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GETTING FOCUSSED
JOKE
Person 1: ‘Excuse me Madam, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?’
Person 2: “Practice, practice, practice’
JUST STOPPING TO THINK CAN HELP YOU TO DESIGN THE LIFE YOU WANT
All this can sound a bit woo woo or self indulgent. However, if want a lovely garden, we put some planning into it; what seeds to grow, what plants to plant, when to water and weed. Even a nice family meal needs thinking through; planning the menu, inviting the family, shopping and then cooking. And yet the most important thing in our life, i.e. ‘our life’ we don’t always stop to think about how it’s going and what we need to do to pull it back on track and do the things we most want to do. A little thinking and planning can achieve great results. Even if there are times in life when we don’t seem to have much control, stopping to think might make us create some time for what we want.
CREATING YOUR OWN PLAN SO THAT YOU DO NOT GET DISTRACTED FROM YOUR PLAN!
THE WHEEL OF LIFE
In the previous lesson GETTING DISTRACTED we made our Wheel of Life chart. I am assuming you decided you would like to allocate a certain amount of time to art.
So now what?
If you know what you would like to do and you just need to make the time, then I have lots of ideas to help.
If you know you would like to create art but don’t know where or how to start then I have lots of ideas to help.
FUN AND LEISURE - ART AND PAINTING
Whilst we could focus on this topic of this course in many many different ways, we are focussing on how art can change our brain. Fun and Leisure come under personality 3 in our right brain. Let’s suppose that from our from our Wheel of Life we have decided that we would like to spend 30 minutes a day on drawing and creating art. We now need to make sure that we don’t get distracted from doing that. Especially if we don’t have a project that we are into, our brain can create distractions, many distractions so here is the plan.
ALLOCATE 30 MINUTES TO SIT WITH YOUR ART WHATEVER HAPPENS. Even if your creative juices aren’t really flowing that day, don’t do something else. Just commit 30 minutes for art. Somedays you will be more productive than others. But make the time commitment one that you are not even going to think about. Sometimes art flows and sometimes it doesn’t. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you make the time commitment.
Turn your phone off and leave it in another room
Turn the sound off on your computer
Go to the toilet before you start
Make a drink to have with you.
JUST GET STARTED. Just start and do something. Don’t think about where it will lead. Gradually your brain will start to fire with ideas if you just get going.
IF YOU ARE FEELING STUCK THEN DO SOMETHING VERY SIMPLE. You could simple decide to draw lots of different lines with your paint brushes. Or, circles. Both of these are highly absorbing and brilliant practise. We don’t practise our basic skills enough so this is time very well spent. The basic skills in art are so important. If you look at artists like Quentin Blake, the quality of his line drawing is amazing. Just practising those skills opens up a world of possibility. One things leads to another.
DON’T BE ATTACHED TO THE OUTCOME – JUST ENJOY PAYING CAREFUL ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU DO. Even if you are cutting carrots, by being absorbed in your task and by paying careful attention then the effect on your brain is like meditation because your other thoughts drop away. Just pay careful attention.