If you can’t wait to go on vacation, hold onto that feeling! That’s the takeaway from the session I just had with my shrink. We were going through the usual blah-blah until I mentioned my upcoming plans for a week off. He said my face lit up.
Like, REALLY lit up.
Then he mentioned a new research study that shows a vacation’s greatest value is its ability give us something to look forward to. It’s not about spending a ton of money on an elaborate trip or even leaving your home. The point is that a vacation is a bright spot on the horizon. The ability to eyeball it leads to the jubilance of knowing your heart’s desire is within reach.
So I spent the rest of the day experimenting. On and off, every few hours, I would stop to think about my vacation. And my emotional state shifted instantly — it was as if I’d been struck by happy lightening. Which means that this second, I am grinning at the prospect of spending the second week of July in Greg Follender’s latest workshop at the Art Students League of New York.
There’s nothing like a summer night in Manhattan and I’ll be on W. 57th Street for five nights in a row, from 5;30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. My inner free spirit is soaring at what these hours will offer: a chance to stop thinking about the endless to-do list, the uncertain future, the bills, the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. Hey, I’ll stop thinking, period.
And just draw.
Here’s the description of Greg’s sold-out workshop from the League’s website. As you know, I’ve taken his courses before.
It might be fun for you to check out the list of summer and fall workshops at the Art Students League.
Dream, baby, dream. :)
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This is an awesome thing to notice, Betty. Your shrink is definitely right. Those bright spots on the horizon really make a difference.
Now THAT’s a vacation – Wish I were in it with you. Have a great time feeling the stretch! xoxo
You (and shrink) are so right.
And here I am thinking I’m the weird one for looking forward to a week’s writing intensive at Sarah Lawrence as if it was a ‘vacation’.
While others want to go to the beach, I look forward to being with other creative people who recognize the Zen of the process.
What a relief it will be to talk about writing instead of the content.
I find that the better I get as a writer, the less recognition I get for the talent. I suppose that’s because most people are reading the content and a good writer is able to put that across without anything getting in the way – in other words, good writing becomes transparent, bad writing gets noticed.
Thanks for verification and for this re-interpretation of what it means to go on vacation. Brilliant !
PS. Quoting you on my blog – Mercury is retrograde in July and that is always the best time to take a vacation
Jenni, the Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute keeps coming up with all these great new course ideas. Makes me wish I still had time to teach there. Such a great environment. I’m sure you’ll have a great experience.
As for not getting noticed, hang in there, girl. This is about stages of writing and personal revelation. You will get noticed. Maybe we won’t all be on Oprah. But speaking for myself, if my work can impact even one person, I feel like I’ve made enough of a difference to keep on slogging through the process.
Btw, I want to give a shout-out to my shrink by name. Paul Greene runs the Iona College psych department. He has offices in Manhattan and Westchester County. http://bit.ly/MmECQt
I gotta get rolling on my work day. So be back later today. But hope you all keep chatting. xo
So wonderful! Enjoy it and may your creativity soar. :)
Thanks, Christina! I’m so excited about the structure of this workshop. All super-quick sketches — which means figuring out the essence of the model’s energy and not overthinking!
Betty,
I just got back from my Vacation. Two weeks at lake Powell. No one was using their week so we were able to to take two weeks. We have a time share on a 66 foot house-boat. We also have a 26′ ski boat. There were 4 boats at one point on this trip. We pulled the house boat up West Canyon this trip. Lake Powell has over 120 major canyons.
They added solar-cells and a 56″ LED TV this trip. The solar cells allowed us to run most everything withourt running the generator. (Yea! gas is over $4 a gallon on the lake…but we have a 500 gallon tank and our own gas pump)
I was actually a bit anxious to get back as i finished my book and wanted to apply what i learned. (The three Decievers and the three alternatives) Your comments are in line with what I learned from my book. The altrnative to control Eyer explaines in his book is Serendipety… those moments of inspiration, nudgings, enjoyment and inspiration we can experience eace day if we look for them. In the final chapter he explains how to make a paradigm shifts. For the shift from control to senedipioty he says put your goals for each day on the left side of the paper then draw a line down the middle and leave the other half for the things we discover when we live that day.
You may have many oppertunitiies to make little trecks, as you have discovered recently. Things you may only see once. Things others may have missed and you almost missed. There were three horses by our boat which we still don’t know about. My brother went hiking up a slot canyon opne day and turened around to find one behing him (got a great picture) They may have been wild or not. we were not sure if the navajos shod their horses (and didn’t think the did) How often does something like that happen?
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