On Saturday, I noticed that I was riding the anxiety train straight to Hellsville. It was *intense* and I couldn’t put my finger on wtf was going on. I fired up 750words (which I *love*) and did some brain vomiting, and lo and behold! I figured it out! Freewriting for the win!
I have a lot on my plate. I’m teaching for Cosmic Cowgirls, BOD, Life Book, and Angel’s In My Studio. I have two interviews I’m supposed to be writing/video-ing for. I have laundry to put away. Dogs to care for. Personal art/writing stuff to do. Dishes piling up. A studio to finish preparing and decorating (my room of my own at long last!). Social plans to wrangle. Courses to participate in.
And, you know. Sleeping. Eating. Bathing. Walking.
At the beginning of the year, I became very adept at keeping lists. I had a Moleskine day planner and a notebook. Everything went in the day planner and then every evening, I wrote my list of things to do for the following day.
Well, I discovered iCal (I know! I’m slow!) and everything started getting typed in there. There’s no place for a To Do list in iCal (that I’ve found yet) so that list making ceased to be.
When I don’t have a concrete list of things I’m supposed to be working on, everything swirls around in my head like an anxiety whirlpool. I can’t get a mental fix on anything. It becomes overwhelming in no time flat. And I realized that as I was freewriting, but not before because the writing? Helped slow my mind down. Helped me get a fix on what was rising to the surface out of that alphabet soup of omgdoom.
Lists, people. They are teh awesome. The one I made for today has one item left on it and it’s only 3 p.m.
Word!
***
I made this today:
Inspired in part by Cat Caracelo’s Story Threads, my love of trees and my extreme happy over coming Autumn. Autumn is my very favourite time of year, second only to Spring. You can open the windows! You can snuggle! Everything smells amazing! The world explodes with color!
This spread made me think about the things I want to harvest. What’s ready to claim as my very own?
~My studio (working on it)
~A saner schedule (working on it)
~Better self-care (working on it)
~Poetry (working on it)
It’s a good list, eh?
You can watch me make today’s spread here.
Other Musings
I love this video by Dyan Reavely.
This blog makes me laugh/cringe/ponder taking up the 20/10 challenge. (language!)
Love you,
Effinator
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I’m often caught in the act of saying “I may be a lot of things, but one thing I’m not is listless.” :D
BTW, there is a place for ToDo lists on iCal … I used it for a while, but didn’t care for it.
rose recently posted..Fermented Summer Squash, Dig it
I LOVE this~ I love the colors. I love all the “simple” (in quotes because you make this look so simple, but it would be very difficult for me!) details in the highlights. I love how the torn pages in the background look like falling leaves to me.
This is perfect.
And your list is pretty good, too. I am a list maker. A serious list maker. Recently after cleaning my little room upstairs, I realized that if I didn’t make a list of the new storage areas for my supplies, I wouldn’t know where anything was! I make lists for parties, gifts, things I need to do “today” and things I would like to do in the near future. I find old lists at the bottom of my purse, on my counters, and in books where I’ve stuck them as bookmarks. I should actually save them and incorporate them into a piece of art!
Keep up the painting/writing. It is so good to “hear” the lilt in your “voice.” I find that arting slows down my mind and my breathing. It’s a wonderful thing. And now I am babbling….