The Joy Diet: Play

Jamie Ridler of http://tnc-thejoydiet.blogspot.com/ talks about play in Martha beck's book The Joy Diet.

I think this is a great topic to write about and I have really enjoyed reading other people posts on this chapter.  I think as adults we don't play any where near enough.  We are taught from too young of an age, especially lately that play in not good.  We should be more focused.  More focused on our career, getting good grades, keeping a clean house, being a good parent (having well behaved, smart focused kids), and many more things that take away our creativity and play.  I have read fairly recently in our town's newspaper that they have taken away recess from elementary age ids so that they can have more classroom time.  Isn't play just as important in learning as literal school work?  I think so.  Could this be why there is so much ADHD?  We are expected to be so focused and we can't dream or have many different ideas and desires at once.  I know from my own past that I stopped art classes after 67th grade because I should focus more on school work.  I wish that I had kept up my creativity instead of waiting til I was in my 20's (thankfully it was only my 20's and not later)  I am the mom of 3 beautiful kids and I hope that I can encourage them to play what ever that means for them.  I hope that I can continue to play with them and on my own.  I so want to look back on my life and be happy with the way I lived.  Not to look back and think everything was perfect, but that I lived the best I could at the time, loved as much as I could, and enjoyed life to it's fullest.

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth."
— Mark Twain


Amy

The Joy Diet: Risk

So I have been commenting on the Joy Diet chapters on this blog for a couple of weeks.  Risk is not something that I am good at doing.  I am not a risk taker!  I fear failure!  Unfortunately I am a perfectionist and if I don't think that I can do something, I very rarely try it.  That is one of my biggest faults.  I may have a true desire, but I don't attempt it due to fearing failure.  For me, it's amazing how the 3 topics have melded so well.  The first thing that I wrote about was desire.  One thing that I think I desire is using my love of creativity and my professional career choice of social work to provide for my family.  That also contains some of what I wrote about with regards to creativity.  I am so afraid that I will make a fool of myself by failing that I don't  want to take the risk.  One thing that I have been thinking about doing is combining journal making with journaling (as a job) so that I can be creative and also utilize my degree which I worked so hard for and actually do enjoy.  I am taking a professional workshop in journal in December and hope that it will help me be able to take a risk and move forward with this dream.  Even if I don't truly act as a social worker, but can just show people the benefits of journaling, I think that I will be happy, especially if I am also helping them to create the journal that they are documenting in.  Along with this I think that I would love to do more with soul collages.  I experienced this during a social work class and never really did anything with it.  Lastly, I am interested in aromatherapy and am slowly learning on my own.  I would love to take the risk and do more with it.

So I definitely have risk that I want to take, and maybe I am slowly moving forward to actually taking them.  I am at least trying to learn more so that if and when I do take the risk, I will have more knowledge, which will hopefully make me more comfortable!

The Joy Diet: Creativity

Last week's post was about desires.  One of my desires related to this week's topic: Creativity.  The only problem is that given that I am a SAHM to 3 kids under 2, I have very little time to fulfill my creative desires.  Since we are down to only one income, lack of free funds also limits my creativity since I am unable to try out al the new creative ideas that are out there.

When I think about my life, I think that I have always been a creative person.  My favorite Christmas gift as a child was the large box of craft supplies that my grandparents would get us each year.  I loved learning to sew, knit, and crochet from my grandmother.  I loved going through her scrap yarn and material.  I loved playing in my dad's woodshop.  I loved doing ceramics with my mom.  Then I became a teenager and dropped all the craft things that I loved for friend and school.  The one creative thing that I did keep was music.  I remained active in the school's music dept and was able to enjoy it, but when I look back, I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed my other creative endeavors.  Once I graduated from college and started working, I started to pick up being creative again and loved trying out new creative ventures.

I recently have had a very busy 3 years.  I now don't have the time and even the energy to be as creative as I would like.  Thankfully, I am able to be creative because I want to create things for my 3 kids.  I was able to make them simple Christening outfits and need to start on their Halloween costumes.  As much as I am grateful that I am being creative, I wish that I was able to create for the fun, but not just for the end product.

My wish/goal is to find time everyday to be creative.  It doesn't have to be a grand activity, actually it can be something small as long as it fulfills that creative part of me.  I believe the act of being creative vs the end product of creativity is what is important.  As a social worker, I believe that creativity is an important way to feed the body, mind, and soul and someday I'll find a way to combine the 2.

Amy

The Joy Diet:Desire

I found this blog that talked about The Joy Diet, a book from Martha Beck and decided to join in.  The current topic is desire.  I think when we first think about the word desire we think more about sexual desire, but for me right now desire is what do I most want out of life.  I desire to have fun with my 3 kids, I desire to have a happy, healthy life and home, I desire to be more creative, and I desire to ensure that my husband and I have time to share with each other!  I pretty much am able to ensure that all of this happens, but I am no where near as creative as I would like to be.  With 3 kids 19 months and 8 1/2 months, it is difficult to find time to meet all of one's desires.

I think that there is one desire that I am no where near fulfilling.  I want to find what I want to do with my life.  What is my passion?  What can I do for work that will allow me to provide for my family while stimulating my desires and passions and make me happy?  I know that being creative in my life's work is very important, I just haven't found how to do that!  One day I will find my true passion and a way to make it work to help provide for my family.

With the next chapter being creativity, I plan to start a new creative endeavor this week!  I still need scarecrow decorations for the yard.  I was going to buy them, but they just looked so cheezy and cheap.  I have all the supplies to make them, but I haven't yet.  I plan to create them on my own, not following a pattern.  I then need to sew halloween costume, make a guest book for my sister's wedding, and finish writing out thank you cards for the kids' Christening (I already have made the cards).  Lots to do to keep up my creativity.  I just need to make sure that I maintain my enjoyment of creating and not let it get to be more of a chore than a pleasure.

Next time, Creativity!

Amy