One Little Word 2017 - Documented in Art

There were a few pages in my 2017 album that were a bit more "artsy" than the rest of the pages (which were very text-heavy), so I thought I would share them separately.

Oh July. I didn't do any other prompts or work in my book in July. In fact, this page wasn't done until months (and months) later. I kind of messed up the writing, but otherwise it turned out okay!

MATERIALS USED:

Gesso, stencil & spray ink, gold paint, alcohol ink, gold glitter embossing powder, Derwent Art Bar

I believe this next one is November's prompt, to write a letter to yourself. And then make it fancy.

MATERIALS USED:

Stencil & ink, alcohol ink, Derwent Art Bar, spray ink

I can't remember which month's prompt this next layout corresponds to, but I do remember that the activity was to find song lyrics (or quotes) that related to your word, or helped you explore your word. I am a big fan of Dale Carnegie (How to Make Friends and Influence People), so the quote on the right was an easy add.

There are four stamps on this page from my 100 Days of Stamp Carving project that I completed last summer.

The back and front covers are some of my favourite parts of this book, and I am still very proud of how they turned out. I hadn't done art like this in a long time, and I was working through a major block. I grabbed some of my favourite supplies - gesso, a stencil, water soluble pencil, spray ink - and just started messing around.

MATERIALS USED:

Gesso, stencil, gold paint, spray ink, water soluble pencil

It was fun to add a little bit more of my style to this album. I really liked that the lessons in Ali Edwards' OLW workshop were broad enough that you could interpret them not only according to your style, but to the way you were documenting your Word for the year, whether that be in a scrapbook, a journal, or in your head.

If you have chosen a Word for the year, how do you document it? I am doing something much more "artistic" this year to document my word, and I am interested to learn how other people explore and document their word.


FURTHER READING
Ali Edwards - One Little Word Intro
A full flipthrough of this book is posted here.
All of my One Little Word posts over the years can be found here.

One Little Word 2017 - Action Documented

Oh gosh it felt so good to glue those last few photos into my book. Sometimes projects like this - long-term ones - can easily not get finished. At least, this happens to me quite often.

I am super proud of myself that not only did I have an amazing year with my word Action, but I also completed a workshop and a whole album! Yay me!

Now, it's a big one, and I didn't want to get into every page as a lot of them have more personal journaling about my year. But I did want to share some of my favourite prompts, pages, and lessons for my year of ACTION! Check out the video below.


The full flipthrough of the book - the whole big book! - can be viewed here.

I thoroughly enjoyed both my word last year and completing the Ali Edwards workshop. Even though I am not taking it again this year, I am using the same prompts for a new album, and I highly recommend signing up if you are new to the idea of choosing a word.

This type of project can be life changing, but it also depends on the amount of work you put into it I really focused on my word last year, and I noticed a huge difference in my life, my relationships, and my overall health.

Check back here tomorrow for a deeper dive into some of the art I incorporated into my book, to make it more "me."

FURTHER READING
Ali Edwards - One Little Word Intro
A full flipthrough of this book is posted here.
All of my One Little Word posts over the years can be found here.
Music by bensound.com

One Little Word 2017 - Action

"How we spend our days is how we spend our lives." - Annie Dillard

I am still finding and remembering moments from last year that really brought home my word to me. Moments that are filled with the lessons and victories that I found thanks to my word.

At the beginning of 2017 I started saving my wristbands whenever I went to a rec centre. I thought "wouldn't it be cool to use these as documentation of my year of Action?" There was no structure, process, or plan to go along with this. I simply found a little shoe box and a Sharpie, and started saving my wristbands instead of throwing them out.


I was going to count the amount of wristbands I saved, but then I realized that the actual amount isn't the important thing. This colourful box made me so happy to look back through. Even if I don't remember each run, swim, or workout, the dates and moments add up and show me how committed I was to my goals last year...and how I continue to re-commit everyday to showing up and slowly adding to my health story.

