Try It, You’ll Like It

I feel like this trail in the photo is inviting me to go on a marvelous journey to a magical kingdom. How about y’all? I’m envisioning Narnia, The Emerald City, or The Shire 🙂

I had another busy, but fun day today! I baked again, a double batch of vegan chocolate chip cookies to send to our daughter for her birthday. I love how I have to smush the cookies into shape with this recipe. It’s like making play-doh cookies, lol. I got it all packaged, mailed it off, and dropped my ballot in the voting box which is next to the post office, so convenient. It feels great to have that done!

Monday is my favorite day of the week because we go grocery shopping together. I’m so thankful the grocery stores have everything in them now, so we can browse other home items and clothing too. I love cruising the office supply clearance section. Every time we grocery shop, I am filled with gratitude and joy. I feel so fortunate to get food and goodies. We also goof around and laugh so much, it’s fun!

Tonight I got some apple pears to try, never had them before that I’m aware of. They look like pale green giant apples. I also picked up some more little fun practical items to send in the last package of the birthday month extravaganza for our daughter, which I’ll send next week. I will have to find something else to bake, maybe some scary treat for Halloween, like witches’ fingers?

Someone moved in downstairs already, so I have to tone down my dance sessions, heh. I got a bit carried away tonight, but it was only for a minute, so hopefully, I didn’t disturb them too much. It’s like I’m doing a high-intensity workout when I dance, omg. I saw on an episode of High Maintenance where they had daytime raves. That’s such a good idea to do that for exercise minus all the ingestion of substances though.

Doing my soothing, flowing routine every day has me in good spirits. Here’s a video about it.

We’ve been having trouble with keeping track of time. The days run together and we ask, how long ago was it when such-and-such happened? It feels like one amorphous blob of time. Having a routine where I collect evidence that I’ve actually done this or that is comforting and marks the time. Like blogging every day, it’s grounding and soothing.

Losing socialization and novel activities makes time blur. Me taking up new activities where I am building skills and doing concrete, tangible, visible things helps me feel more solid and like I am actually engaged in life even without my usual previous pre-pandemic activities.

I took up things that have always enthralled me like music, drawing, writing, and dancing. I’ve found it’s soothing and satisfying because I am also building skills. I guess that’s why coloring books have been popular, for the hypnotic, soothing aspect. Doing artistic, creative activities gets us into a flow state which feels fantastic. It’s therapeutic. We can also express ourselves more fully, it can be cathartic and healing.

Some days I draw still lifes or look at a photo for reference, but most days I draw something from my imagination, so I guess it’s like art therapy, it comes from the subconscious. It takes less time and effort to draw from my imagination too. The other referenced drawings are more gratifying, though. It feels like an accomplishment when your drawing resembles the objects or photos you’re using for reference.

Learning a musical instrument takes a lot of practice and dedication. It’s like magic though when it clicks and your playing becomes smoother and more melodious when your fingers know just where to go and it gets easier and more fun.

Dancing is so freeing and playful, you can express yourself with your whole body and being. I don’t even care what I look like or what people think of me when I’m dancing. I’m just caught up in the pure joy of it. I love it when people dance and don’t care, it’s the greatest thing ever.

I believe most anyone can learn how to play an instrument, or how to draw, and everyone can move their body and dance. If you don’t have an instrument you can sing, that’s free, just like dancing. It’s so fulfilling to be able to express ourselves in multiple ways and to learn new skills. It keeps life engaging, fascinating, flowing, and fun. It deepens our relationship with ourselves and that overflows to others. We have more to share and enjoy when we keep trying and learning new things and sharpen our skills. It leads to a richer, longer, and healthier life. Try it you’ll like it, for real 🙂