Art Plunge

                    "Rejected Seed #3" The week wasn't a total wash and I celebrate every little victory right now. Sold this little piece to a dear friend and fellow artist Elva Robinson. It's one of the last little abstracts in this style I had left. Artist: Elva Robinson Elva does vivid digital art among other things and I have one of her Vida scarves and wear it almost exclusively- I love it that much ☺ Please check her art out at  https://robinsongart.com/ I'm so grateful for my supportive artist community that helps one of their own. Being injured and not able to work at peak capacity and speed- makes for a hard month. I've been so thankful for every little sale from my Shopify. I also had a kimono order from another dear friend ❤ Print on Demand can be a lifesaver. It frees me up to continue making my art while my fans and customers can order what they like on products that are useful to them- and still suppor...

                My workstation in bed Usually I make an announcement before I take a "facebreak" but it was kind of a spontaneous decision and warranted no hooplah. It seemed as good a time as any for another "retreat". I need my reset button pushed and this usually does the trick. Im closing out the second week of back injury mode and although Im feeling like a lot of progress has been made- still injured- still can't walk too much or sit too long. Ive devised a little workstation out of a tray and a piece of wood so I can work more comfortably in bed on work that's piling up. Being off Facebook will help me be productive and Ive removed the place I bemoan my woes so no bemoaning now. Its not productive and I need to be productive. My chiropractic sessions are done and they helped a lot. It was good to get a visual of mortal me. A crooked skeleton. Now Im on my own for self care and staying on top of my injury. Its been a trip down mem...

So this is my current state...unable to walk, sit, stand (for more than a few minutes at a time). My back is reinjured and its no fun. If you've never had this happen to you- its basically the whole control panel to your body getting shut down. Simple things like standing-standing in an upright position...very painful if not impossible. Sitting is just as bad-any pressure or stress on the discs in your spine is bad news. Even laying can be uncomfortable. So you just have to find the position that takes as much pressure off your back as possible and fight through it. You still have to do light stretches if you possibly can. You still have to try to walk a bit if you can and you have to do things like ice, heat, soaks in the tub or electric stimulation or therapeutic ointments. Every day...and this can last days, weeks or longer depending on how bad it is. This is a bad one and Im on my 2nd week of it. Today I see a chiro and hope for some relief. Fingers crossed. Work is pilin...

Day 6 of being very aware that Im a                           breakable skeleton. What I thought would be 3 days with this back injury has turned into 6. It's a beautiful hot Saturday and I've only seen the inside of my house. This is a definite blast from the past from when I initially got hurt 10 years ago. I smell like Icy Hot and spend my days trying to find a comfortable position inbetween doing very gentle stretching, ice packs, heated baths, complaining and knocking myself out early every night with a muscle relaxer. I haven't been binging any Netflix nor reading...which is probably what I should do. Two days I actually had to venture out to work. I strapped on my 10 year old back brace, plastered a frozen smile on my face and gently wobbled at turtle speed to complete my mission. Those two days set me back and today my back seized up again in protest...time to stay off my feet and get in bed. So here...

9 years ago I sustained a back injury which made my decision to quit the 9-5 job world a no brainer... Every so often I get a not so gentle reminder of this. My back goes out. It's either too much activity or not enough activity and it always puts me out for about 3 days of lessons. Lessons in doing too much. Lessons in not stretching every day. Lessons in gradually strengthening your core. So I heed the lesson and go with the flow. There's nothing I can do to speed up healing. You sit with the lesson and relax into it. I have a system in place because this has happened so many times. Gentle stretches, make yourself hobble around a few times during the day...hot soaks, ice pack, pain patches, TENS unit and in the evening a muscle relaxer if they're on hand. Not pushing and not fighting are key. Bending over and twisting are out of the question. Walking and standing too much- NOPE. Everything is humbling..from trying to get in and out of the tub to trying to wipe your o...

                 Give yourself flowers I feel like Im awakening from a deep sleep where I only existed to work. It feels like my eyes are now open to "enjoying life" and making time for me and "fun". I guess I consider my morning walks as part of that fun. They have become very necessary to my health. I recently read an article stating that one of the signs of poor mental health was the desire to be alone. I have to call bullshit on that. In fact its the people who can't stand being alone ever that have more problems in my opinion. Being with your thoughts, learning about your patterns and why you do things, actively participating in steering your thoughts, words and actions. SO NECESSARY to mental health! If I didn't have alone time (and lots of it) I'd go nuts! Being an artist definitely suits my need for quiet in-the-zone time and explains why retail work drove me bonkers. And monks... who spend so much time alone... have opened parts ...

                  Reclaiming your path I don't do a lot of "selfies" anymore but I dropped about 13 lbs and wanted to capture the moment on my face. I'm reclaiming my health and body and that is major for me. Since reading up on hormone balancing and adding DIM and natural progesterone cream into my regiment I've actually been seeing the scale go DOWN as opposed to nowhere. Endometriosis and the birth control pills I have to take continuously to keep my body shut off wreak havoc in other ways and its a painful tradeoff but a necessary one. Aside from a once in a blue moon dance with "real pizza" I'm pretty much off the gluten and minimized my "corn intake". Those two things are inflammatory to me and the goal is to put out the fire in my body. After months of hiding from my gym I went back and loved the BURN in my arms and abs. I'm looking forward to resculpting what my illness took away. It's the beginning of a new month and...