I stopped going to the public gym regularly once the gym at my office opened in the summer. And we don't get wristbands there ;-)

This was an incredibly positive exercise, a simple activity with a big impact at the end of the year. I am going to start look for other easy opportunities to celebrate my victories as I pursue my word for 2018.

xo

Action 2017 - A Year in Review

When I was updating some links on my blog, I noticed that the last time I posted about my Word of the Year, it was JUNE! Yikes! The funny thing is, I felt really connected to my word this year, and I really stuck with it all year. Even when I didn't feel like I was actively pursuing my word, it was still showing up for me and guiding me through some of my sticky moments. My most successful word yet, even though the year overall was kind of weird (to say the least).

ACTION GOALS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Women's March at the Alberta Legislature in January 2017

I applied to be on the Sexual Assault Centre 24 Crisis & Info Line, and was accepted into training. The training itself was 60 hours in the spring. Making it through those sessions, and those two months was really hard on me emotionally and physically, but I made it through, and started on the line in August.

I started running again! And ran a 5km fun race in November, something I didn't think I would be mentally (or physically, but mostly mentally) ready for this year.

I moved in with BFF.

I started and completed a 100 Days Project. #100daysofstampcarving was a complete success. #100daysofwatercolourwhatevers was a successful learning experience, even though I didn't complete the 100 days.

Started meditating. This one didn't stick, but I have decided to re-commit to it as a Daily Practice in 2018.

Recognized the importance of Daily Practices in my life.

Enrolled in a Spanish class with BFF.

Started building and working on my Five Year Plan.


IN SUMMARY

I think my final page in my One Little Word book for the year sums it up quite nicely:

I loved my 2017 OLW and I can see it already making a big difference in my life and my goals. But 2017 was kind of shit and I wanna move on.

I am excited about my 2018 Word - CONNECT - and will be writing a post about it soon. Also watch for a little walkthrough of my 2017 Album. I'm finishing it up today, and mostly just so pumped that I finished the darn thing!!

Did you pick a Word for 2017? How about for 2018?

For more on my Word for 2017, go here.

xo

Action 2017 - Journaling Habits

I made a commitment to myself at the beginning of the year that journaling would be an important daily Action. And I made it to June! That's better than I have ever done! And then summer hit, and we all know how I feel about how this summer went for me. ICYMI, it was a bummer.

Life felt too full of nothing, and I didn't keep up my "journal every day" action item. Was I too busy? HA! No. It just fell aside, and I maybe reached for it once a week, if that.

But, I am better at being good to myself, forgiving myself, and letting shit go this year.

So I am just getting back on it, without judgement.

And I am re-realizing that this is an important part of my mental health, my daily rituals, and cultivating my good habits.

So the moral of the story is...

- Don't feel bad if your habit isn't trucking along like you expected

- Let go of your expectations of perfection

- Just start, just start again

Do you have a daily habit that has taken a back seat over the summer? Did you have great success with your daily rituals over the summer? Do you want to get on a daily ritual, but have no idea how to get started?

xo

One Little Word - Self Care, Action & Chores

At the end of each of my Volunteer Training sessions, we do a feelings check-in and self-care statement. The other day my self care was something along the lines of: "I am going to go home and do chores! Take out the garbage and recycle! Do the dishes!"

Now, this may sound like the opposite of what we know as "self care", but in actuality, self care just means doing something that makes you feel ....[not sure about the word I am looking for here. whole, balanced, in control, something like that]

It took me a reaaaalllly loooong time to recognize that I need a certain kind of structure in my life, and more specifically in my daily life, in order to feel good and in control. I mean, I was 36.5 before I realized that washing at least one dish everyday was integral to my overall mental health.

And now that I wash at least one dish everyday, I can keep up with and focus on other things. It frees up my mental space, and the domino effect this has on other things in my life is astounding.

For me, self care means having a plan and a routine.

For me, self care means doing chores.

