Rest and Renewal

“Winter’s Quiet”

11×14”

watercolor on paper

I’ve really leaned into the whole hibernation theme this winter. There’s a lot of talk out there about how resting is necessary and breaks are rejuvenating, yet I always seem to fall short in my quest for rest. I tend to feel guilty- like I should still be producing, contributing, secretly working on new ideas and plans. But this year I decided to do things a little differently. 

Here are a few things I’ve been up to:

I decided to take the month of January off of social media. I wanted to cocoon myself away from all of the noise in order to really tune into what I needed and wanted. Though I missed interacting with a few folks, it’s been extremely refreshing and it’s given me a bit of space to reevaluate how I’d like to use social media going forward.

I spent a lot of quiet time crafting, meditating, and doing yoga.

I baked, ate, and gave away my body weight in cookies. Baking is my love language, in part because I love cookies, but I also love giving something sweet away to the sweet people in my life. 

I watched all five seasons of Yellowstone and then googled, “how to cut side swept bangs” in order to channel my inner Beth Dutton. No one was here to take the scissors away from me, but they turned out great. I’ve been cutting my own hair for years, so I wasn’t too scared. 

I had facetime coffee dates with friends and family in other states.

I celebrated a huge milestone in my son’s life. I’m so very proud of him.

I worked on my online anatomy class (did you know you can take free online courses from universities like MIT and Yale?)

I started an Art Club at my home with some artsy friends.

Another thing I like to do in January is experiment with different mediums and styles. It’s almost like a little reset for my brain. I had a bunch of canvases lying around from my acrylic abstract days and decided to have a little fun. It’s so interesting how the brain resists change at first. Though both acrylic and watercolor paints are both water based, their properties and how they work on the canvas/paper are vastly different. I made it a point to work on both watercolor pieces and abstract pieces in the same day to give my brain a workout- going between the two was challenging but also lots of fun.

All of these restorative practices have given me a new dose of inspiration to start this new year off right. I’ve got a lot of ideas swirling around in this head of mine, so keep checking back here (you can also sign up for my newsletter to stay updated)! I hope your year is off to a great start and that you, too, feel a sense of renewal.