Colour In - But Do The Work

How I use Art to Distract me from doing Emotional Work.

So I started this blog as a way to increase potential for my amazon affiliate links - it was a side hustle and it was also a way for me to express how greatful I am to art as a mindfulness tool. 

I figured in my own little mind that the two things could be mutually beneficial and they are. I love being an amazon affiliate and last week I spent my commission sending a gift to a friend in the U.S.A.

But anything (and I mean anything) can be used as a diservice to your mental health. Too much of anything, the wrong intentions, the wrong agenda and it throws off the whole wellness mission and that's what I want to talk about today.

Think about this for a minute.

1. Did you start art as a way to relax and now own more supplies than you could ever need?
   
   
2. Did you join the gym as a positive step towards health and now feel guilty if you dont go every day?
   
   
3. Did you find yourself passionate about a message, so much so you turned it into a 'side hustle' that now takes up more mental energy than you ever calculated?
   
   
4. Did you start a diet but now you're counting calories and stressing over every thing you put in your mouth?
   
   
5. Did you buy an adult coloring book only to find yourself with severe FOMO and now own over 100?

If you did any of the above - you're doing wellness wrong. And I know, because I have done ALL OF THEM.

The journey I am on to find mental wellness runs in cycles. I start off with the intention of doing something good for myself. It might be joining a gym, adult coloring, healthy eating, meditation - you name it. 

But it becomes all consuming and winds up hitting the complete opposite goal. I over think, over spend, over analyse and attempt to over capitalise and end up back where I started.

And I'm writing this because through all of my trials and efforts the one thing I have learned is this - you can't buy wellness. (If I get assassinated soon you'll know its because there is a multi BILLION dollar industry out there who vehemently wants you to believe that you indeed can.).

If your wellness practise is hurting you - is it really a wellness practise?

You can buy pencils and coloring books but if you don't do the mindfulness work - thats just more junk in your house.

You can join the gym but if you kill yourself trying to get there even when you're tired, when you're stressed, when you're burned out - thats just more illness.

You can analyse every calorie you put in your body but if you lay awake at night, beating yourself up for wanting choclate when you've just had kale - Thats not wellness, that's self torture.

I'm no guru. I am just a 40 year old mum who has struggled with MDD, PTSD, DV and now high level anxiety (welcome to the club Anxiety, take a seat) and I want to share this with you - approach your wellness with the following in mind.

1. There are no quick fixes
   
   
2. There is nothing you can buy that will fix you in and of itself
   
   
3. You have to do the work to heal
   
   
4. Balance is the key
   
   

You're the most powerful factor in your wellness.

You'll note that there are no links or reccomendations in this post except this one - wellness is a commitment, not an add to cart. 

Go buy yourself a coloring book and some pencils. Go join the gym. Go join YouFoodz or Jenny Craig (well not Jenny Craig since that weightloss company went bust recently - ironic right?) 

But sit with your feelings and work through them too. By all means color but don't use it as a distraction. Meditate on your feelings, not on avoiding them.

The only real wellness tool in the world is you.

Love Alix xoxo