For me, self care means creating "good" habits.

For me, self care means making a bunch of meals and having them in the freezer on days when I didn't plan ahead.

I am filing this under One Little Word, because it was thanks to my word - ACTION - that I came to this realization this year.

It seems so simple, and some readers might be shaking their heads at me, but I have never been really good at creating structure for myself and sticking to it. It feels surprising and amazing now that I have figured this out and have seen such benefits happening already. With this momentum and energy I feel like I can tackle pretty much anything.

Any other amazing revelations out there from my fellow readers with a OLW? Or just my readers in general?!

xo

One Little Word - Action & Inaction

A major realization for me this year in relation to One Little Word – Action – it in turn related to the opposite of my word: INACTION. I’m still working through all the potential and possibilities, but an early discovery and adjustment to my schedule toward this is meditation. Initially, I was trying to tick off this box, this meditation “to do” in the evenings, thinking that it would be a great way to end my day. But I was getting overwhelmed with all my Daily Practices piling up at the end of the night.

So when I shifted this practice to my lunch hour, my sole thought was to accomplish it without having it stacked among other practices. But holy shit has this small scheduling change ever made a huge difference to my overall day! Just taking 10 minutes for myself in my car allows me to regroup and start my afternoon with a fresh and clear mind.

Some days I can tell that I really needed it – that time I shouted at the app for example – and I may not be 100% focused for those session, but they still have a huge impact on my mental energy.

About the app

I use Headspace, which is a free app…for the first 10 sessions. Which, to be honest, is a great start and you can get a lot out of those 10 freebies. I’ve been doing them pretty consistently for a few months, and I am still enjoying the free sessions. All I need is a guide, a reminder, and I am not looking to more into more complicated or specific meditation just yet. If you’re looking for an app to help you get started, I would definitely recommend this one. Cute cartoons, soothing, slightly accented voice…it’s nice and I feel like 10 minutes is totally doable for most people. The app is free to start, and very easy to use, so it is fairly accessible as well.

I am thinking about “Action” & “Inaction” in terms of self-care right now, incorporating each into each other, and thanks in part to my current volunteer training sessions, I have been thinking about accessibility as it relates to self-care, and what messages we get from society around self-care. Audre Lorde was a writer, feminist, womanist and civil rights activist, and she has a great quote about self-care that is stuck in my head: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

She was speaking specifically to her role as a black woman, and while I don’t want to separate that aspect of her work and writing, I also think this quote can apply to other marginalized identities and poor folks. When privileged people seek self-care, it appears in a magazine with a glitzy headline or in Mom’s groups on Facebook with a lot of emphatic head-nodding and encouragement. And when a poor or marginalized person does it, they’re considered lazy or selfish, spending money on something they “can’t afford”, a luxury item.

Self-care is not a luxury item.

We also put a lot of emphasis on the idea that self-care should cost money. Whether we’re talking about yoga classes, spa days, shopping sprees, or whatever other “buy this and feel better” message we are inundated with in our daily lives. In reality, all that is needed for self-care is a thing you love to do, which can be as simple as a snuggle with your dog, a quiet moment in your car before you head to your next shift, going for a walk with your friend or partner.

We don’t do a good job teaching people how to engage in self-care, but we are a capitalist society so we are really good at telling people to buy things and putting a monetary value on everything. And as an extension of that, putting a status marker on it.

Taking time for ourselves – especially as women, especially in a society that (over)values productivity and work, especially in a society that tells us that as women our role is to serve and care for others – is a radical act, because it is not valued unless it is done within approved societal parameters. That is, unless you buy something, or reinforce your role as worker or as caregiver.

And yes, I realize that I am snarking on capitalism over here, at the same time as I am recommending an app BUT why not use the tools of our oppression to break those chains?!

