The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

I wrote two poems last week and so far this week I have written one so my goal as far as writing goes has been achieved (I’m aiming for 1 to 2 poems a week). Yesterday and the day before I picked up my Bosch study and got some of that done. You can see the progress below.

What is the legacy you want to leave behind?

I do not know that I will leave a legacy behind as I don’t have any children. A legacy for childless people sort of ties into commercial success and fame as a measure of worth and I’m trying to get away from that. I don’t need to be famous or remembered so long as I lived a full life practicing what I love best, which is art and writing.

I’m following a Self Compassion workbook and one of the exercises was to identify core values. Things that you feel are the most important elements of life for you. My core values are as follows:

1. Doing something creative every day whatever form that may take (I’m aware I’m not perfect and might miss days).
2. Taking better care of my body and loving it for what it is despite the fact I am now middle aged and no longer in my prime. Just accepting my body and nourishing it as best I can.
3. Practicing kindness towards myself and others.

So far this week I have written a poem and painted twice this week so I feel like I have been creative. Today I haven’t done anything creative yet but there is still time.

As for my body, I’ve been exercising daily and eating an anti-inflammatory diet for the past two weeks. I’ve lost two pounds and feel really energetic and have had no joint pain. I’ve been trying to incorporate a lot of salmon, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, eggs, and a little bit of raw, local honey for my sweet tooth. I’ve been limiting inflammatory foods to one small serving a day. So I think I have been loving my body and taking good care of it.

When it comes to kindness, I have been trying to be helpful to friends as much as I can. Also if I get irritated with or judgemental about someone on the street or in my life, I try to counteract my negativity with some thoughts that wish good will towards that person. Saying a few words in my head that wish them well.

For myself I’m practicing mindfulness on my daily walk with the dog, meditation before bedtime, and I’m trying to speak kindly to myself in my thoughts. I’m very judgemental of myself and a bit of a perfectionist, so I’m trying to counteract all those negative thoughts with constructive, kinder thoughts. Giving myself self compassion breaks and a bit of soothing touch when anxiety happens, which it inevitably does.

So overall I am living my core values this week.

We have my mother-in-law coming in a few days. I’m stressed because she is going to be here a month and that is a long time to have someone in the house. I’ll try my hardest to stick to my daily routines, daily exercise, and continue eating an anti-inflammatory diet despite there being some disruption in my home. I think I should be okay as long as I do those things.

Here’s some pretty spring flowers I saw on my walk the other day…