Naïve art painting, by Hermione Laake, painted in1991.
While the rest of the world is playing catch up to the power of creativity, I thought I’d write a short blog here for you.
Today Linkedin announced they are offering mindfulness advice for people working from home.This is a good way of being aware of your feelings, and mindfulness does help you to feel more in control.As part of a learning development team, we worked with students and offered them strategies to manage exam stress, one of which was mindfulness classes.Colouring in pictures is a form of meditative practice that you can indulge in to relax if you don’t have access to a garden.Gardening works in the same way, allowing your mind to relax as you concentrate your thoughts on the plants.
There is another way of processing thoughts, and that is creative writing. Writing your thoughts down helps you to process them. Even if you are not someone who wants to write creatively for a living, this practice helps you to avoid worrying thoughts going round and round in your head.If you want to avoid talking about worries with relatives at the moment, then writing them down at the end of the day is a good way of processing them. It is also a way of leaving them to one side.Another positive that arises from this practice is that, should you have questions, often the answers come to you when you share them, if not with friend and family then with yourself on paper. You may be surprised at how you gain insight from reading back what you have written.Some useful ways of writing down painful thoughts are to distance yourself by writing as though you are an animal or an inanimate object, such as a chair or a pen.Another useful way to express your feelings is to write as someone of the opposite sex. This method can give you surprising creative freedom if you are a writer and you may produce some interesting work.
hermionelaake 