Are you an over-thinker like me? Do you stay awake rehashing conversations or other experiences that didn’t go as planned? Do you have a hard time letting go of “mistakes” made?
One of the things I’ve done in my sabbatical is take classes — art classes, specifically. There are so many benefits to taking classes.
- Benefit 1: Being a student again reminds me of the student experience and bring it closer into focus as I return to the classroom.
- Benefit 2: Sitting under various teachers exposes me to so many more teaching strategies, approaches, and postures.
- Benefit 3 (which may be #1 in reality): learning new things!!!
I took a class on color mixing from Julie Jeanseau, who taught a lot of great lessons but one that has been sticking with me is that sometimes a painting has taught us all it can teach us and instead of trying to “fix” it or make it perfect, we need to take what we’ve learned and apply it to the next painting. Move forward.
Not only did this give me permission to move on from a piece, but also to think about applying this concept to other areas of my life — coaching, teaching, interpreting, and peopling 🙂
It has given me permission to not feel guilty and spiral in overthinking after any “mistake” but to consider, “what am I taking from this to apply to future similar experiences?” and move forward.
In recent weeks, I’ve taken the following lessons forward:
– Keep working in known areas until you are comfortable navigating to novel areas
– Ask more questions, there are other outlets for your musings
– Can I make this even more simple??
Questions to Deepen Our Practice
– What am I taking away from this experience?
– What is important about doing this differently in the future?
– What will remind me to engage in this new way?
A. R. Smith Studios 
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