What’s Next for Us?

We like to know what’s going to happen.  We feel secure when there’s a plan with incremental steps.  Many thrive when they can use the word “sure” frequently.  Truth be told, life is full of uncertainty.  The problem arises when what we would consider “normal” uncertainty is exponentially increased by a pandemic.  Our levels of anxiety rise to new heights and the coping mechanisms we’ve come to depend on, stop working.

We’re caught in a cycle of not knowing and we start to doubt our abilities to manage situations as they arise.  Our focus shifts to all the unresolved issues with the question if we’ll ever be able to resume life as we knew it.  The amount of information generated is overwhelming and adds to our rise in uncertainty.  Not knowing which sources are truthful and accurate, coupled with the need for hope compounds our anxiety levels.

I learned a saying years ago and it has served me well as a jumping off point for resolving uncertainty.  “Life’s not the way it’s supposed to be, it’s the way it is!”  We read fairy tales, but life is not a picture book.  We can’t always control the cards we’re dealt so finding other mechanisms for control become essential.

Focus on the things you already know.  Depending on your age, you have a wealth of information and strategies available to serve as a jumping off point for problem solving.  We have created anchors in our lives as listed in our brains as “the things I know for sure”.   It’s acknowledging the relationships we’ve cultivated in our lives, the morals and values we hold, and practices that allow us to focus on possibility.

How do you look forward with hope instead of trepidation?  What will anchor you long enough to get your sea legs and develop new coping strategies.  Fortunately, the pandemic has forced us to connect through technology.  Information, spiritual practices, expressive arts classes have all gone online.  Education has upped the ante when it comes to online classes, so developing new skills is within our reach.  A quick text can reap a sense of security and calm because you know someone is out there to support you.

What’s next?  What do you want to be next?  How will you take steps to move toward “the next”?  

For more art and prompts visit me on Instagram: @drfiber

Haunted

Every day is a new adventure.  We’d like to believe it’s possible to live each day as a blank slate, creating from new every time we open our eyes.  Unless you’re a Buddhist monk working toward enlightenment, it may not be in the cards for most of us.  What is in the cards are the memories and reflections we carry with us from birth.  We rely on these memories for comfort, for guidance, and as lessons upon which we make decisions in our current lives.

Unfortunately, not every memory has been joyful for many. Over and over we hear and read about stories of violence, hunger, injustice, poverty, and ailing health.  We hear self-help “gurus” tell us to get over it by facing our fears, challenging our assumptions, and make lemonade out of lemons.  It’s highly idealistic and for some quite damaging to believe their misfortune was their fault and it’s up to them to turn the tide.

We live in anxiety producing times.  We are experiencing political, social, and physical unrest.  If you ever watched the movie The Ten Commandments, there’s a scene where they depict the descent of the last plague, killing of the first born.  The plague is pictured as a cloud or fog or trail of mist descending from the heavens.  It’s an ominous visual and viscerally brings chills as the horrific turn of events besieging Egypt.

Rewriting history is not an option, but reframing our history is certainly a possibility.  What keeps us up at night?  What has a hold over us impacting our mental health and coloring our world in shades of gray?  

If you think of stories of haunted houses, the spirit is often residing in the space in an effort to find closure from something in their physical lives.  It’s their own open-ended, unanswered questions causing their unrest.  Our lives today are filled with an overwhelming number of unanswered questions.  Uncertainty seems to be more the norm than the exception.  It’s causing many to isolate, increasing their stress and anxiety.

The events of our current world exponentially intensify the emotional and spiritual unrest felt for years.  The events join together, hand in hand, wreaking havoc on our ability to cope with the stresses of daily life.  Alcohol consumption since the start of the pandemic is up forty-six percent.  Calls to crisis lines have jumped at an alarming rate.  Layoffs and shutdowns have left many feeling hopeless and, in their own minds, left them with options but to take their own lives and end the suffering. 

 In the end, what are we looking for?  Are we looking for healing or resolution?  Are we working on developing our muscles of resilience to fend off the negativity?  During turbulent times, it’s important to find an anchor.  It may be a person, faith, a practice, or some other activity or belief where you can set down roots.  We never plant a tree without attaching stabilizing poles until it has anchored itself in the ground.  The same needs to be so for our emotional lives during times of intense stress.  We need places or people we can return to knowing the solace it/they provide.  Practices like this will allow us to be more adaptable during these uncertain times.   

For more visual prompts view other artwork on Instagram @drfiber

Winter Feast for the Soul: Day Thirty-Eight

I completed my travels today and once again got to practice in my studio, my sanctuary.  Transitions are hard in general, but being on the road has a tendency to throw me a bit off-center.  That’s why having a practice and one that is portable has been so helpful.  It was wonderful this evening to return to the larger piece; it felt like a homecoming.  There is an innate comfort when I work on the larger piece.  Maybe it’s because it’s the place I started or simply because it exists.

The idea of a homecoming is wonderful.  Knowing that the piece is waiting for me to begin again is like getting re-acquainted with an old friend.  There is a dance we created together in the first thirty days and now I get to resume that dance.  It’s definitely an anchor and that anchor is helpful in keeping the meaning of commitment in the foreground of my life.  Even the piece I created during the transformational art program at school had a component that would allow me to place what’s most important in the moment in a place of honor so that it stays in my consciousness.

There are two days left in the Winter Feast for the Soul and I’m amazed at how quickly the days have passed.  The interesting thing is that I have no desire to measure or calculate the degree of completion on the piece I’m stitching.  I only have the desire to keep stitching and that’s a new experience for me.  I’ve often wondered if I missed being diagnosed with ADD, but as I see the focus, concentration, and commitment appears when I have something important and attention grabbing in my life. 

The bottom line is to keep up on the practice and continue experiencing the lessons the journey has to offer.

Blessings to you…