Lisa Call

The Desire to Push

Instead of working in my studio for 2 hours before work and another 2-3 after work, I spent only an hour in my studio today.

Part of me is impatient, wants everything to be okay so I can get back to the studio. The other part of me knows that taking time for self care, to lead me beyond depression in a healthy sustainable way, that I must start slowly.

It’s not my nature to pause.

In the past, I would go 16 hours a day without much fewer breaks. I loved it, felt productive and it energized me.

A Day with Pauses

I can’t work like that anymore, or at least not yet. I’m requiring myself to stay focused on doing the things that make me feel better.

This is my day today:

- Wake up at 5:30am.
- Play with my cats as I talk myself into running (I’m getting close to the point where I won’t dread running but will instead crave it – I’m just not quite there yet)
- Run
- Feel ever so grateful I am able to run and that it brings me such balance
- 15 minutes weeding the yard and enjoying the sunshine
- 20 minutes of yoga
- Shower, prepare for the day, update social media sites, check email
- 30 minutes in my studio
- The day job
- During lunch run errands to dispute a parking ticket (I lost) and pick up some artwork I had framed (photos coming)
- Meet with my therapist, which is always an excellent pause in the day to reflect on where I am going
- Attend a yoga class at the wonderful yoga studio I joined this summer
- Home to eat a simple and healthy dinner of raw veggies, fruit and some salmon
- 30 minutes in my studio
- Reply to a handful few emails with gratitude for the amazing support of my friends, family and all you wonderful blog readers
- Writing a blog post (ie this one)
- To bed at 10am

I know I still get a lot done. I know my day is still very full, but sometimes it doesn’t feel as full given how much of my time is spent on self care.

Writing it down like this, reminds me of all I do accomplish. And how important the breaks are.

The proof: Monday I started Structures #112, the first large textile painting I have worked through a full design since februrary. Tomorrow morning I’ll start sewing it together. Woohoo!

Lines #7
©2008
4" x 4" – Mounted on stretched canvas
Sold

Exercise and Art

Sitting in front of a sewing machine for 22 hours in 2 days (like I did 2 weekends ago) is pretty taxing on a body, or at least it is on a body that is in it’s 40s. Without exercise I couldn’t pull off marathon weekends like that.

Yoga and walking are my current favored ways of moving my body and keeping my blood flowing. Walking clears my head, adds images to my idea store for future art no matter where I walk – in town or in the mountains. There’s always something to see to be inspired.

Yoga is truly magical and by far my most favorite way to exercise. Stretching, strength, mind body connection and relaxation all in one. Perfect way to prepare for a day of making art.

Daily Habit

These days I haven’t had done much of either of these. My floor is really gritty from the construction and many days there isn’t enough floor space and when the kids are home I wake them up if I do yoga early, or the construction works arrive and the saws aren’t very conducive.

So basically I just make a bunch of excuses and have fallen out of the habit of doing yoga daily. A year ago I went 3 months without missing a single day of yoga, now I’m lucky if I get in a few minutes once a week.

I’m craving the type of life where yoga is again a part of my routine. A perfect morning to me would be to get up at 5:30 for a half hour of yoga then a shower, some journaling, time in the studio, breakfast with the kids and then work (and since we’re talking about perfect that work would not be the software job – it would be the art career). Soon – yes soon.

I know it will be easy to reestablish the yoga routine the minute the builders are out the door. The walking is a bit harder. Sometimes I walk during lunch at work (my favorite is to walk to the nearest playground and swing on the swings). Sometimes I hike on the weekends. Sometimes I walk around my neighborhood and feel a huge appreciation for being able to live exactly where I want to live.

But nothing is habit and I quickly forget and then I stop. There is nothing preventing me from establishing this routine now so starting tomorrow I’m going to make it a higher priority to get out and walk at least 20 minutes, 5 days a week.

By end of february I’ll check in and see if I’ve got a habit forming. Time to add walk to my joes goals profile.

Why Exercise?

In addition to the obvious reasons – the physical ones – I find exercising to be almost vital for my mental health. I’m significantly happier if I’ve been exercising. Yoga and walking aren’t as strenuous as what I used to do but given everything else I’m interested in, it’s enough for now.

After my divorce in 2002 one of the first things I did was lose about 15-20 pounds via the divorce diet, which is really quite miraculous although I don’t recommend it, and by working out at the gym.

Then I started running, and that I believe, is what got me through all the mental stuff of the divorce and the first relationship breakup 1 year later. The negative voices ran circles around my head as I hit the pavement every morning training.

In 2003 I ran a half marathon and around the same time I found a lot of internal peace having worked out all of the crap out there on the sidewalk.

