Doing Too Much and How To Do Less

'I believe I can' - affirmation card

Hello my friends,


I have the most amazing amount of stuff I want to achieve at the moment!  I've taken on two creative business courses (which I'm doing and loving), am dreaming and planning new art work not to mention all the normal stuff that comes with family life such as the supermarket shop, the school run, cooking, keeping the house clean etc; you know the kind of things I'm talking about!


When life gets full up with things to achieve, I sometimes find myself looking for a fast forward button - I feel so much excitement about my projects and ideas, that I just cannot wait to get them all done and out there!  When I feel this happening, I realise I need to slow down and find my rythmn again.  It's just as easy to lose my momentum on something if I go at it head down and full speed, as when I take an age beginning a new project, and the ideas percolate for too long and lose their sparkle.

What happens when we lose our rythmn and go into overdrive?
 
My experience has been this:  

Life becomes jumbled and untidy 
I tend to eat rubbishy foods (like cookies, chocolate, heaps of toast and marmalade and kettle chips) 
I am late going to bed and spend way too much time on my computer.  
I rush my 'relaxing' bath and race through my day with each thought chasing the tail of the last one.  
I get crabby and irritable
I feel overwhelmed


Not too much gets achieved when I'm like that because there is no rythmn.  It's jerky, it's messy, and it's painful because it leads to feelings of frustration and failure.  When I expect too much too soon, I usually always feel the pain of these feelings and emotions coming up and I know that I need to move at a more gentle pace, and make time to listen to what I (my body) really needs.  Oh, and I need a plan too.

 

 A favourite waterside walk to relax

Getting outside is enormously helpful for me (as in calming and relaxing), and having a diary or planner for my deadlines is too.  Once I have stuff written down and I can physically see the dates I'm needing to get stuff done by, the urge to rush around like a wild chicken disappears.  I know I can realistically achieve stuff when I've planned for it and that naturally creates breathing space for the rest of life to resume it's regular (and happier) pace again.  I begin to cook healthy food, go to bed at a reasonable hour, and I can hold a conversation without frowning and snapping.  I feel more balanced when I remove the panic and urgency from my mind.

How do you deal with overwhelm, and what do you find works best for you when you're bogged down with busyness?  Please share your thoughts in the comments thread, I'll be popping in randomly to join in the conversation!

Thanks for reading, big love to you

Julia x

PS:

I will shortly be releasing a NEW Open Edition Signed Print of 'The Evening Stroll' which will be available at a special price to my mailing list subscribers for a limited time ~ sign up now to hear about it first, and to take advantage of the discount! (click the link with the envelope in the side bar - it's free and you'll also benefit from exclusive news, art updates, sale previews and regular discounted prices on my work) x

 

'The Evening Stroll'

www.juliacrossland.co.uk

Lil' Bits of This and That

Hello!  How are you?

 

I've been getting a couple of my paintings ready for selection day for the Great Sheffield Art Show.  Harbour is now ready to go, in a gorgeous deep beechwood frame, I'm delighted with it and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it gets chosen.  The other one I'm considering putting in is The Evening Stroll, because Spring is still not completed - it's at that stage where it needs a bit of figuring out and leaving alone, and so rather than rush it and perhaps spoil it, I felt that one of my other most favourite paintings in the universe would suffice:

What do you reckon? :)

 

Another thing I'm soaking up and loving recently is this fabulous new book by Jennifer Lee.  Now let me just say something about business books.  They used to bore me senseless.  I used to visit the business section of a book store to find something to educate my rather un-educated business brain; I'd take out those boring tomes that were very black and white, and chock full of business plans, charts, graphs and basically ding dang brain numbing, uninspiring chapters that made my heart sink.  Those books had the ability to make me feel like I'd never cut it in the harsh world of business.

Well here's the thing.  It's not all about power dressing and understanding Wall Street. I mean really, did you know business people do not have to wear suits!! Hoorah!! Of course we don't, you can give me a kaftan and a pair of flared jeans any day rather than that :) But seriously, Creative People need a different sort of business guidance, and oh this is it!! I've discovered some rather fantastic creatively based biz books along the way since those uninspiring bibles from way back when, but this is one of the best yet.  Suddenley business is fun, it's colourful and it's...exciting!!! Oh Yes Mama it is!!

If I've roused your curiosity a bit by my excitable waffling, you can take a peek inside this wonderful book for yourselves right here and you can visit Jennifer's fantabulous website here too.

I feel at this point in proceedings, that you may well be wondering where on earth the Ta~Dahhh moment was that I mentioned at the end of my last post...well, I have had a slight hold up in that I have run out of wool with only a few stitches to go.  Oh the frustration!! I really thought I'd have enough, so for now the Ta~Dahhh is postponed until I can get myself into town to replenish the stocks!!

In my next post, (which I'll be putting up on the 31st) it will be Gallery Day for the Being Creative group.  I'm really excited by the work that's already being appearing in our Flickr Group and am looking forward to seeing other work that individual souls might wish to share from their blog/Flickr links.  There will be a link widget for you to do this on Thursday, and of course, anyone who has already posted pictures in the Flickr group will be encouraged to share links to their work to create a Garden Gallery that everyone can look at via the widget.

I do hope you'll come by to see what we've all been up to - and if you haven't already signed up, you are absolutely most welcome to join us anytime along the way.  Just click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to add your name to the list.

I'll see you on Thursday!  Hope the sun is shining for you today ~ sending love

Julia x