big giant cloud rhino 💨
protecting yourself against the big giant looming cloud rhino 💨Â
Hello Sweet Friends!! HOW ARE WE ALL DOING?! I wrote to you a few weeks ago talking about the urgency of ENJOYING things while the usual creep of shorter days drew closer. But now with this extra layer of fucked (pandemic) coming in closer. I imagine the giant cloud rhino from James and the giant peach charging towards us in the sky. This stress of looming doom feels like we are gearing up to add an extra layer of protection around our wellbeing. I've been crafting my ideal pandemic winter. Looking to places of stress in my life and seeing where I can try and eliminate them, or at least find places to luxuriate in. Just now I noticed it was sunny out so I stuck my head out my back deck to stand in the sunbeams for 30 seconds because it looks like they might just fade away for the rest of the day. And crafting boundaries around the things that I do not think help or serve me particularly well.Â
Since I was a little kid, and I really don't remember where I got this practice or idea from, I imagine a forcefield around myself when I feel like I need an extra layer of help. I take a big deep breath in, and exhale and imagine the forcefield surrounding me and then my whole house. I do this a few times, drawing force fields around my family and their homes. It's a simple little thing, and I usually do it while I am trying to fall asleep. To try and imagine my wellbeing being protected and my boundaries safely guarded by a bubble and sphere of protection.Â
Taking care of ourselves has become an obsessive task for so many people in quarantine because I don't think many of us are doing okay. The sweet gift of this is learning about how we like to take care of us. What is the ideal work from home set up? Where in my neighborhood can I walk and explore? Where are the best sunbeams I can catch around my face to stick my head into and luxuriate? Today I was talking with a friend about what bidet attachment she was going to buy for her toilet. Cause bums can luxuriate too.Â
Maybe if we imagine the things that keep us safe as real physical things (or imagine force fields) the less likely we are to disregard our boundaries, and more likely to jump into the sunbeam, and protect ourselves again that rhino. Â
If you're looking at crafting more care and places to luxuriate in I am hosting a drawing night TOMORROW at 5:30 pm EST in collaborating with my pal Rosie AKA Cool Objects! Keepsake is an evening of creative collaboration and finding self-care in the creative process.we will be exploring our relationships with everyday objects through a guided drawing session picking and choosing things we already have available to us to create our own still lives. As well as creative prompts and methods to craft your own creative self-care rituals. You can sign up here, and 20% of all proceeds will be donated to Black-led Mental Health Support because we are not free and well until we are all free and well.
I'd love to know in what ways you're taking care these days.Â
I love you all,
xx
phoebe
p.s
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