Enhancing Expression ~essay
I haven't had a chance to sit down and write a full-on post this past week because it's been pretty crazy! But I did want to share a few thoughts:
I've realized how important it is that I engage in one artistic activity per day. For me, one really effective coping mechanism for anxiety/depression is letting my mind wander and just express itself in whatever way it needs to. Stop thinking and just let the ideas come to life, ya know? But up until recently, I had always assumed I had to express myself through music because that was my identity and really anything I'd ever known. Trying to force the creativity in that one, specific way made me despise music at times because sometimes your feelings can't be summed up in a certain form. Sometimes, I can't translate my emotions into chords; sometimes I can't string my thoughts into structured stanzas; sometimes I just honestly don't feel like singing. And that's totally valid.
That said, I've been working on expressing myself through different mediums. In addition to this blogging thing, for the past two weeks I've been on/off croquet-ing and collaging again. I am in no way "good" at these things, but I'm really enjoying the process of letting my mind kind of trail off in a "no pressure" environment.
On Saturday I made a little flyer for my one band's show in Jan. Special thanks to Outdoor Photography and Allure magazines for unintentionally contributing. I got too sad at the thought of cutting up my NatGeo magazine:
Additionally, a few of my friends and I decided to try out a writing exercise until the end of the year. We're writing and recording one song per week. It doesn't need to be a masterpiece by any means, but the point is to make a habit of it, so we're constantly stimulating ourselves.
I have a song on guitar I've been sitting on for a while that I intended to focus on for Week 1, but I never got around to thinking up proper lyrics. Instead, I came up with this little diddy at like 1am on Sunday, haha. It's pretty basic, but I felt incredible writing it. I haven't yet figured out why, but it really stirred up some feelings. And AGH! I can't figure out how to embed the player on this platform (!!) - maybe you can't?? - so I'll be archaic and just paste the link: https://soundcloud.com/fossil-jane/quit
Anyway, I think that's all I have in me for now! Though, I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the topic of unapologetic vulnerability, so a post about that should be coming very soon. xx
I've realized how important it is that I engage in one artistic activity per day. For me, one really effective coping mechanism for anxiety/depression is letting my mind wander and just express itself in whatever way it needs to. Stop thinking and just let the ideas come to life, ya know? But up until recently, I had always assumed I had to express myself through music because that was my identity and really anything I'd ever known. Trying to force the creativity in that one, specific way made me despise music at times because sometimes your feelings can't be summed up in a certain form. Sometimes, I can't translate my emotions into chords; sometimes I can't string my thoughts into structured stanzas; sometimes I just honestly don't feel like singing. And that's totally valid.
That said, I've been working on expressing myself through different mediums. In addition to this blogging thing, for the past two weeks I've been on/off croquet-ing and collaging again. I am in no way "good" at these things, but I'm really enjoying the process of letting my mind kind of trail off in a "no pressure" environment.
On Saturday I made a little flyer for my one band's show in Jan. Special thanks to Outdoor Photography and Allure magazines for unintentionally contributing. I got too sad at the thought of cutting up my NatGeo magazine:
Additionally, a few of my friends and I decided to try out a writing exercise until the end of the year. We're writing and recording one song per week. It doesn't need to be a masterpiece by any means, but the point is to make a habit of it, so we're constantly stimulating ourselves.
I have a song on guitar I've been sitting on for a while that I intended to focus on for Week 1, but I never got around to thinking up proper lyrics. Instead, I came up with this little diddy at like 1am on Sunday, haha. It's pretty basic, but I felt incredible writing it. I haven't yet figured out why, but it really stirred up some feelings. And AGH! I can't figure out how to embed the player on this platform (!!) - maybe you can't?? - so I'll be archaic and just paste the link: https://soundcloud.com/fossil-jane/quit
Anyway, I think that's all I have in me for now! Though, I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the topic of unapologetic vulnerability, so a post about that should be coming very soon. xx
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