This is a guest post sent to me by Liza Karle. I love how Liza has found ways to express her creativity despite having very limited energy right now! Thank you for sharing Liza!
Lately, my physical and mental energy has been very low. My mental concentration has been so bad, I’ve been unable to enjoy my usual ‘escape’ – reading fiction. I really needed to find a distraction that could cheer me up and yet work within the bounds of my energy envelope.
I missed being creative, so I turned to doing really easy craft or arts projects. I’m a very visual person and find art very absorbing and calming. But often I can hold myself to artistic standards beyond my actual talents ! So, instead of avoiding art projects because I can’t do them perfectly, I’ve gone back to basic, almost juvenile projects. For example, making my own birthday cards with the best bits of old birthday cards, mounted on colourful card and adorned with stickers. This is a cheap way of making something special for people. Because the project is so low key and cheap, there’s less pressure from my perfectionist side to ‘achieve’ or be brilliant. I can do this project in short bursts and still have a satisfying amount of cards finished to feel happy with.
I find that people really like receiving personalised, hand-made cards! Even though I have very little energy, I can still nurture friendships this way until I am well enough to see my friends in person. Also, going through old cards with positive messages from people who care about you can be a balm for the soul when you’re really struggling with life.
A step up from birthday cards is what I call ‘wallpaper art’. When I’m in a store that sells wallpaper I keep a look out for scenes or patterns that could be used as a work of art. I then tear off a good length off the sample roll and take it home. Yes, without paying anything!
I have loads of cheap art supplies, so I pulled out a few cheap canvases and did two projects. The first was simply to cut out areas of an exotic bird scene (from that free wallpaper sample!) and staple them to a canvas each. Hey presto, art in under ten minutes! The canvases were the frameless type which can go straight on the wall without faffing. The second one was slightly more complicated- I sprayed small canvases with paint, let them dry and then stuck butterfly wallpaper cutouts on top. Again, very quick, easy and cheap. In this way I have been able to refresh the art in my flat and also honour the urge to make changes as Spring arrives. Yes, even in my depleted body the sap is trying to rise!
By doing these easy projects, I am resting my conscious mind and also practising being in the present. I am able to be respectful of my low energy but at the same time reconnect to my creative side. By accepting my limitations and focusing on what I can do I have been able to produce something that feels positive and gives me hope for the future.
If you’d like to write a guest post about how you keep yourself entertained with limited energy, I’d love to hear from you! Let’s share ideas and inspire each other!
You’ve inspired me to go out and pick the buttercups, and press them in a phone book. When they’re dry, I tape them to a card using double sided tape, and voila, living art for the art-challenged!