The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

It’s the 6 month mark for my New Year’s Resolutions and I’d like to clarify my goals relating to my three core values.

1. Core Value #1 – Creativity – I would like to finish my hand painted Christmas presents by the end of June (13 in total). In July I start working on a self portrait series. Establish ideas and direction by just working in my sketch book. October through December I would like to continue working on the series by producing final work for my poetry book (I will include self portraits as the illustrations because the poetry is largely about my life and my thoughts). As for Poetry, I would like to finish 48 more poems this year and have nearly 100 in total by the end of the year along with the self portraits to go along with the poems. I would like to continue submitting poems to literary publications throughout the year. As for sharing my writing on social media, I would like to go on Instagram daily (as many days as I can), interact with other artists and writers, and add 7 new people a week to expand my audience and expose me to more work by others (which inspires me to do my own).
2. Core Value #2 – Take care of my Body and Mind – I would like to continue following an anti-inflammatory diet and practicing intermittent fasting each day. I would like to aim for 1500-1800 calories a day and lose 24 pounds (to ease weight off my joints due to arthritis). I would like to exercise 6 days a week (4 days of running and 2 days of strength training) and run a half marathon in October as my last ever race. I would like to establish a daily routine in preparation for working and get up in the morning and stay up. I would like to continue practicing self compassion and doing mindfulness for 30 minutes a day while I walk the dog. I would like to practice meditation for 15 minutes a day. I would like to reduce my panic attacks to as few a week as I can in preparation for applying for a job. Right now I’m getting around two a week. I would like to reduce how much lorazepam I am taking to very rarely and use my coping techniques instead to train my amygdala not to react with panic to triggering situations.
3. Core value #3 – Kindness towards myself and others– some of my core value #2 and my core value #3 goals are overlapped. Meditation and mindfulness each day in particular. That’s part of taking care of my mind. As far as kindness towards others though I would like to practice loving kindness for part of the daily meditation session. I would like to talk about people behind their backs a lot less, and ideally not at all. I would like to do something nice for another person each day. When I am anxious I would like to practice soothing touch and give myself a self compassion break, identifying resistance, identifying where it is in my body, and soothing myself and allowing the emotion to be and pass instead of fighting it.