Creative Every Day

5-A-Day

December 10th, 2008

The lovely and incredibly sweet, Jenn has tagged me for a meme that asks what 5 things you do to stay mentally healthy. This is certainly a great thing to think about, especially during these darker days of winter and the stress that can come up for many around the holidays.

Here are my top five things to do every day (or every week) to stay mentally healthy:

1. Creative Expression: Clearly this is an important one for me, as you can see by the projects I run here and the title of my blog! Daily creativity, in whatever form it takes (dancing, painting, collaging, writing, cooking, crafting, photographing doodling) is such an important part of my life. It helps ground me, helps me release the internal backlog, and helps me be a better person.
2. Snuggle: I am especially fond of my 4 kitty cats and I get daily love from them in the form of face pushes, cat massage sessions, and sweet purrs that warm my soul. And at night, the hubster and I happily share a full-size bed where we (and usually at least one cat) can be found snuggling up.
3. Laughter: Laughing is so important to mental health. The hubster has a great talent for making me (and everyone around him laugh), I also love listening to comedy on the radio, and watching shows like 30 Rock and the Office to give me a good, hearty laugh. My laugh is ridiculously loud and people can usually find me in a crowd because of it.
4. Scent: I love showering with a good-smelling shampoo. I also love the smell of cocoa in the winter, of chicken noodle soup, candles, pomegranate lip balm, a home-cooked meal, lemon dish washing soap, etc...I think good smells can lift you up. It's a small, simple thing that's a part of my everyday life that I notice and love.
5. Movement: Some kind of movement or exercise is important for my mental health. I've fallen out of doing daily yoga, but want to get back to that as soon as possible. But even if I'm not on a regular exercise regimen, I keep moving through doing chores around the house, moving and dancing while I create, taking walks with my ipod, and chasing the hubster around the apartment.

How bout you? What are your five a day?

I'm not always great at tagging or at responding to tags, so if I tag you, feel free to do it or ignore it. And if I don't tag you and you'd like to do it, by all means, go for it!

I'll tag:
1. Judean (who made the coolest wreath ever out of ribbon spools!!)
2. Tammy Vitale
3. Elena
4. Jul
5. Jim

Today, after running around to the post office, other little errands, and packaging up things to send out, I spent the late afternoon playing with tempera paint and charcoal on drawing paper just to play with some internal questions and see what might come up intuitively. I'm still working on them and may or may not share images here when I'm done. It's good to play with no end product in mind from time to time and I enjoyed the process. I played some good tunes in the background and let paint drip and pour. I smushed it around with brushes, sponges and spatulas and looked to see what came through in the colors. I brought out bits of what I saw with a stick of charcoal. It felt good. And then the hubster came home and I washed my hands so we could share a yummy dinner. All in all, a good day. Hope yours was a beauty!

p.s. My calendars are all sold out! Thanks so much! I'll be sure to print more next year and to get them ready a little earlier too. If you're looking for some gifts, I still have my free shipping offer going on at my art website through December 15th! All you need to do is enter holiday08 in the coupon section at checkout.