Okay. That got a little heavy at the end there. Many people have explored this topic more eloquently and in more depth than I have here. I have posted links to some of those articles below. Please feel free to add more in the Comments! I am also on the lookout for more info on the intersection between self-care, politics, feminism and oppression!

xo

Further Reading:
Caring About Self-Care
Self Care as "An Act of Political Warfare" (exploring a quote from activist Audre Lorde)
The Politics of Self Care
For Black Women, Self-Care is a Radical Act

Tell A Story: Carve a Stamp, Change Your Life

Editor's Note: I wrote this post last week, on Day 8 of #the100dayproject. I am now at Day 14 and still going strong. I have so many feels about this project, a simple daily practice that [still] is changing my damn life.

I made it! I made it 7 days! One week into this 14+ week project and I am already exceeding my expectations!

I have historically sucked at maintaining long-term projects. Why? Well, I used to say that "life got busy and I forgot". Which is still the truth for past-tense Lisa. But there is more to it than that. Why did I forget? Why did I make the choices that lead to a busy life getting in the way of things I wanted to do to make my busy life better?

I am currently in awe of and super proud of present-tense Lisa and all that I have been able to accomplish lately. I can't (and won't) put my finger on one thing that I am doing differently now that has enabled this change, but I can identify a few things that I have changed in my life that when combined all together in a warm ball of ACTION are making a huge difference!

Why am I telling you this in a terribly secretive and short-on-details way? Because I have seen first hand this past year that each of us is on a different path to achieve our best lives. The combo of things that work for me probably won't work for you. There may be similar elements - getting outside, cultivating daily practices, being 36, cutting carbs, etc. whatever - but they will be combined in different ways, and you will come to them at different times. So my advice to me, cannot be the same as my advice to you.

The only advice I can give you is to keep doing the things that make you feel like you are moving. And get rid of the things - people, activities, food, habits, etc. - that feel like a drag, that feel painful, or uncomfortable, or useless. It will be hard. I know. I've done it! I left a fucking marriage because of it. But it will be worth it. It is worth it.

And if you're not sure what step is "right" for you, just take a step. Any old step will do. Make sure you are safe. Nervous is good (nervous means do it). Take that step and see what happens. I've done that too! Lots of times. You find your way. And if you don't, at least you'll have some adventures on the way.

xo

Note: I have been writing a lot about "life changing moments" lately. The last time I remember doing that  I was in a really dark, low place. This time it feels so different! So don't worry about me! I'm in such a great place right now. I am moving forward and things are grand.

p.s. Sorry to those of you who were looking for more info on actual stamp carving and stumbled into this rat's nest of feelings! I've got a post planned for that too...coming soon!

One Little Word 2017 - Action in Action

What am I doing?

Why am I doing this?

What do I want to get out of this project?

What do I want to do with my word?

What does ACTION mean to me?

These are questions I have been trying to answer since I started the One Little Word (OLW) project in January.

They aren't answered yet, but I am sitting easier with them.

Some days they are impossible and I can't tell if I'm doing anything of value with/for my word.

And yet when I sit down and think about what I have been doing, I can see my word influencing me everyday.

Funny how that works.

This month in Ali Edward's One Little Word workshop, we are creating questions that explore our word, writing them down on sticky notes, and posting those notes somewhere super visible in order to best mull over these questions for the rest of the month/for the rest of forever.

These are my questions to myself so far. Right now, I have them posted in my work notebook so I can add to them throughout the day as I think of things. They are already helping me see where I am succeeding with my word, which I hope will lead further into how I can expand and improve upon my OLW habits.


xo

image sources: 
TOP is from Get To Work Book
bottom is from Instagram and is attributed to Gandhi, but I am NOT a fan of Gandhi, so I just cut that part off...

Action 2017 - Our New Chapter

Dan, Lucas & I took possession of OUR NEW HOUSE last Saturday!

Right now we are too busy moving Dan out of his place to feel the "moving in together" nerves. That's a blessing in disguise as far as I'm concerned!

I will post more photos and thoughts over the next couple of weeks.

