Soul-Searching

I have updated the blog just a bit to include a list of the online courses I have taken over the past couple of years.  Obviously there is a theme here.... either the courses have aided me in writing about the past in order to understand my present... and/or the courses have taught me how to use photography as a way of slowing down and appreciating the beauty in the ordinary.  I have provided links to all these courses and I highly recommend each and every one, if you are interested in this kind of soul-searching exercise.

I am currently enrolled in Susannah Conway's Journal Your Life and I love her idea of developing a separate journal for Creative Exploration.  For at least the past decade, I feel as though I have ignored the right side of my brain in favor of working harder, smarter, and more efficiently.  But I have come to realize that all that productivity has come at a price.  I no longer know how to have 'fun' - and I have lost sight of my passions.  My perfectionism has cost me joy in life.  I no longer find the journey of exploration fun; it is only the finished product that counts.  And of course, that final product is never good enough for my high expectations.

It is my hope and fervent desire that I leave these unrealistic expectations behind this summer as I embark on a new way to journal, using not only words but images, collages, colored pens and fancy lettering.  It will not be perfect, but hopefully, it will reconnect me to the joy of artistic self-expression.

In addition to this online class, which includes daily emails and a facebook group... I am also conducting a self-study using Julia Cameron's books, The Artist's Way and The Vein of Gold.  I have skimmed through both of these books in the past, but I am determined to complete all the exercises this summer in an attempt to reconnect to the artist child within.  This intense exploration will be the subject of many more future posts.

In the meantime, here's to fresh new beginnings and a summer of self-exploration.