Here’s to a year of rich relationships
I am sitting in my little studio on the cusp of 2022 and wondering what it will bring us all. There is indeed much uncertainty. I intend to continue my face to face art class, we have so much fun, it would be a shame not to be able to offer one. Our Zoom classes are thriving and it’s extraordinary that we didn’t think of it before! Being able to offer classes to a whole new demographic of people has been an unexpected silver lining of the Covid cloud. As yet though I have been able to confirm nothing so I am forging ahead, all systems go! Contact me to sign up to class, we have so many lovely students ready to welcome you to our community, if you’re not already signed up!
All abilities welcome, wherever you are
I have opened my diary, if i’m truthful, with a certain amount of trepidation. I am aware that this year there is a lot of footwork to be done again. Opening the diary I needed to write, schedual posts, paint, prep for classes and schedual it all in somehow. I was restored when I saw Fi’s handwritting. ‘January 4th Blog’, Fi has things organised for us.
I am often caught out in this self made trap. If there is one lesson I need to learn to take forward with me from last year it is this, to learn to ask for, and accept, help.
It is easy to ask for help over the little things in life and we can fool ourselves into believing we are comfortable with asking and receiving it. Or perhaps it is just me! When that January feeling kicks in and it comes to the things we begin to procrastinate over, the times when we begin to feel overwhelmed. Perhaps some don’t feel like going to work or even actually just don’t feel at all. It is so much harder to ask for help then.
I have so often assumed no one can help, that it’s my job, my responsibility, that no one would understand anyway. I have assumed that no one would really want to help. I have looked at mountains sometimes and felt overwhelmed that I cannot see the pathway to begin the climb.
Asking for help is not easy. Admitting we need help is an act of humility and honesty, its a process of facing our inner most fears, a courageous act. Accepting help, I realised requires a deep well of self reflection, patience and a mantra that goes something like this ‘Stop being defensive’!
The thing i discovered about reaching out is that once you can do it, you begin to do it well. Its like a muscle. Don’t get me wrong you don’t turn into a person posting on facebook every five minutes for emergency rescue. However you do begin to develop richer relationships with people you can trust. Incidentally, if you haven’t listened to Brene Brown ‘The Anatomy of Trust’ it’s a good way to begin the year, copy and paste this: https://brenebrown.com/videos/anatomy-trust-video/
As we step forward into an uncertain new year we all need certainty where we can find it. I have some exciting projects coming up and I know i’m going to be very busy with my art practice, advocating for D.I.D. & Ritual Abuse awareness and with teaching. I will keep you all in the loop with any announcements the first of which is :
On the 22nd of January, I’ve been invited to join Dorota Chioma, The Mental Health Warriors, to talk about ‘Art My Medicine’ On the podcast at 9 a.m.
I will need help on all kinds of levels. Sometimes I need help in a practical way, tea and coffee needs to be made in class so I can make the most of my teaching time. At other times I need to raise an emergency flag and say I am overwhemed, I need to talk this through and need help to find the path again.
I am fortunate now that I have a scaffod around me of steady people who I can ask for help in all of these scenarios. I can even walk with others now and be their scaffold too. It has taken time to develop that network and the lesson I come back to every time is that I have to ask first.
2022 , whatever else it may be, will be a year of truth. This year I am going to endeavour, more than ever, to admit to myself as much as anything when I need help and ask for it. I guess that really amounts to a year of rich relationships to look forward to. In being truthful about my own needs I have already discovered that others are more willing to be open about their own.
As it happens that’s exactly what this painting was about. A moment when Jo, my therapist, asked me what the landscape looked like. I knew I was looking into a well of something fearful and I couldn’t do it alone. It takes me a while to learn life’s lessons but they say it’s all in the journey.
Happy New Year. I hope its a courageous one for you filled with rich relationships.