Start the New Year with a Vision Board! (Happy Rosh Hashanah!)

 There are so many beginnings in a year, one hardly knows when to start a new goal, project, or program.  There is the Jewish New Year (September), the Solar New Year (January), and the Lunar New Year (March).  So, how do we know when to actually begin again.  In my opinion, I think it is useful to learn from and celebrate all three.  

The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) is the time when The Almighty determines who will have a happy, successful life during the next year.  We apologize for all of our wrong-doings (both intentional and unintentional) and eat special foods to welcome a Sweet New Year.  The Solar New Year begins on January 1st every year.  As with all holidays, we eat special foods, make resolutions, and try to be better in mind, body, and spirit throughout the calendar year.  Lunar New Year begins in March, and is the start of the Chinese Zodiac.  The characteristics of the Zodiac sign for the year determines who and what will prosper and how.

As a follower of Judaism, I have developed my own rituals that include elements of all three.  This Rosh Hashanah, I decided to develop a Feng Shui Vision Board for the upcoming year which will be posted on January 1st.  I learned about Feng Shui from a practioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).  She introduced me to the idea that various colors and the arrangement of color can influence the outcome of the future.  I must admit that I was a skeptic (and still am), but as life wasn't going peachy for me, I decided that it could not hurt any worse.

Let's start with the idea of a Vision Board.  It is widely agreed upon that if you want something to come to fruition, you must first envision the goal for yourself and commit it to paper.  You often see these based on jobs, projects, weddings, or even what you want your house to look like.  So, if you can visualize the goal, then you can achieve it.  Feng Shui Vision Boards do the exact same thing, but they look at all aspects of your life.

Each color on a Feng Shui Vision Board represents a different area of your life that you wish to improve upon.  

Purple = wealth and prosperity

Red = fame and reputation

Pink = love and relationships

Green = family and physical health

Yellow = spiritual well-being and health

White = children and creativity

Teal = knowledge and wisdom

Black = career

Gray = travel and helping people

I created this easy to follow template which can be found under the FREE Bullet Journal Printables tab.  After laying out my format, I decided to find clip art in each color that represented what I want for my life this year.  I also found quotes that matched my goals and included those in each box as well.  For example. if I wanted to get married, I would find a picture of a pink engagement ring to paste on the printable.  For knowledge, I found an image of a blue bookshelf with the phrase "Knowledge is Power."  And for spiritual well-being, I looked for a yellow Torah scroll.  I encourage each of you to take a few moments to ask yourself what you truly want from the year ahead and make an effort to put it down on paper.

Most Feng Shui practitioners will tell you that it is important to hang this vision board where you will see it often in the place where you want things to happen.  That is why this Vision Board always goes in the very front of my Bullet Journal.  I can easily envision what I want to take place in the year to make my goals come true.  Now, I am not exactly sure if this works, but I did revive my tutoring business this year, I have established my library, I have lost 10 lbs., and I have started a series of creative blog posts.  

I wish you all peace, prosperity, and creativity in the New Year!  L'Shanah Tova!

~ Melissa

Journaling Your Way to Creativity

 Creativity isn't something that comes naturally for all people.  Some have to work diligently to find and maintain that creative spark.  There are many different ways to do this, but my favorite is journaling.  No, not keeping a Bullet Journal (although you can keep your journaling entries in your BuJo).  Journaling is the act of writing or drawing in a designated space in free form or following prompts.  You can journal about your life, ideas, art, literature, travel, cooking, or anything your heart desires.  If used properly, journaling can give you immense insight into yourself and the world in which you live.

In the vast world of journaling, there are few rules, if any.  However, I would like to make some suggestions from my own experience that may help you in your journaling adventure.

1.  Have a designated journal that you use for each different topic.  Right now, besides my Bullet Journal, I have a daily journal for addressing prompts found on the Facebook group page called The Stationery Nerd Herd.  The Stationery Nerd Herd is a group dedicated to the love of stationery in all forms (including journals!!!).  I also have a dedicated art journal, and a Harry Potter Moleskine journal for compiling my chapter reflections of the Harry Potter series of novel aligned with the podcast called Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.  Four journals at once may seem like a lot to some people, but it helps me to stay organized in my thought process.

