Tonight I was feeling restless. Painfully restless. I had plenty of work I needed to do. Work I should be doing. But I just didn’t feel like doing anything, and vegging out wasn’t going to work either because I was restless. So, I took the opportunity to work in my journal! I figured if I couldn’t get anything done, I might as well be creative. Especially since I posted about wondering how to get back to making time for art. If you look closely, you’ll see I used my new spinal tape! I’m very excited about that. I also used various things that I gleaned from the community stash pile from my journaling workshops at Art & Soul in Hampton, VA this past May. The cool milagro print was given to me by a student, so I was happy to use that right away instead of hoarding it. I embellished it with a white pen and pencil after collaging my photo over it. This spread was obviously about feeling restless, and that I’ve been going through a phase where I wonder what the point is of anything. And from discussing it yesterday with my pal Juliana Coles, she told me just to “give in” to the things I’ve been feeling, like loneliness, and feeling like I work so hard and it doesn’t matter. It reminded me that I need to get back to practicing radical acceptance. I don’t have to like it, but accepting it makes it bearable. Plus, instead of fighting it, I can use the time to make art.
This spread I made while teaching several journaling workshops at Art & Soul. Lerku, the alphabet stamps I used are probably my favorite. I use them a lot . . . This spread also has some things from the community stash from my journaling workshops.
Traci, I love the concept of radical acceptance. I hadn't seen the term, but I've worked on it for several years now and I am much happier accepting my past and my rather oddball personality and my need for solitude. It has pulled me up out of deep depression and allows me the freedom to live the best life I want within my circumstances, and also to see beyond the negative. I wish you well and I'm looking forward to playing with my MacGivered roller printers this weekend!
Laurie
http://slowlysheturned.net
Hi Traci………great journal page – practising radical self-acceptance i believe is the path to happiness…..when you give the true feelings you have a voice like in your journal page you give them life and can move on to something else. Powerful stuff.
Love, Violette
these two pages entirely, fully speak my mind right now. i love the authentic voice in your journals!
I just wanted to thank you for stopping by my space to comment! I'm glad that you enjoyed the feature despite it being small and really appreciate you clarifying about the pages you journal over top of.
I'm still so new to this art journal process, but am enjoying taking the time to work on art for myself and sharing that joy with others.
Danielle
uh huh….so you're one of those people who makes ABSOLUTELY COOL journal pages! I really really like these…. (and I'm going to buy your book too!)–I'm having a party tomorrow night (Friday)–potluck at 6:30, and you should come.
This is an awesome page! I love your journal pages… they're so inspiring! =D
The idea of radical acceptance is something I'd not heard of until I stumbled across your blog… Thank you for introducing me to this concept! I think I'll benifit from it's practice. Hope you have a great day! ^-^