Nighttime Creativity

I find myself the most creative at night, when I'm alone floppin around my room getting ready for bed. Doodling, journaling, thinking. I tend to put forth most of my effort with painting and drawing during the day; but nighttime is surely a time for sole creativity.

Sometimes it's a bit frustrating, in a lighthearted way, because my mind will become overloaded with ideas and inspirations and thoughts and my ambitious self seems to surface; and I can't help but wonder why must I be so creative when I'm getting ready for sleep?? All the wonderful things I come up with would be nice first thing in the morning, but mornings are rather the opposite of creative.

This creative quality time I spend with myself is one of my favourite times. It allows me to catch all my thoughts of the day and put my mind in order. To calm my inner self down, to be free minded, free spirited, to just be. I think sometimes - perhaps most of the time - during the day we lose ourselves. We lose ourselves in the busyness, the outer world. Nighttime is the perfect time to reclaim ourselves back to our inner world.

Even in the midst of everyday busyness, I am still able to catch myself here and there and tune in to what is really going on around me.

Ah, Nature

This picture I took of moss and rock and dirt and life is from my backyard. I am so intrigued by nature and I appreciate and notice it so much more than I ever used to. In fact, I notice all my surroundings more than I used to. Noticing the nature that each and every one of us have buried our lives into is more or less meditating. Noticing anything, in fact, is a mindfulness meditation. Watching the wind bend the trees, listening to the rustling of leaves, feeling the air on our skin, hearing the birds... all these peaceful, mindful, tasks of simply noticing brings a tremendous amount of calm to me. I truly have grown to absolutely love being outside (which I like to tell myself is our natural habitat; technically it is).

The other day my good friend and I walked from her house - which is the next town over - to my house, and it was a good 2 1/2 to 3 hour walk. Minus my legs and feet nearly giving out on me after a good 2 hours, I truly enveloped myself in the walk. We walked through long stretches of land and crops and trees and by the lake and I just loved it. We've walked it and rode our bikes that distance before and it is just splendid (except that one time that bugs swarmed us the entire time).

I just can't illustrate enough how much I adore Earth and the contents of it - excluding all the man-made crap, of course. I also think it's kinda funny to think about how nature basically laughs at us when it crawls up through our sidewalks and roads... as if we think we're superior! Ha!

Don't Worry, Be Happy

I believe I got these little worry dolls from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia when I was about 12 years old. I misplaced them for a long time but I found them a while ago and I keep them on my night stand. I was told you're supposed to tell them your worries and put them under your pillow and in the morning your worries will be gone away.
These little guys remind me of how silly worrying is in the first place and how it's important to understand that worrying is useless and doesn't do any good.
When we worry we often put ourselves in a state of panic and it's quite stressful and uncomfortable nonetheless. But worrying doesn't accomplish anything but disturbing our peace of mind. Of course everybody worries from time to time and it is inevitable in some situations, but I so strongly believe in the practice of eliminating the feelings of anxiety and worry as much as I can. I think I am typically someone who worries and over-analyzes things more than I should, but at least I'm aware of the uselessness of it.
When it comes to worrying, my attitude generally revolves around knowing that it's gonna be okay even if something is seemingly astronomically terrible. Whatever it is, it is what it is and will end up the way it will end up. Just go with the flow and don't worry, be happy.

Life, Death and Battlestar Galactica

My brother got me into the series Battlestar Galactica yesterday and since then I've watched a bunch of episodes and some mini-series movie and I like it so much!
It really gets me thinking a lot about this universe (obviously, since it takes place in space) but also death; there's a lot of dying involved and sacrifice and it makes me think so much about this life we live and how vast this world is all that mind boggling stuff.

I sometimes think about how we have such a tiny lifespan and then it will all be over. Isn't it so strange to think about? I suppose we push that to the very backs of our minds a majority of the time, but if you really think about it, everything you know now will not exist at some point. How depressing, but how interesting! Everyone and everything we ever live for is just gone in an instant. All this solidifies in me the importance of living in the best way we can, do what makes us happiest, and most of all to not worry (or complain) so much! Unless of course reincarnation is an option, which I may or may not believe in - my belief in reincarnation stems from a question I've always seeked an answer to: If we can be created and have a life, how come we can't be created and live again? I just so deeply wonder how we are all only alive because our parents created us, but can't we be created some other time? (I've also wondered why can't we have multiple lives at once??? Gosh these questions are too abstract to be coherent).

One of the characters in the show is diagnosed with breast cancer. I'm pretty sure I'm a bit much of a hypochondriac and in fact getting cancer is one of my top biggest fears. I just worry sometimes so much about - not only if that headache or that pain is some deadly disease developing - but dying at an early age and missing out on all the life that would be left to live and be apart of. I think death scares me a lot. But that's besides the point. All I know is that we've ended up with a life so we might as well live in the happiest, healthiest, vivacious and fulfilling ways possible.

Anyway, live long and prosper!

Imagine by John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

I love these lyrics. I love what he is saying. I think me and John would have gotten along very nicely.

Yoga, Meditation and How it All Works

I did some lovely yoga today.

Not very long ago I didn't totally understand how yoga really worked or how to achieve that wonderful state of mind they always talk about. But recently I had a realization or an epiphany of some sort where I suddenly understood how it all works. Basically, yoga boils down to meditation which boils down to mindfulness.

Mindfulness, not in the sense of just plain ol' being mindful of your actions, but as in being completely and totally and thoroughly aware of any given moment - completely tuned in to how your body feels. So essentially this is what meditation is, and yoga is just meditation with movement. I was so excited when I understood this because I had been longing for some beautiful meditative sessions where I actually felt that inner peacefulness without getting restless or let down. It's all so simple now. Mindfulness.

When it comes to the breathing, the poses and breathing go hand in hand; and it should come naturally - when you breathe in, you should naturally feel the urge to raise your arms and stretch or bend forward and feel your spine. When you breathe out you should naturally feel the urge to lower your arms or whichever movement you feel is right for you in that moment. Lovely lovely lovely.

People

Today my mom and I were out and about and while she was pulling out of a gas station waiting for the traffic to clear, the car behind us started honking. Immediately my mom thought the man behind us was angry at her for taking so long to turn right. He then proceeded to get out of his car and right then my mom drove away. She was almost petrified and thought he was going to come over and bang on her window in anger.

What actually happened was she left her gas cap open and he was trying to get her attention.

Funny how sometimes we automatically assume our fellow humans are bad or mean or what have you.
Just something to think about.

Blogger Novice!

I write. I journal. I paint and draw and create and think and wonder and dream. I have thoughts and opinions and ideas. So I made a blog.
All I need is to figure out how to work this thing!

Meghan