2.  Designate a specific time and place to journal.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but just like with schoolwork, we function at our highest when there is order in our world.  You may choose to write daily, weekly, or when you finish the end of a chapter in a book (like I do with my HPST journal).  By setting a specific time for the creative writing process, you validate the act itself.  Schedule time in your planner or BuJo for this important task just like you would for a haircut or a spa day.  This should be dedicated "you" time.

3.  Start the journaling process with a given prompt.  I have included this because it is hard looking at a blank page with no idea what to write.  You can easily "Google" journal prompts from art to self-care and everything in-between.  Just pick one and start writing.  I have enjoyed being a member of The Stationery Nerd Herd, because the group owner has provided members with almost a year full of journaling prompts in at least 8 different categories.  Pam Tremble, the group owner, has recently published a book called 30 Days of Journaling: An Introduction to Daily Journaling.  If you do not know where to start journaling, start here.

4.  Buy a journal and pen/pencil that you love to use.  No one wants to write in a wide ruled composition book with a Ticonderoga pencil.  If you are going to journal, use one that will excite you every time you open it.  There are TONS of journals out there, and the search for the right one that suits your needs can be daunting.  While I prefer black, hard-bound, dot-ruled or blank journals, not many do.  Lucky for us, Pam Tremble has unraveled the mystery of the best journals in 2020 which you can find here.  My suggestion is to find a cheap colorful journal to begin the process, and graduate to a new journal after filling the first as a reward.  Pens are a whole other story.  Choose a pen that feels good in your hand, has a color of ink you like, and will not bleed through paper.  Ballpoints and gel pens are fine for this activity.  My favorite pen is a Dr. Grip Gel Pen by Pilot which promoted by the Arthritis Foundation for ease-of-use.  They are more expensive than other similar pens; however, you can buy ink refills and reuse the barrel.  I keep a ballpoint and a gel pen in my purse which I have had for over 10 years.

For those of you that want to keep your daily journaling in your bullet journal, or just need a place to start for now, I have created a Minimalist Journal Entry BuJo Page that you may download for free here.  It fits a Statement sized sheet of paper as well as an A5.

 

I hope that you learn to enjoy the journaling process as much as I do.  Feel free to leave comments with your favorite journals, pens, or prompts.  Happy journaling!

~ Melissa

Maximizing the Minimalist

For those of you who do not know me, I am a minimalist at heart.  It took me years to become that way, and if you looked in my closet, my office, or my art nook, you would think differently.   I believe that I became a minimalist shortly after my house burned down in Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  It took an act of G-d to make me realize that my attachment to stuff was just that...stuff.  I didn't lose my memories, my knowledge, my beliefs, or any of my core values.  Everything else is replaceable.   Now, I am not going to tell you to read a book by Marie Kondo or start selling all of your earthly possessions on ThredUp.  I will ask you to evaluate what is important to you enough to spend your time, energy, and emotional investment.

I really did not see myself as a minimalist until I started keeping a Bullet Journal.  While there are many fabulous spreads on Pinterest and Instagram that will make you drool, I stick to a simple template without extraneous detail.  So, for my new BuJo journey, I decided to maximize my minimalism.  Just because you do not NEED to have a full detailed agenda, doesn't mean that you don't WANT one.  One way for me to maximize my time, paper, and sanity is to have all of my information that I need for the week in one place. 

After asking myself what I would like to know each week, what are my goals, what MUST I accomplish, and what I would like to track, I created a fabulously busy minimalistic weekly template for next year (or any year for that matter).  It includes Daily Appointments, a Habit Tracker, a Meal list, a To Do list, Notes, Weather Tracker, Random Act of Kindness, a Gratitude Log, a Grocery List, an Expense tracker, and Image of the Week, a Quote of the Week, and a Work Log.  The great thing about it is that everything fits on 2 pages of an A5 journal.  I have left the log black and white to suit the needs of everyone.  I have not yet decided if I will use color this year to code my appointments, so this leaves me the option to decide later.

For a free copy of my Maximized Minimalist Weekly Bullet Journal Template please click here

After developing my weekly template, I looked at past journals and agendae to see which portions of my monthly spread I actually used.  Where my week is packed with goodies, my monthly spread was merely a glance at the month ahead.  Adapting a monthly BuJo template was quite easy compared to the weekly.  

For a free copy of my monthly Bullet Journal spread, please click here.

