning feeling invisible. As an introvert that happens to me from time to time. I was feeling like no one saw me. As if I had no value and there was no one interested in interacting with me. I began to wonder how an introvert like myself could build a tribe that would help rid me of the feeling of invisibility. Frankly I have no idea how to go about that. I was feeling a bit low when the phone rang. (I'm sitting at my desk at work as all these thoughts are running through my head) I spoke to the person for just a few minutes but it was a friendly conversation and I hung up the phone smiling. It was then that I realized that for me all I need is a few moments of being seen. A few moments of interaction with another person. I don't need a packed schedule or a busy social calendar. Just a few moments from time to time. What do you do when you feel invisible?

Birthday Gifts

     I've been Art Journaling for about two years now. I have discovered through doing the art and the journaling that I have some dreams and goals I want to achieve. I want to write and dig deep and learn about myself. So since I have a birthday coming up in a few says I thought I would gift myself two courses that would help me get there.

The first is "Dreamers with Intention" run by the lovely ladies at the Secret Rebel Club. These women are honest, fearless, and awesome. I so want to be them when I grow up. Hoping this course will gently push me in the direction of being a bit of a rebel. 

The second gift to myself is this course by Brene Brown. It encompasses art journaling with working thorough Brene Brown's book "The Gift of Imperfection". This is a 6 week course that begins on October 20, 2013.




http://www.oprah.com/own-brene-brown-course/lifeclass-presents-brene-brown-landing.html#explore

Where I've been

   Hello there. I'm still here. I had a bit of a setback and couldn't blog for a bit. Inserted in this post should be a picture of my right hand bandaged almost to the elbow. But Blogger is not cooperating and I didn't want to wait any longer to get this post up. I have tendinitis in my right hand along my thumb and forefinger. It was quite painful for awhile and being right handed it made doing even basic things very difficult.
   A curious thing happened while my hand was bandaged. I found myself unable to do certain things and then used that as an excuse to do nothing. Didn't matter if it was something that involved using my right hand or not. I stopped taking my evening walks. I didn't blog. I spent a good week or so just being a vegetable. Watching tv and surfing the net. I don't know if I needed that time to just sit and not think or do anything. I can tell you now that I'm done with that. I have things I want to accomplish and even though my hand isn't totally back to 100% it's time to get moving.
 So I'm back and hope to have another post with pictures if Blogger lets me up in the next few days.

Pushing past Fear

    I have been slowly doing the work of pushing past my fears. Creating this blog was a major breakthrough for me. I was scared of what people would think of me. I was scared I would freeze up and have nothing to say. I was scared no one would read this. Once I started taking small steps to getting this blog up and running I realized that I was really doing this for me. I want to write and have pushed this dream of mine away for years and years. I "write" all the time in my head. I can't tell you the number of posts I could have written had I not let the fear stop me. No more of that. I will write in spite of the fear. I can't let a feeling stop me from acting. I wish it hadn't taken me so long to get to this place but now that I'm here I won't let anything stop me. 
   If there is something you've always wanted to do or try......go for it. Pushing past fear is so much easier than living with the "what ifs". 

7 months later

I created this journal page 7 months ago during an art journal class. You were supposed to write about something you wanted to do but were scared to try. I wanted to start my own blog. At that point it was just an idea swirling around in  my head. I wanted to write about things I was thinking about and enjoying. But I was scared. Still am a little but I think that's normal when you try something new and it's something that's out there for anyone to see. It's taken me seven months and support from a really good friend to get this blog off the ground. I'm really happy that I did this in spite of the fear. It has me wondering what else I can accomplish when I push through the fear to the good feelings accomplishing  a dream or a goal can gives me. Hmmm.....I guess I have my next post idea.