Wellness Wednesday – Be Silly

October 24th, 2007

Oooh, combo post. I get to show the whimsical drawings I mentioned earlier and do a post for Wellness Wednesday at the same time. Woohoo! I'm big on multi-tasking.

Artonthetable_2So, I'm a big proponent of silliness. I encourage it. I need it. Heck, I even inserted some silliness into my wedding. Our wedding vows were a perfect combination of sweet, heartfelt words and silliness that made us and our guests laugh out loud. Among the things we promised to each other were to love and support each other's dreams and  goals, to encourage and honor our unique beings, and to accept (among other things) an abundance of cat hair. :-) Those weren't the exact words, but you get the idea. Actually the part about the cat hair was word for word.

I think laughter and general goofiness is essential to wellness. And this post was inspired by standing up on my coffee table to take a picture of these lighthearted drawings.  So, the drawings already had a a sense of playfulness, but when I looked back at this picture, that I snapped quickly and randomly by standing on the coffee table, I was struck by the silliness of it and decided to post the picture with my feet in it instead of cropping them out. Sometimes you just need to stand on your coffee table, preferably while watching the Stephen Colbert Show. :-)

PaperbagartIt's important while being silly to not care what anyone else (including your critic...even for just a moment) thinks. This comes in particularly helpful when making art. I included a doodle on a paper bag (from tonight's sushi takeout) to illustrate this. I think sometimes it's easy to take art too seriously, like it all has to be a masterpiece or something incredible or why bother? Well, if we wait for this masterpiece to arrive, it's quite likely we'll make nothing at all. It's important to play, to let loose, to allow yourself to be silly even when making something so serious as art. Hehe. So many ideas will spill out while mindlessly doodling. Try it and see. It's a wonderful release and if you decide to draw in your sketchbook or on a paper bag or the back of your junk mail or wherever, you'll find the ideas start to flow. Sort of like stream of consciousness writing, doodling will show you where your mind is at. As you can see by the two ladies in flowing dresses, my head is still in wedding land.

  I was starting to feel a little sad earlier. I'm not exactly feeling that whole wedding let down that can happen after the event, but looking over the pictures I got this sense of reaching a certain life milestone and feeling that sense of my own mortality. And then the pictures of my parents, who looked wonderful, but also looked sort of like...grandparents. When my mom was my age, she had three kids under the age of 6.Bride Yikes. So, I talked about all this with the hubster tonight and talked about how we're going to do holidays now that we're married (how we'll split the holidays between our families) and we've been talking about starting our own family. O my. And once we talked about all that, that which was there in my brain, but I hadn't quite put words to it yet, I felt a release and I decided not to focus on sadness any longer, but on all the good, and then the hubster ate my toes and I laughed and we snuggled up until he fell asleep. Feeling better, I doodled, took the picture with my toes showing, watched some silly t.v., and laughed at my cats' antics.

So, in summary, my wellness tips for the week:

1. Be silly.
2. Make paper bag art.
3. Ignore your inner critic.
4. Stand on furniture to change your perspective. 
5.  Laugh loudly and often. 
6. Doodle.   

19 Responses

I love your wellness tips and will take them on board!! Your doodles/sketches are beautiful too

Words to LIVE by!!!! So well stated and perfectly illustrated– toes, too!

Great drawings and tips :)

~Valaine

I love my doodles the best and for some dumb reason I never post them online. Good thinking Silly Miss Leah. Oh, scuze me…MISSUS Leah, wifester.

Oh YEAH! I can’t imagine a day without laughing, at least once. Even on the tough days – especially then. I love your doodles … and that reminds me that I did a painting of myself right after my wedding, in THE DRESS. I should see about digging that up, as it IS worth a few laughs!

I wish MY paper bag doodles looked like YOUR paper bag doodles! If they did, I’d be framing them!!!

xoxoxoooooooooo… KB :)

I think you should make a poster with your tips – I think they’re absolutely on the mark! And I love your “doodles” as you call them – again, any time you’re ready to throw them out, just send them along – I’ll be most happy to take care of them for you. =]

p.s. is this typepad? because if it is, I want to know how you get your text piece to go all the way across the page like it does.

I hope you don’t mind… I did Wellness Wednesday today too!

http://zazazu.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/stealing-from-leah/

Excellent post!! Terribly motivating :)

What a great post! And I love the bride sketches-they look so happy!

You totally and completely ROCK, do you know that Leah!
Thanks for sharing this fabulous post!

I love the photo with your feet included. Feet seem to sum up to me all that is human. I stand on a table to water a plant every week and love the little bit of silliness I feel from that. I have always been an incredibly serious person and one of the things that my husband has brought to my world is the ability to let loose and be silly. We tend to make up really silly songs often and sing them to the pets.
Cheers Leah!!!
Thinkinf of you.

Firstly: “…promised…to love and support each other’s dreams and goals, to encourage and honor our unique beings…” – how sad that we often forget to SAY that to each other. Secondly, I second Tammy’s idea: Please make a poster of that list…’cause it’s a keeper! Thirdly, I’m going to join you in November…in my own quirky way (’cause you know I got no mad drawing skillz)…here: http://tinyurl.com/2o4xkn – Because you always say that ‘art’ is loosely defined. ;) xoxo

Hello. Yes please i shall be joining in for the A.E.D.M of November.
It’s me, Elizabeth (or Lizzi) at: http://www.elizabethfreeman.blogspot.com

Great advice and beautiful picture! Love it!

Perfect wellness tip – being silly is what keeps me sane. Love the drawings and photos~xo

I very much would enjoy joining the Be Creative Everyday group!
I have been doing this with the Big Draw and this just fits nicely with ongoing creativity. I am quilting right now and blogging the progress of this my fourth now largest quilt. Come see. The squares are being top quilted now with free style sewing/drawing and there are 40 of them, 10 down 30 to go, so there will be lots to see. After that there will be something else I can guarantee it!

Well, I could say a ton after going back and reading your post on post marital blues (momentary it appears) and futuring and seeing your parents looking like grandparents! LOL I am one of the “grandparents” and yes you are looking forward, and so am I. I can also look backwards, but believe me it’s way more fun looking at TODAY! I am holding on to every minute of every day now filling them with LIFE. May I encourage you to do the same. Advice from the sage would be: Don’t get too hung up on the hard stuff, this too will pass, there really is a rainbow after the rains, (oh that sound hokey, but most always is true, even if there is a downpour that seems it will never end.) Be brave. And go out with hubby in hand and seize the day/days/and all the years to come. Enjoy them. They become far shorter when you are finally “the grandparent”. ;-)
Mazol Tov, Congratulations on your wedded bliss. Love the Humor.

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