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Practicing Self-Care during the Holiday Season
Practicing self-care during the holiday season can be a bit of a challenge. It is a season filled with additional commitments. This can mean finding moments to relax and be mindful can be rare. It made me think of the self-care habits that I have in place over the holiday season that bring rest and restoration. Self-Care through Handmade Holiday Cards One of my self-care practices over the holiday season is making holiday cards. Not only do people love handmade cards, it can be an outlet for slowing things down and finding mindfulness. I find using a loose medium like watercolor is very relaxing. Working with my hands and concentrating…
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Dealing with Loss During the Holiday Season
The holiday season is upon us! This season can bring with it many positive emotions, joy, peace, and special moments with family and friends. It’s a great time to create some cherished memories. But for many of us, Christmas can be a very bitter sweet experience. It can be a time of revisiting loss in our lives. From broken relationships, the death of loved ones or just wishing that situations in our lives were different than what they are can bring some unsettling feelings. Today I would like to talk about dealing with loss during the holiday season. Finding Acceptance So how do we navigate our way through some really…
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Why I Killed my Ego
This week my thoughts have turned to the concept of ego and moving past fear based living to acceptance. Have you had moments where you have said things you didn’t mean and felt instant regret? Have you had moments of wanting to hide something that you’ve done because you were too ashamed to tell the truth? All of us in some point in our lives look at our actions and ask “What in the world was I thinking?” This is why I killed my ego. What is Ego? Ego can be defined as your personal identity or sense of self-worth. In Latin, ego translates as “I.” By nature, our ego is…
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Finding Creativity Through Art Journaling
Earlier this week I wrote about the Importance of Creativity and the need for creativity in our daily lives and the lessons it teaches. I created a video to provide a synopsis of the article. As I was thinking about the Importance of Creativity and how it affects my artistic process, I wanted to share some of my creative art journaling ideas with you. My hope is that you will see the possibilities that come with the medium. Why Art Journaling? Art journaling is very freeing as you don’t have to stick to a particular medium or style. It can be a place for personal meditation and expression. I…
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The Importance of Creativity
In a world where creativity is somewhat embraced, but isn’t seen as nearly as important as money, power, or status, how do we respond to this? Is creativity just an emotional whim that is meant as part of our private lives, or is it something more? I would like to delve into the importance of creativity to the spirit, how it’s critical to our lives and should be part of our self-care habit and not an afterthought. Why is Creative Expression Important? A few days ago I saw a Ted Talk about art, it was called “Stop Making Art and You Die” by Rich Theroux. I found it very inspiring,…
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Embracing Self-Worth: Connecting Values and Identity
Have you ever had moments in your life where you have felt lost? That sense of who you really were as a person felt so uncertain and you felt so alone in that moment? If you have ever been there, you are not alone. I have been reflecting on the idea of identity, what it means and why we allow people to undermine our sense of self; that worthiness and confidence that we are ok just as we are. Not long ago I had to walk away from a toxic work situation. I knew if I didn’t make a serious change soon the consequences would be severe. Not just to…
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Finding Joy in the Little Things
Happy Friday! In Calgary it’s a rainy Friday- we’ve had some storms rolling in and we’ve gone from some hot spring days (27C or 80 F) to a much cooler, wetter weekend. Instead of lamenting about the weather, I have been thinking about how we can find joy in the little things and learning to build the habit of gratitude even if the weather isn’t great or our situations aren’t optimal. Finding Joy Takes Effort It would be nice to say that finding joy is easy and that it comes naturally. Sometimes, it feels like an uphill battle to find peace and joy in life. To choose joy is to…
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The Season of Self-Discovery
At the moment I’m in a season of self-discovery. I’m not sure if you have had moments like this in your life where you have given yourself permission to try something totally different and new. Allowing yourself to try something new without fear and with no expectation of the outcome. It’s a bit of a scary place, because it means letting go of those expectations and ideas of outcome, having no real control and accepting that you have no control. I’ve been in this place of discovery for a while, working on regaining a healthy body and a healthy mind and with that have been thoughts of future employment. I…
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“How did I end up here?” Finding Awareness in our Everyday Lives
Have you ever had moments in your life where you’ve asked yourself “how did I end up here?” I had one of those moments just over a year ago. It’s amazing how we end up in places that we never meant to be. It feels sudden. In reality it is every little decision, every seemingly insignificant compromise and all of the sudden you’re somewhere that you never intended to go. When the realization of the situation has really set in, the question is how do we move on from this place? You may feel broken or be broken, but in that brokenness there is an opportunity to grow. Experiencing Burnout…
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Welcome to Hop-A-Long Studio
Over the last few years I’ve come to understand how pivotal art and creativity has been to my own self- care. Having spent most of my working life in a corporate environment, I have always found it hard to “turn off” at the end of the day. How did I deal with the pressure and stress of the workplace? I found artistic and creative expression through mediums such as mixed media painting, art journaling and photography. They have been especially helpful to be able to express my feelings, to understand them and to move past them. In 2018 I hit a crossroad. I was on the road to serious burn…
The Art of Self-Care
