As said earlier, being a stay at home mom, our focus is mostly on our children and our family. We tend to not focus on ourselves. We give least preference for things we want to do in our lives.
Before I started my artistic journey, this was exactly where I used to be. As time went by, I lost focus, I lost my confidence and stopped even believing in my own abilities. The only work I used to do is cleaning, cooking, taking care of the baby and mostly doing the home chores for my family. All of these tasks were important to me, but at the same time I gave least importance to myself. There even came a time, when I actually started getting frustrated with myself. I stopped talking to people because I felt I was not worthy enough. I started hating myself and eventually I fell into a depression.
Depression is very common in women and I strongly feel that one of the reason for this is because we hate ourselves for not being able to be the person we wish to be in our life, for not doing the things we love and for not doing something for our inner self to make her feel nourished with happiness and a healthy creative mind.
The reason it is happening with us, is because we are letting ourselves be that way. So it is of no use complaining or feeling that you were not able to do something in life because of somebody else or people around you. Just forget about the past of what you were not able to achieve, but start right now and focus on the present. ‘What can I do today & how can I start today?’ are the questions you need to ask yourself. What can you do to help yourself start with a creative work & nurture your inner Artist?
To nurture your inner artist, you could do anything, for example- spend some time at the lake, or take some time to write down your thoughts,& creative ideas, or find some florals to draw from the garden, take a walk to find some twigs & branches to paint and draw. It could be anything to give yourself a small incentive and help yourself feel good & happy about.
This process will nurture and help your inner artist get started with ideas and creative sparks. It will also make you feel good about yourself for taking small steps towards your artistic journey.
Doing these small steps could also help you heal any wounds or scars that have been lying deep within you. Just observe things around you, plants, trees, leaves, flowers, stones, insects, animals, and all those small things that you could draw and paint.
Exercise:
- So today’s exercise for you is to get started & nurture your inner artist to give some care she needs.
For example, my list would look like this,
- Going for a walk and find one inspiration to paint
- Get outside my studio, go downstairs to find a flower to draw.
- Clean up the balcony and fill up with some flowers to make myself feel good about that space.
- Make a good cup of tea for myself to help my creative brain relax & flow with ideas and creativity.
- Do meditation first thing in the morning & journal all my thoughts in a book.
Now what would your list look like? Write them down
- Create an artwork from any one or more nurturing activities you will do today or in the coming weeks