What it’s all about:

“When I was growing up I had a habit of always looking down when I walked and I had no idea I was doing it until a boy in high school noticed and asked me why I never look up? Knowing what I know now, I could give you a hundred reasons why I didn’t look up, but at that moment I just said: “Well, I don’t want to fall down.”

So my goal in reminding myself to look up is to help myself have faith that even if I do fall down, I am more than capable of picking myself back up again. Sounds simple enough but, it’s actually an easy thing for me to forget. I am thinking I will start a look up series here on Creativitae. It’ll follow the dream. inspire. create. theme but also focus on what I am doing in my life to remind myself to keep looking up…I am hoping it is a beneficial exercise for me and will inspire others that, like me, have a habit of looking down.”

And, thus, a blog series was born. I’ve prepared over 20 topics for this series and look forward to sharing them all. With weekly posts it should bring us all the way through to the holidays. This series is an equal opportunity exercise, whatever your background, or craft, or niche, or whatever it is you like to do. It’s all about your own interpretation.

Which brings me to the first topic in the Look Up Series:

Be a Friend to Yourself.

It’s important that we make time for ourselves. How often do we hear that but never do anything about it? How often do we envy others that somehow are able to take great care of themselves and be sympathetic to their own needs while we make excuses about why we cannot do what we love to do? Here’s some questions you can ask yourself:

When am I most comfortable in my own skin?

What does being my own friend look like?

What does it feel like?

What I do is give myself compliments whether it be about my work or my personal appearance or this blog or even if it’s just that I made a good save in the kitchen when I almost dropped that dish. In my less stellar moments I try to be sympathetic and remember that there is no such thing as perfect and that tomorrow is a new day. Kicking yourself when you are down is no way to be a friend. If you had a girlfriend that did that to you wouldn’t you give her a swift kick in the you-know-what? (I would!) Some of these things come naturally to people and others, like me, find that the behaviors need to be learned and practiced until they become habit.

My goal this week is to be a better friend to myself, which I really need because I’ll be working in unfamiliar territory at “the day job” and likely to feel frustrated or make a few mistakes while I get my bearings. I’ll be making an extra effort to be nice to myself every morning before I start my day and eating healthy and at regular intervals, something I usually forget to do (yes, I forget to eat!).

So your homework, like mine, is to do something that demonstrates being a friend to yourself. Remember, there aren’t any rules, except that I’d love to hear back from you about how you interpret the topic and make it your own. Come next Monday I’ll have a full report for you on how my week went and with it a fresh new topic to discuss.

My thought with this series is that if we can get the nonconstructive (or destructive) behaviors, that are within our control to change, out of the way then we will be more free to express ourselves creatively, and in turn we will be happier, which benefits not only us but everyone around us.

[artwork © Aimee Elizabeth McEwen]