Something has shifted

I’m really not sure what has happened, what has shifted only that something has. As many of you know this has been going on for some time but I now recognise there has been a real change.

I have paintings in an art exhibition at the moment and although I’ve been working away for a while now developing work, it wasn’t until I saw the paintings on display I realised how much my work has changed, how much more light, emotion, personality (not mine but the subject’s) there was in my art now. Others have clearly noticed this too for I have just sold two paintings in two days which for me has never happened before.

I have also realised that my biggest passion at the moment is my art which is a huge change for me. I have ideas stacked up, mostly in my head and am finding it hard not to be working on them.

The other realisation I had today after I’d been talking with a friend is that I want to be part of groups, not to be working on my own on everything. Again this is a huge shift and knowing me I am sure it will pass but for the time being I’m going to make the most of it 🙂

I’m still processing all of this of course, riding the wave, going with the flow with no idea where it’s taking me. All I know is that nothing is the same as it was before and that it hasn’t finished yet.

 

If you are interested I have an art blog/website at yvonneryvesart.wordpress.com if you’d like to pop over and have a look or maybe even follow me there.

Autumn Equinox / Alban Elfed / Mabon

So many names for the turn of the wheel at this time of year, the time where there is complete balance between light and dark, day and night, a time that prepares us for the coming of winter and Winter Solstice.

Like many others this year, I have been feeling the effects of the planetary shifts this year. The solar eclipse and new moon at the start of the month that coincided with my birthday, the pending Super Moon and lunar eclipse known as a Blood Moon at the end of the month and all that has occurred in between have all taken their toll. It has been hard to stay grounded amongst all the shifts that have been taking place.

Amongst this I have been letting go of a lot of things that are no longer filling me with joy along with some that are doing nothing but taking up space along with taking some time out from work to give myself chance to assimilate the changes and see where I want to go next. I have even been through my Facebook friends and have deleted all those that I have no recall of ‘friending’ or why.

After all these changes and shifts I am pleased to me marking this time of  year in much the same way as I did last year with a labyrinth walk at a friends house. The perfect representation of life, death and rebirth, walking a labyrinth is a great  way of releasing, going within and gaining understanding. I am also delighted that I am meeting and sharing food with other friends before we go, and sharing of food is always a good way ground as well as to mark any occassion.

It is at times like these though that I miss the labyrinth that used to be in my own garden. It was a large seven circuit one, big enough to walk with groups but not so big I got lost when walking alone. The upkeep on it was high and a damaged shoulder meant I couldn’t clip the paths so for me it had to go. For the spirits of the land the labyrinth had done its work and they were asking that the land to be returned to its original state and so it was. I still have a finger labyrinth but nothing beats the physical process of walking so I am looking forward to the rest of the day knowing that by the end of it I will be in a different place to the one I began it in.

Self Care

It wasn’t until I read a comment on one of my posts that I realised that what I am doing at the moment is in actuality self care. Once I realised this it got me thinking about all the things that we can do for ourselves that are in fact self care. These are some of the things I thought of but I am sure you have more:

Going for a walk

Sitting in the sunshine

Reading something for fun not because you have to

Spending time with friends

Making time to really enjoy a cup of tea or coffee

Allowing  yourself to just be

Listening to what your mind, body and spirit need you to do

Paying attention

Walking on the beach

Walking barefoot anywhere

Spending time in nature

Saying ‘no’

Stop doing things that do not make you happy

Eating things you love

Turning the computer off

 

What does your self care look like?

 

Being kind to myself

I’ve realised now that my taking a break from seeing clients isn’t just about giving myself chance to recharge after a very busy summer but is also about doing nice things for me, in other words being kind to myself.

Now that I’ve stopped I can see how little I have been doing this over the last months. When I wasn’t seeing clients or working with students I was shopping for food, sorting out the decorator, the carpet fitters or the curtain guy. The only thing I really did for myself was to go to a cranial sacral therapist which was more about helping my body to correct damage from an old car accident than being kind to myself. There’s a big difference doing things you need to rather than something just because you can.

This has been my first complete week without clients but I was running down last week too and managed to have coffee with a neighbour I hadn’t met until recently, one who makes delicious, completely natural body butters and lotions. We spent a morning trying out her existing products and exploring new ones that she is developing and yes I have ordered some from her which I am eagerly awaiting to pick up and use.

At the weekend I allowed myself to spend the best part of a day with a friend I haven’t seen for ages. We drank coffee, chatted, caught up and then went out for lunch, in other words we did nothing and enjoyed every minute of it. I have also been walking in woodland, grounding myself and allowing nature to do its work on my body and soul.

This week I have almost held fast to not doing any work although it would have been easy to do some as not all of my work involves seeing clients or students.

Over the last few days I have had a lot of ideas floating around in my head, some of these are about writing possibilities, a half finished book that needs completing, a draft of ideas for something I could write,  blog posts for my publisher but so far I have resisted. If know that if I am to really have chance to recharge then I need to stop completely and continue to spend time doing things that are outside of my work completely.

In the vein of being kind to myself I have booked a massage not because my body is telling me it needs one but because I would like one. I am also giving myself time to do an Equinox Labyrinth walk and making the time to eat with them before rather than do something that I can let others do instead. This is extremely unusual for me, to dip, out of something that I had committed to do so that I can do something more enjoyable but I am not indispensable and this is something I have also realised.

I can choose to stop, not to do things because I have to, to do things I want to, things that make me happy, things that give me chance to recharge and which make me feel good and that is my plan. From now until I choose to step back into work, until I get bored and am looking for things to fill my time, until then, I’m going to continue to go for coffee or lunch with friends, to make time to walk in the woods or on the beach, in other works to be kind to myself.