About a week ago, a post from the WordPress staff popped up on my reader, talking about a blogging course they were running called Writing101. Intrigued, I read on and saw the course means each participant receives a prompt by email every weekday for 4 weeks, and the aim of the course is to get bloggers writing every day. My inital reaction was that there’s no way I’d have time to blog EVERY DAY, but then I thought about the time I spend on the train on the way to and from work, and the fact that I really quite enjoy writing… ‘I’ll like it, and come back to it later’ I thought, closed the tab and looked at something else. But a quote somewhere about there never being a ‘right time’ brought me back to thinking about it. ‘You know what? I’ll sign up to it right now!’ So I did.
And this brings me to today- the first day of the course! The first prompt today is to freely write about whatever enters my head for 20 minutes. So here I am, kneeling on my bed with my timer on my phone and a Keane album (‘Night train’) playing in the background.
Today has been the first lovely sunny day that I’ve spent mostly at home this year and I have tried to make the most of it- I baked an Easter cake this morning, then sat outside with the cats, reading a book on my Ipad. The book I’m reading at the moment is called ‘The Happiness Project’ by Gretchen Rubin. I haven’t been completely nose in book constantly, preferring to read maybe a chapter at a time in the bath etc, but I’m rather enjoying it. The Author decided to embark on her own ‘Happiness Project’ because she felt that although she had plenty of things in her life that she was very happy with and lots that she wanted, she didn’t feel as happy on a day to day basis as she thought she should. This is something I have previously felt about myself- that it’s important to be grateful for what we have and to be happy and in the moment more often. It can be difficult sometimes, as if there are difficulties in your every day life or simply things that are ‘fine’ it can be easy to focus on looking forward to things or remembering past events.
The chapter I’ve just finished has just mentioned about the phenomenon of looking forward to something and thinking ‘I’ll be happy when this happens’ but then when the something actually happens, a lot of the time there are other things going on that detract from the happiness, and you almost get more happiness by thinking about looking forward to it than the thing itself! That’s why living in the moment is important. Right now I am happy that my cat, Topaz, is sat next to me on my bed, and that the sun is just starting to go down so it’s still light at 18:48. I’m listening to music I want to sing along to, and my dinner (something I like) is in the oven. They are simple little things, but recognizing that these make me happy is a distraction from the big over arching things that it’s oh to easy to pin your hopes on – a dream career or job, even knowing what that job you want to do is, your relationships with friends, family or significant other, holidays etc. ‘When I get that job, I’ll be happy.’ The way I see it, things will be different, maybe you will get happiness from the actual job, maybe from the fact that you can afford certain things, maybe your lifestyle will change. And that’s great! But there will also be stresses (I can afford to move out! But where will I live?!) and soon, that lifestyle will become the norm too. So I’d like to appreciate the little things that happen every day more.
That’s actually why I’ve been trying to make more of an effort with blogging and Instagram. The little feeling of happiness I get from taking a really good picture is a boost for the day, so I want to share it with others. And the same feeling from having created something- baking or craft… and actually writing. I get a sense of achievement from writing something I am proud of- that I feel flows well. We will see how I feel about this when I’m finished! The ‘twist’ with this email prompt from WordPress today is to bite the bullet and publish what I’ve written.
Funnily enough the timer’s just stopped… I think I’ll be brave and hit publish.
Note: I did proofread and edit this a tiny bit, but less than 5 minutes worth, honest!
Joy Being Creative 