Summer Mindfulness

 

Summer sometimes gets a bit too hot these days, but there is still plenty to enjoy. Summer holidays and Summer outings have long been highlights in the year, even when they have been a bit thin on the ground like they were in 2020. The postcard below celebrates the 25 holidays I enjoyed with my parents and daughter from 2006 to 2020.

Spring Mindfulness

Spring has long been my favourite time of year. Since I discovered nature walking in August 2019, it has become even more special. I hope I will be able to continue to enjoy Spring for as long as I can. Below are my Star Heart Dolls dressed for every season of the year: Spring Joy, Summer Bliss, Autumn Reflection and Winter Comfort.

Terminal Therapy

Over the past three years I have been sharing various therapeutic ideas with this blog. I have found the therapies quite helpful at some times and very helpful at others. Mostly it's mindfulness and meditation that gets me through my days, sometimes St John's Wort. Art and crafts, music and drama, reading and writing are probably the therapies I like best. I made up my mind a few years ago that writing, art and music were most important to me. That view hasn't changed.

Summer Term Therapy

Life generally feels a bit calmer, kinder and more leisurely  in the summer. Therapies I have chosen to explore in the summer months concern nature and relaxation; self expression in dance, restorative holidays and the healing power of water, trees and cosmic contemplation in our lives.

Spring Term Therapy

January is a traditional time for making resolutions. According to quite a few studies it is also not a very good time to be making resolutions. March and the beginning of Spring are the best times to be making positive changes. The therapies I have been exploring in the Spring Term reflect the fact that January and February are still winter months, a time to enjoy indoor activities like arts and crafts, watching films, reading books, listening to music and playing games.

Seaside Reflection

 

It occured to me, a few months ago, that if we managed to get to our 2021 holiday destination of Felixstowe then we would be able to celebrate twelve consecutive years of holidays by the sea. During these twelve years we also managed a trip to Brugge which included some time spent on the Belgium coast and my visit to New York City which included an outing to Coney Island. I love being by the seaside and it has been good to focus on these special times which help me through the darker, colder days of winter.

Autumn Term Therapy

September is traditionally the start of a new school year. Even when school is but a memory, September can be thought of as a chance for a new beginning, of developing ourselves, starting on new paths of self realisation. You can begin therapy at any time, use it to help you. You have one life, you didn't ask to be here, be kind to yourself and do what's best. Therapies for the Autumn Term involve writing, whether working on my blog or writing poetry, facing fear through horror, Edgar Allan Poe or Dr Who, or just contemplating higher realms through tea or spirituality.

Summer Term Therapy

Life generally feels a bit calmer, kinder and more leisurely  in the summer. Therapies I have chosen to explore in the summer months concern nature and relaxation; self expression in dance, restorative holidays and the healing power of water, trees and cosmic contemplation in our lives.

Spring Term Therapy

January is a traditional time for making resolutions. According to quite a few studies it is also not a very good time to be making resolutions. March and the beginning of Spring are the best times to be making positive changes. The therapies I have been exploring in the Spring Term reflect the fact that January and February are still winter months, a time to enjoy indoor activities like arts and crafts, watching films, reading books, listening to music and playing games.

Autumn Term Therapy

September is traditionally the start of a new school year. Even when school is but a memory, September can be thought of as a chance for a new beginning, of developing ourselves, starting on new paths of self realisation. You can begin therapy at any time, use it to help you. You have one life, you didn't ask to be here, be kind to yourself and do what's best. Therapies for the Autumn Term involve writing, whether working on my blog or writing poetry, facing fear through horror, Edgar Allan Poe or Dr Who, or just contemplating higher realms through tea or spirituality.

Must be the weather

I have written a number of poems about the seasons over the years. This one developed from the verse about the sunny day.

Summer Term Therapy

Life generally feels a bit calmer, kinder and more leisurely  in the summer. Therapies I have chosen to explore in the summer months concern nature and relaxation; self expression in dance, restorative holidays and the healing power of water, trees and cosmic contemplation in our lives.

Spring Term Therapy

January is a traditional time for making resolutions. According to quite a few studies it is also not a very good time to be making resolutions. March and the beginning of Spring are the best times to be making positive changes. The therapies I have been exploring in the Spring Term reflect the fact that January and February are still winter months, a time to enjoy indoor activities like arts and crafts, watching films, reading books, listening to music and playing games.

