When Life Gives You Lemons

 This past year, I turned 40 years old.  Within 4 months of my birthday, I was told that I needed a total left hip replacement.  I was not expecting this news, so it came as a great surprise and was very overwhelming.  I knew that I would have months of recovery ahead of me.  Unfortunately, I did not anticipate the amount of time that I would be sitting in a recliner without anything to take my mind off of the pain after surgery.  So, when Life game me Lemons, I made Lemonade.

First of all, as I prepared for my hospital stay, I packed everything that I use on a daily basis for personal growth and order including my Bullet Journal supplies, my daily journal, and my tablet for reading and watching documentaries.  Mind you, not all of my BuJo supplies were able to transport, so I only took what would fit in my traveling journal case.  It was still more than I thought I would need.  This down-time would be an excuse to catch up on my list of 101 Goals in 1,001 Days (see the Bullet Journal Page for a complete list of my goals).  And, on top of everything, it would be a temporary distraction from the post-operative pain.  I would highly suggest that when packing for surgery (or any long-term trip) you take advice from Coco Chanel. "Take off the last item that you put on."  

Secondly, use your time wisely.  I stick to a "growth agenda" on a daily basis.  Schedule time when you will work on each separate goal.  I allocate one hour a day for reading literature, 1 hour a day for reading Latin (I am a Latin tutor), 30 minutes for journaling, and up to 1 hour for Bullet Journaling.  If I don't use all of the time, that is okay.  I have allocated time for each goal to be completed so that I don't have to rush through anything.  Although perfection is not the key to Bullet Journaling, it never hurts to aim for it.  I suggest that any time not spent in creating your Bullet Journal should be used for reading blogs and searching Pintrest for inspiration.  Do you have a favorite blog site or Instagram page?  These are great ways to gather ideas for your BuJo.  Feel free to list your favorites in the "Comments" section.

Finally, be easy on yourself during recovery.  Down time does not mean that you just sit and watch television or Netflix the entire recovery period.  Unfortunately, we have less energy and less clarity during recovery than we would have on any other given day.  For that reason, I like to create templates on the computer (you can find these under Free Bullet Journal Printables) for each layout that I use in my journal.  The Bullet Journal community is very big on sharing ideas and adapting them for your personal needs.  If you are planning for a long recovery, I suggest printing out (or Pinning) any template you wish to use during this healing period.  I love my Leuchtturm 1917 because I always know exactly how many dots there are per page which helps me to plan accordingly.  Make sure to have a pencil and eraser handy during this process.   Use this time as an opportunity to create layouts that you always wanted to include but did not have the time, plan the month ahead with weekly spreads, and simply explore your creativity.  Make sure you are having a "good time" with more emphasis on GOOD rather than TIME.  

Do you have an upcoming surgery or event that will cause you to have a lot of free time?  What are your "rules" for recovery?  Planning ahead of time will allow you more opportunities for personal growth and creativity.  This is a time to explore your wants and needs with the focus on healing yourself.  May you find both during this period of excessive free time!

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