Until then....SHE IS JUST SO PRETTY I CAN'T EVEN!

xo

Lisa Reads 2017 - A Book To Set The Tone For The Year

I firmly believe that the first book or two I read in a year, really sets the tone not only for my reading list for the remainder of the year, but for where I put my energy and my focus in my daily life.

And this year was no different. In fact, I've got TWO books on the go right now that are setting my tone and my intentions for the year.

Thanks to Happy City, I want to actively seek out other books that remind me of this one. And that continue my exploration into sustainable, efficient, and future-thinking city planning. I can already feel that this topic is going to be a big deal for me this year.

"Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody." - Jane Jacobs

"Everyone of us has the power to alter our city." - Charles Montgomery

I already decided that I wanted to read more books by POC in 2017, so I am glad I am starting the year off with an amazing science fiction black lady author! Octavia Butler was a game changer in her time, winning science fiction awards that usually only white dudes had won before. Her books combine science fiction & fantasy with themes of race/racism, sexuality/sexism, and other heavy modern tropes. I've only read two of her titles, but I'm (mentally) putting her entire back catalogue on my TBR list.

"Most of us don't have to worry about being shot if we poke our noses outside. So we are comfortable, but the people I'm writing about are definitely not comfortable, and being shot while they're still inside is a good possibility."

"I was attracted to science fiction because it was so wide open. I was able to do anything and there were no walls to hem you in and there was no human condition that you were stopped from examining."

TBR Pile:
The Option of Urbanism by Christopher Leinberger
Retrofitting Suburbia by Ellen Dunham-Jones
Cities for People by Jan Gehl
Naked City by Sharon Zukin
Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes ed. Adrew Blauvelt
Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older

Note: Most of the books I could find about urbanism, sustainable cities, etc. were written by old white guys, and as I am trying to limit their presence on my book list for 2017, I will continue to search for titles by minorities. And thanks to events happening in the US today (ugh shudder he-who-shall-not-be-named), I have already started adding titles to my TBR that involve resistance, feminism, civil rights history & activism and more.

xo

One Little Word 2017 - Inspiration

One of my inspirations for my word this year is this photo.

I mean, aside from the fact that my hair and face (and neck!) is looking so awesome, the things I see radiating from me in this photo are

peace

calm

excitement

happiness

joy

love

life

I don't necessarily want to get back to the person in this photo. I want to move forward into those attributes I see in this December 2012 version of me. 2012 me made some big fucking decisions that led to making 2013 an AMAZING year for me. Like, so amazing.

(Tough and heartbreaking and impossible and amazing)

And I want to make 2017 amazing, so I am going back and learning lessons from my past, and moving past the nostalgia to put them into action.

xo

One Little Word 2017

Move

Action

Progress

Space

Plan

Together

Teamwork

Partnership

Confidence

Thrive

Grow

Reclaim

Restore

Restart

Open

Celebrate

Action...oh

Sometimes brainstorming gets me to my word. And sometimes my word finds me. This year it was a little bit of both. The second time I wrote "action" in my list, I knew it was the one.

What & Why
I read the following paragraph on Ali Edwards OLW 2017 post and I had lots of feelings...

"Past students have reported learning about celebrating progress rather than perfection, about the power of focusing on a single word and the impact that can have in your life, about how many little moments make up the patterns of our lives, about thinking of your future self as you make decisions today, about how your own journey is important, about how to step back into the story of your own life as an active participant, about learning what you most need from yourself, and about the power of coming back again and again to your original intentions as a means of reflection and forward movement."

I had one of those moments when your brain gets fuzzy and you can feel tears in your nose, and a flutter in your chest. So I took it as a sign, and enrolled in her course. I am very excited to get started next month, and make the most out of this year('s word).

Watch for monthly posts from me detailing what I've learned and how I am living my word.


Focus - Brave - Honesty - Simplify - Time
Check out my past OLW Posts here.