Gain Creative Confidence – Session 8 with Psychologies Magazine
Hello again, 2 Blogs in one day, that is a first!
It was great to do the 8th ‘Gain Creative Confidence’ session today with @psychologiesmagazine, I really enjoy doing these sessions, connecting with fellow curious creatives!
Here is the link if you’d like to catch up on it.
As you know it was all about finding some self-care solutions to all the uncertainty around at the moment, sharing my discovered techniques to get moving again and not feel stuck in the current eye of the storm! For more on this click here, where you can read all about it on this morning’s Blog.
Also, as I always do in these sessions, I set another chunky creative challenge, and this week was about creating a ‘seeking sparkles of joy’ list, and then using that to either share images on Instagram as your own personal # challenge (and with your followers) or to create a scrapbook with, for yourself and family members to look back on.
So, what constitutes this kind of personal ‘joy’ list? Well literally anything, but mainly focussing on the small, simple moments and things in life, rather than anything grandiose.
How you categorise this list may give you a better idea of how to do this, you could do this using the following prompts:
- Lists by seasons, or holidays / special days / night or day?
- List by senses, what do you love to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste?
- List by specific events such as ‘What I loved about lock-down’ – I realise the irony here but there are some positives to take from it.
- List by specific topics, e.g. nature, food, home comforts
- Or it can just be random, everything and anything
Try to describe your ‘moments’ in the most honest and descriptive way possible, to connect on a deeper level about how they make you feel when you look back on them.
Here are some examples I listed on the call, so you know the kind of thing I mean, based on what I love about Autumn using different sensorial experiences:
- The satisfying snap of twigs and squelchy soggy leaves underfoot (feel)
- The sweet tang of freshly picked blackberries, bubbling, and spitting on the Aga hot plate to make filling for pie (smell, sight, and sound)
- The howl of the wind as it picks up and whistles, rushing down the path (sound)
- The soft buttery mash, melting on my tongue, the perfect companion for hearty sausage casserole (taste)
- The intense heat of the stove, reignited and brought to life with fierce flames crackling and the cosy aroma of curling smoke (sight, smell, sound and feel)
- Piles of books to read on a promise, an excuse to be still under the comfort of fleecy blankets (sight and touch).
To extend this further, you can then turn your list into a scrapbook or a treasure box (with a notebook to put your sentences in), writing in your sentences, collecting things that link with the memories, e.g. a sweet wrapper, sketches, a photograph, a feather, a piece of knitting etc – whatever will help with the memory association.
This can be an ongoing project, where every few months you add more joyful experiences to it and it is definitely something you could do with children too, perhaps at half-term?
Remember to add an introduction to the book / into the treasure box / or an introduction post on Instagram, explaining when it started, how old you were, a picture of yourself and what was going on in life, to give historical context.
And that’s it, all remarkably simple but hopefully fun and something to help us focus on the simple joys in life, rather than the endless depressing news we are exposed to these days.
I hope you enjoy having a go, and please do share with us if you feel comfortable doing so, via either:
On Instagram @thecuriouscreativeclub – DM me, or on Facebook via The Curious Creative Club page, or on Psychologies Connected Community Facebook Group either.
The next session will run on October the 26th at 1.30pm, I look forward to seeing you then.
Have a great combobulated (I know that’s not a real word, but you know what I mean!) week,
Juliet, The Curious Creative x
Ps If you’d like to catch up with the previous 7 sessions, you can find them here on Psychologies TV – Better You section
Some great ideas once again, reminds me of the scrapbooks my mum used to do with us when we were little – think I still have one somewhere! xx
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