New Experiences

what will you try?

Hello Dear Friend,

Welcome to another Sunday missive, from my heart to yours. I hope you have had an interesting week, full of love, laughter and fun experiences. As I think I mentioned in my last missive we went to the home of rugby yesterday for the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Cup Final - a match between Northampton Saints and Bath. The last time Bath won the trophy was 28 years ago, and Northampton Saints last won 10 years ago, so the pressure was on both teams to bring home the cup. Don’t worry this is not going to be a blow-by-blow account of the match. 😁

Today I am going to talk about new experiences, how often do you do something new?

How often do you do something outside your everyday? If you are anything like me, it is a very rare thing. This week I actually managed to do two new things! 🥳🥳 I pulled on my big girl pants and joined the local leisure centre - the aqua physiotherapy reminded me how much I used to enjoy swimming, and I have fond memories of training with the triathletes when I worked for the Outward Bound Centre in Eskdale, Cumbria. I hasten to add I only joined in on the swim training, as much as I have had an on/off relationship with running and cycling, swimming is the one thing I used to enjoy. Not only did I join the pool, I also went swimming… Are you like me and sign up for the gym/pool/exercise classes full of enthusiasm and good intentions, but then never make the most of it, or maybe even, never use it at all…

The other new thing I did this week was, as mentioned earlier, going to the rugby cup final. We managed to get tickets to some of the Rugby Union World Cup matches when it was held in the UK in 2019, so had been to Twickenham before. This time was our first time watching a Gallagher Premiership Cup final. We support Bristol Bears and watch almost every match of the Gallagher Premiership during the season, and were hoping that they could make the last four teams, but it was not to be. As my mobility is now seriously compromised I had registered as a disabled user, which meant we had seats right at the pitch side. #BestSeatsEver Best seats in the house! We were about 6 seats from the Bath team, and I took my knitting… lol.

Well, it was World Wide Knit in Public Day yesterday, so of course, I knitted throughout the whole match, which meant I knitted in public in front of 82,000 people. Tee Hee, great fun. I ended up in conversations with the media chap in front of us and lots of people whilst we were waiting for the teams to arrive.

New Experiences?

What do I mean by that? I mean something which you maybe have to think twice about, something which gives you butterflies in your tummy or makes you feel excited. Something that feels like a step out of the norm. It doesn’t have to be anything big or expensive. it could be as simple as playing your favourite song and just listening to it - not while doing anything else, just listening. Make your favourite drink and go sit in the garden with it, listening to the birds and nature, or take your drink with you and go for a walk.

Julia Cameron, who wrote The Artists’s Way, has a name for these kinds of experiences - she calls them Artists’ Dates. Along with Morning Pages, which are three sheets of handwritten, stream-of-consciousness writing. Morning Pages, whatever time of day you do them, do actually work. No one but you will ever see them so you can get all the rubbish that is running around inside your head and put it on the page, this clears the way to think about other things.

Anyway, Julia talks about Morning Pages and Artists’ Dates in the following way -

Doing your morning pages, you are sending—notifying yourself and the universe of your dreams, dissatisfactions, hopes. Doing your artist date, you are receiving—opening yourself to insight, inspiration, guidance. But what exactly is an artist date? An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. In its most primary form, the artist date is an excursion, a play date that you preplan and defend against all interlopers.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist's Way (pp. 18-19). Profile. Kindle Edition.

The most important words for me in this are ‘Play Date’ - it should be fun. What will you do this week? What will fill you with joy and happiness? What will make you smile? What can you do to reconnect with yourself? I would love to know what you end up doing if you would like to share.

Until next time, as ever, may your angels and guides watch over you and protect you until we meet again.

Love and Light,

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Links:

Julia Cameron - The Artists’ Way

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