Connect hand to heart to bring your mind into service of your heart. It’s not as difficult as you might imagine. I shared about my heART journey with a local group, Women Make a Difference, in January.
Using your hands to make something is a way to exercise your brain. It rewires you to appreciate personal satisfaction. As I explained, my bead mosaic box collection opened the door to three big insights: it helped me to see:
- Maker power
- Place of no pattern
- Power of connection
If you’ve been aching to leave the world of deadlines and expectations, I’ve got a solution: A little box adventure. (More info here)
Maker Power
It is by having hands that man is the most intelligent of animals. — Anaxagoras, philosopher
Much is written about the personal satisfaction of doing or making something. Recharge as you use your hands.
“Making what we can, however imperfectly, is empowering because it is an expression of the self. It makes use of where the self is at the moment. –Carrie Barron, MD
You live through your hands. Science has shown purposeful hand use is associated with an elevated mood. One of my favorite books about this phenomenon is “The Creativity Cure: How to Build Happiness With your Own Two Hands,” by Carrie Barron, MD and Alton Barron, MD.
“Hand use balances our digital, techno0logy-=focused lives and gives our instincts an outlet
Place of no pattern
The second insight I gained as I built a box per day one month was the place of no pattern. I used a medium unfamiliar to me – apoxie clay – to make my little boxes.
Beads are my crafting item of choice. After reading about the benefits of resilience created by trying different modes of communication, I resolved to experiment more. The clay had a tactical feel, much different from beads. It was equally satisfying to mix it, lay it to make it presentable and then begin the process of decoration.
I discovered that the objects I place on the boxes gave me focus and caused me to think. I found all manner of things important to me and me only. Some of my treasures brought back memories of a loved one or a cherished time in my life.
Disrupting my regular creative activities gave me an amazing jolt of creativity. I was on fire! It was a blast of a different persuasion.
Power of connection
In retrospect, the impact of my experience showed in multiple ways:
- I re-connected with friends,
- I crafted with other artists and introduced them to the new-to-both-of-us-medium,
- I offered boxes as part of my collection during the Sandia Heights Studio Tour
- And I built a class to satisfy the interest of others in the project.
You can enjoy these benefits as you can now participate in the Little Box Adventure class.
If you’re ready to live into creative action, take it from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits.
“You move toward the next thing , not away from the last thing. Same direction. Completely different energy.”
Let your hands speak for you. Join us on March 30 for a Little Box Adventure.
Details of the Little Box Adventure:
- 10am – 1pm, Saturday, March 30, 2019
- $37.00
- All materials provided. Bring a personal item meaningful to you for the center of your tin.
- Light refreshments provided
- Register here.