I ran for a while after that but not long, my knees objected and I didn’t have as much time as the art career had really started taking off and the need to get the voices out of my head diminished.

I would love to find the time to start running again, on a much gentler pace, as I think it’s an incredible way to keep myself in balance and happy. It’s such an excellent way to expend any negative energy on something positive.

We’ll see if that happens after the construction is over. It’s not a super high priority but I’ve got it on my list of habits to form if I can find the time.

 
What are you exercise habits? How do you think they affect your art?

Lines #7

Today I finally rephotographed Lines #7 with my better lens. It’s just amazing to me how different the color quality is between the 2. I suppose this might be obvious to a photographer but I’ve got 0 training in that area.

A big thank you to those of you that bought art today as a great investment since my prices are going up on February 1st. I think I have the best blog readers in the world.

My goals for today were:

1) 10 hours in studio
2) massage appointment at 3pm
3) blog
4) journal
5) yoga
6) walk
7) to bed by 9:30

How’d I do?

1) 9 1/2 hours in the studio – yay. With yesterday that makes for 22 hours in the studio for the weekend and around 25 for the week. That is the most I have worked in my studio since February of 2008 when I had a week where I put in 45 hours. That was the week before my solo show opened so I was crazily finishing 2 last textile paintings before the delivery day.

Since that day I’ve had only 1 other week for all of 2008 where my studio hours topped 20 hours. Wow -moving has definitely impacted my art making. This could be the last of art for a while depending on how construction goes this week so a nice way to bring closure to the bedroom studio.

2) massage was excellent (I think I kinda fell asleep for a bit – hope I wasn’t snoring)

3) if you are reading this – yes

4, 5, 6) I put yoga/walk/journal on my todo list every single day. Journal I almost always do, yoga maybe 1/2 the time (for the first 3 months of 2008 I did yoga every single morning – can’t wait to get back into that habit), walk has been a ‘no’ for a while so it felt good to get out yesterday and today and move.

7) Yes – so goodnight. I hope you all had wonderful weekends.

I think the question I receive most frequently is "where do you get all of your energy?" The last person to ask me this was Susan via twitter. I promised her I’d write a blog post on the topic and when I sat down to write it got really long so I’m breaking into multiple parts.

Food & Exercise

I think physical health is very important. When I feel tired or sick or physically not up to par it’s very hard to be motivated and have energy. So I take good care of myself. I have an extremely healthy diet, I exercise a bit and I have body work done on occasion (such as acupuncture or massage).

I don’t drink caffeine, I don’t eat much sugar, I don’t eat much white flour, I don’t eat meat except fish and I drink very little alcohol or soda. I eat super healthy for the most part, not just because I know I will feel better, but also because this is what comes naturally to me, I like simple nourishing food and have been doing it for 23 years.

I never feel like I’m depriving myself, so when I want to I’ll go on a cupcake eating binge. Or fritos. Or have a couple beers. Everything in moderation is fine but I find if I eat like this for an extended period of time I don’t feel great and naturally gravitate back to healthier simple food.

I don’t exercise as much as I might like but am managing yoga 3 or 4 times a week and some walking, my goal is 3-5 miles a week at a minimum. I’m not in the awesome shape I was in 5 years ago when I ran a half marathon and hike several 14ers but I still feel good.

My favorite form of exercise is to walk over to a playground at lunchtime and swing until my head clears. Usually it’s full of to-do lists and I don’t need that in my brain all the time. Probably the best way to spend 45 minutes while at work and it’s about 1.5 mile round trip.

Ritual

For the last month I’ve done yoga first thing in the morning for 30 minutes. I used to rush through this task only a few times a week and didn’t put much thought into it. Now I have somewhat of a ritual.

A part of this ritual is to open my blackout shades. In the past I didn’t do this to save energy and my bedroom stayed dark year round. It wasn’t a big deal since I’m never there but now I love letting in the light every morning.

I recently signed up for wind power so my home electricity usage is carbon neutral so I feel less guilty about the few dollars it costs each month because the shades are open. I love how open and light the room feels now. Tossing a lot of junk that was in there probably helped also.

Sunrise

This morning when I opened the shades it was very gray and my initial thought was it was going to be a pretty drab day. But turns out it was earlier than I thought and the sun wasn’t up yet. A few minutes into the yoga I saw a hint of pink and next thing I knew the entire sky was incredible.

Near the end I hunted down the camera and took a few pictures.

Although don’t let the pictures fool you – like all suburbanites my neighbors are not far away – I just pointed the camera up and cropped a bit. The uncropped photos are on smugmug (hurray – I processed the photos right away as I intended for this year!).