The Art of Living

It’s been about a month since my last official blog post, and I can sum up why in one sentence… I have been feeling uninspired and overworked. And while I’ve been quiet on my website, the mind of Olivia has been so far from quiet.

My mind has been getting wrapped up in all the things I need to do, all the people I need to talk with, and feeling haunted by all the things I haven’t done. Updating my website and writing a blog post was one of the things that I kept wanting to do but was much further down the priority list. And one thing that continues to haunt me is how I should set up an RSS feed so that when I write blog posts, people can be automatically notified.

But here’s the thing, I have made a personal breakthrough – not everything needs to be done and can be done in one day. Pausing is okay.

This is probably an obvious statement to you but it’s something I must keep reminding myself of, ironically on a daily basis. In fact, when I push myself to complete many things in one day (and risk the impending doom of burnout) then the more tasks I seem to find. The more that I think about all the things I need to do – read books, respond to emails, go to the gym (and many more) – the more it feeds my worry when I want to be relaxing. And don’t get me started about the stress dreams (so much whackier than you think).

I’ve been trying this new approach: honing the art of living. That is, reframing the sentiment “life is too short” into something that works far better for me.

Like a beautiful piece of art, life takes time and energy to craft it into what you want it to be. It’s also best appreciated when you’re not constantly worried about thoughts of whether you should go back to uni or how you’ve got something else to do next. And our own lives, like art, is filled with emotions and feelings that others can be invoked in those around us but are sometimes misinterpreted or not fully understood.

Perhaps the most crucial comparison between art and life is that both take practice. It is unreasonable to think that one can master the art of life or the art of art in one day. Not to mention having no time to appreciate them for what they are before quickly moving onto the next thing.

For all of you who have been nodding your head or snapping your fingers in agreement, then I compiled this list for the both of us as reminders of things we can do to quieten the mind. These are:

1. Connecting with my inner child

What a joy it has been to watch the entirety of ‘Lilo and Stitch’ and ‘Kim Possible’ TV series! I loved these shows when I was younger but for sure hadn’t seen all the episodes or watched them in order. That is, until now! We will definitely need to talk about how the characters in Kim Possible totally rock and how fun all of Stitch’s cousins’ antics are, but we’ll save that for another time.   

But watching TV shows and video games has been my favourite way of connecting with a younger version of me. Bonus points for it being something that isn’t just ‘long introspection about my childhood and all the things I worked through’, because although that’s also important work to put in, life is not all about work! I am a lot happier because I’ve allowed room for playfulness and following the joy of the things I wanted to as a child simply because I wanted to. Boo-yah!

2. Getting really into plants

Something clicked in me about a month ago and there was a sudden voice that was saying “You need more plants.” I really did take up the challenge. I went from having four plants to having fourteen plants in two weeks.

It could have been the part of me that wanted to get a cat but couldn’t so needed another outlet. Or, it could have been that I was looking for another outlet to quieten my mind. Because let’s be honest, you can’t think about anything else when you’re repotting a plant into its new home.

And yet, I’m still surprised at how much caring for plants quietens the internal voices of “you have a million things to do today” because I can stop and appreciate them just doing their thing. The quiet and calm stillness of plants amazes me because they’re not doing nothing, you just have to give them time and care enough to see them as the art they are.

3. Listen to serotonin boosting music

As discussed previously, I am almost always listening to music. That means that what I listen to is very important to me. I gravitate towards songs that are empowering and having lyrics that speak to my experiences or make me consider a perspective I hadn’t before.

I created a playlist for such songs with an upbeat vibe called Serotonin boosting music for you to enjoy as well. Listening to absolute bops like these gives me the good energy when I’m looking for calm or inspiration.

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That’s all from me this week! As I’ve been writing this I’ve been thinking about how part of the work in calming my mind is linked with continuously unlearning perfectionism. But alas! I get too ahead of myself. Let’s not spoil a future blog topic.

I hope you find the time and space to take care you this week, whatever that looks like for you ⭐