Autumn Term Therapy

September is traditionally the start of a new school year. Even when school is but a memory, September can be thought of as a chance for a new beginning, of developing ourselves, starting on new paths of self realisation. You can begin therapy at any time, use it to help you. You have one life, you didn't ask to be here, be kind to yourself and do what's best. Therapies for the Autumn Term involve writing, whether working on my blog or writing poetry, facing fear through horror, Edgar Allan Poe or Dr Who, or just contemplating higher realms through tea or spirituality.

Terminal Therapy

2018 was such a difficult year I started creating a whole range of therapeutic approaches and coping strategies in order to live the best life I could given my situation and circumstances. My collection of therapies are split into the three traditional academic terms; Spring Term (January to April), Summer Term (May to August), Autumn Term (September to December). Within that I have created therapy ideas for each day of the week, I will be sharing them with my blog over the next three years.

The Greatness of the Everyday

I have written various poems about the seasons over the years starting with one of my early childhood poems 'Out of the Door'. From then I wrote a piece for an early PowerPoint presentation in the late 1990s called 'Through the seasons' which eventually became four seasonal haiku. Amy has also written and illustrated a seasonal poem called 'What do people do', which has been used as a YouTube video to accompany my song 'For What I Am'. Some of my short poems have developed to encompass the seasons; poems like 'Nature' and 'It must be the weather'. 'The Greatness of the everyday' was originally one verse about Spring, but I have since found something good to say about summer, autumn and winter too.

My Second Mindful Year

I have two big-ish anniversaries coming up next year. The big one is 'Thirty Years a Librarian' which is happening in February 2020. The second one is 'Ten Years in Concert', as I first started playing classical piano pieces in public in 2010. I also have other ideas about having survived other things in my life from the 1990s to the 2020s. With all this going on I have become aware that this year is in danger of becoming a very un-mindful year.

To turn things around I realised I needed to think differently about this particular year. My first mindful year began in March 2018. With my second mindful year running from March 2019 to February 2020 I decided to split my year into the four seasons and work out my mindful goals from there.

Spring Mindfulness - March, April, May

I have chosen 13 books to read this year; 6 mood boosting books, 4 leftover books and 3 Buddhist Psychology books. I hope to do another craft fair in April or May. I will continue my meditations, breath awareness, body scan and Loving Kindness. I will continue being mindful in my walking and everyday life. We will play more. I am going to practice the piano more especially the pieces I hope to play in public.

Summer Mindfulness - June, July, August

I am looking forward to holidays in Southend and Eastbourne and maybe Devon again, in June, July and August. I hope to visit Kew Gardens and do more walking by the Thames and in Ruislip Woods. We may find opportunities for dancing. We may also find opportunities for stargazing which fits in nicely with Space Therapy.

Autumn Mindfulness - September, October, November

Ideas for Autumn mindfulness are a bit dark. I read in 'Tiny Buddha' that often New Age therapies are not very good at engaging with our dark sides. We are light and dark and I think we need to accept both. My autumn mindfulness includes being philosophical and blogging, which I often work on while being mindful in a pub. I can also muse on death, Edgar Allan Poe and horror films. I will probably do more poetry and enjoy some graveyards as well.

Winter Mindfulness - December, January, February

My wintry mindful ideas are things I should be working on all year. Dr Who and TV box sets are things we enjoy all year round as are films. I hope we will be seeing plays and visiting art galleries and museums this year. I also intend to do more mindful doodling and colouring. With the December musings of impermanence and letting go I can muse about the end of the decade and the first twenty years of the 21st Century.

The Four Seasons Star Heart Dolls

My four season star heart dolls developed from my two Christmas Star Heart Dolls, Comfort and Joy.

Winter Comfort is blue with silver slippers and dark hair

Spring Joy is pink with silver slipper and blond hair.

Summer Bliss is green with ginger hair and brown shoes.

Autumn Reflection is orange with blond hair and brown shoes.

Four Seasons Poetry

A BBC documentary I really enjoyed was 'Orbit'. In it you could really see how our seasons are created by the earth's tilt accompanied by its journey around the sun. When I was little I didn't feel connected to the seasons, I didn't seem to notice the leaves changing colour or the daffodils coming out, I just noticed if it was a bit too cold or a bit too warm. I noticed them more when my partner moved to the Kent coast. Now the hardest part of winter is how dark the days get and I really look forward to the arrival of Spring. These poems represent my changing attitudes to the seasons over the years.

                          

Summer crafts

I have had a lot to do lately, but have still found time to create more crafts for the church fete and also for future craft events and blog posts. Above are some of my virtuous lavender hearts and flowers, a Star Heart Doll called Love and some summer related greeting cards. Below are some fabric brooch ideas I have been working on and some new lavender cats.