Couldn’t resist sharing my kitchen window sill with you, given my last post on decluttering. Beyond is my life-saving pansy garden – clustered (cluttered?) all together outside where I see it every single day. These are pansies and violas with faces – not the newer that all of one color. In the dead of winter, when the days are way too short, the nights ways too long, and sometimes the pansies are even buried under snow (which, by the way, I mostly love) these lovely cluttered collection remind me that things of beauty are always around us, even when we can’t see them.
On dark days, when the rest of the world goes on with spectacular sunrises, splendid blue skies, and everyone else (you know you believe that) happier, more balanced, more fulfilled and on a path you can’t seem to find, it doesn’t hurt to have something you can pull out of a hat to help you through the next minute or two (or seven or thirty).
So here are some suggestions to get you started:
- Go stand outside somewhere, preferably with trees (leafed or not) and watch clouds or stars. There is something amazing about all that “out there” going on all the time and no one stopping to realize “Wow – look at that!” Daytime – find at least one dragon in the sky. Nighttime – find Orion.
- Volunteer to work a few hours for your favorite non-profit this very week – you know, the one you always give money to? Give them some time instead.
- Call a friend and have coffee. That one person you love being with but neither of you ever have time. Make time.
- Buy yourself a coloring book and an 8 box of crayons and color.
- Go to the dollar store with $5 and splurge. Try to come out with at least one bottle of bubbles. Blow them out across the parking lot.
- Send someone you care for a handmade card just because.
- Eat out or order in. With dessert.
- Pick wild flowers and put them in a jar where you can see them all day. No flowers? Find interesting bare branches and do the same.
- Find water and sit by it.
- Find a local co-op art gallery and go browse.
- Find some swings and swing.
- Dream about the “trip of your life” then start collecting information: places to stay, things to see, ways to get there. Figure out the cheapest way possible to take this trip. Then figure out the most expensive way possible.
- Borrow a kid or take your own and go search for fairy houses – can’t find one? make one for your garden or a corner of your house. Write a story about the fairies in
Fairy House by Tammy Vitale your neighborhood – what clan they belong to, where they came from, their daily habits.
- Take a class or workshop in something that’s always intrigued you – audit it so that you get the learning without the stress of grades. Take it on-line so it’s at your own pace.
- Turn off the tv and turn on some music and dance like no one is watching.
- Take a bubble bath. Light the bathroom with candles. Sip Champagne. Get creative.
- Take on a role – pretend you are full of joy. How would you act? How would you feel? Go to the mirror and convince yourself.
- Write yourself a love letter.
- Buy a pot of pansies.
- Bonus: Buy a pretty piece of pottery and put these ideas on slips of paper along with your own. Make a list of 14 things that delight you – put them in too. Pick one when you’re feeling blue or lost or fragile and enjoy.
- Another bonus: pay for the person behind you in line without telling them.
Finding ways to take care of yourself gets easier with practice. I hope you’ll share your ideas with us!
Wylde Women’s Wisdom
3 Ways to Get Unstuck Without Coming Unglued:
1. Recognize you aren’t the only one
2. Practice Imperfection
3. Recognize there are no rules – make your own. Tammy Vitale
6 Comments
As always: you’re welcome!
And I should add stilting, yes?!
Just what I needed Tammy! Thanks 🙂
Martha – I’m forever forgetting what I know – that’s why it’s good to keep lists or jars with these ideas to remind us!
Thanks for stopping by!
I really like #17 but I’m always forgetting it. It’s the simplest, really!
blowing bubbles on swings – even better than across the parking lot!
Wasn’t paying attention to the moon (part of that transition thing – I used to *always* know where the moon is)
all excellent ideas, healthy and creative!!
I think the weird weather (at least in our part of the world) in the past year has made transitioning the seasons even more difficult. And let’s not forget that waxing gibbous!!
So here’s to blowing bubbles while on the swings!!