I think that Minimalism is a state of being.  Once you know what you have to have to get along, then you can add extras here or there...whether it be a new scarf, a new pack of Mildliners, or an extra column in your Bullet Journal.  There is no rule stating that a Minimalist cannot maximize her time, effort, creativity, or even stuff.  I encourage each of you to employ a practice of minimalistic thinking to one area of your creative life.  Does your ATC need 3 different stickers?  Do you have to have a new set of Gelly Roll pens to start the year?  Will your world collapse if your office doesn't have the right pattern of wallpaper?

This can be a hard concept to grasp for some people.  However, when you let go of the need to have stuff, you make more room to maximize the things you love.

~Melissa

Igniting the Flames of Creativity

 How many times have you sat down with a pencil and piece of paper, determined to create *something*?  During the past several months, I have done this at least two dozen times.  I doodle, I sketch, I erase.  Nothing seems to ignite my creative flames anymore.  That is until I picked up my Bullet Journal at the behest of a Facebook group leader.  She forced me to ask myself several questions which I had not thought about for several years: 

1 - Why do I have so many art supplies that are just sitting and wasting space if I don't encourage myself to use them?

2 - How much joy does art create for myself and others?

3 - What feelings does creating art elicit in me that are idly sitting by the wayside?

4 - When is it ever time to give up on something that you love?

With these four questions, my creative flames were rekindled.  So, I began slowly.  I decided to create a doodle of my favorite insect (a honeybee) that turned out so beautifully that I pulled out my Micron Pen Set to give the drawing more depth.  I even posted the image to my Instagram account (which so far only had a few pictures of my cat).  It is going to be the cover page of my next Bullet Journal.  From that point, I decided to blog about the process of Bullet Journaling.  I have spent hours searching Pinterest, Amazon, and AliExpress looking for the perfect *new* supplies for my newly rekindled passion.  Then, yesterday, it hit me!  The only way to encourage myself to use my skill and imagination is to write down an attainable goal for my creative endeavors.  

Goal setting is a great way to get yourself out of a creative rut.  First, you need to set a specific goal.  A teacher friend once told me that a goal is just a dream until you write it down.  It isn't enough to say, "Practice art for 15 minutes a day."  If that were my goal, I would set a timer and hold a pen for 15 minutes without ever drawing on the page.  Instead, I have set a challenge to "Create a Hamsa coloring book with at least 15 different Hamsas."  Now, I have an outline to work from and a specific image with which to work.  Secondly, make the goal attainable.  If I had simply said. "Make a Hamsa coloring book," then I would have not known when enough were created to satisfy my goal.  Last of all, your goal needs to have a timeline.  For this, I researched 101 Goals in 1,001 Days.  This gives me a definite time period (2 1/2 years) to complete my goals.

If you happen to find yourself in the same position as I did, I encourage you to create an art goal.  Creative endeavors only take up about 10 of my 101 Goals ranging from drawing and writing to cooking and photography.  Please look at the Bullet Journal page on this blog to find out the rest of my 101 Goals.  I wish you all the best on your artistic journey!

~ Melissa

Creativity during COVID-19

 It has been years since I posted anything to this blog's main page. (I have added to subpages though.)  Life has changed dearly for me in the last 7 years.  From teaching to being disabled, engaged to single, the death of loved ones to the rise of new friendships, the world is full of new experiences.  However, the one constant I have had is the desire to produce creative works.  Now, with the prolonged self-imposed isolation due to COVID-19, I have a new-found passion for art.

I have written a book in Latin, taught homeschool art to my niece and nephew, sketched, doodled, photographed, cooked new dishes, and composed poetry.  Why do we feel the need to create, especially when the world around us seems to be chaotic?  Artistic endeavors allow us to delve into a world entirely of our own making.  It is the one thing we can control.  

At the end of 2019, I created a Bullet Journal for the new year.  I meticulously planned, counted, drew layouts, and decorated my journal with the hope of taming the unknown.  However, once COVID-19 hit in March, I have not opened it once.  Resistance seemed futile.  With the beginning of the school year, my interest in creativity rejuvenated.  For those of us whose year begins in September, it seems like the optimal time to renew passions and perfect practice as much as possible.

That being said, I will now begin the preparations for a Do-over Bullet Journal.  I am using the time left to refresh supplies, plan pages and lists, gather necessary information,  rethink my goals, and most importantly, CREATE.  I would like to encourage all of those who have stagnated during this epidemic to join me in this creative rejuvenation.  Please follow my creative processes for the BuJo on the respective page to the left of this post.

May you find the strength to return to creativity!

~Melissa