“To see your feelings echoed and normalized…. is to dare to let a crack of blue sky into the basement where you’ve been tucked away.”
In this article, Kat Kinsman talks about going public with depression. It’s slowly becoming more common, and everyone who goes public is doing a great service to everyone else dealing with depression and mental illness. While going public is a personal choice, working to normalize these issues so that we can talk about them is something we all owe to each other.
“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.” ~Jack Dixon
The first time I picked up a brush to paint I was 28 years old. I had never painted before, not even as a child. I couldn’t draw (except lousy little doodles) and never even thought I would enjoy painting.
A friend of mine encouraged me to take a workshop about painting for process. Since she pushed so hard, I went.
My world exploded open.
On the first day, we stood next to a long table where cups of colorful bright thick Tempra paint laid in rows with one brush and a cup of water next to each of them.
The instructors told us to simply choose the color that called to us in the moment without thinking, pick up the brush, dip it into the paint, and bring it to our white paper pinned against a wall. Then we were supposed to do only one thing: PLAY!
Painting for process is not about having a cathartic experience, throwing paint onto the paper a la Jackson Pollack. It’s about being respectful of the process, holding the brush carefully like a pencil, and being present when connecting the brush to paper.
The key to the creative process is to let go of the concept of “product.”
The instructors encouraged us to avoid standing back to look at what we were doing. This would trigger analysis, judgment, and self-consciousness. We were supposed to paint freely, like children, and forget about the demon of outcome.
If judgments came forward like “My painting is bad,” or “It doesn’t look like I want it to,” or like in my case, “It looks like a cartoon,” we were to ask ourselves three simple questions:
Keep painting!” my teachers encouraged. “Keep going to a color and bring the brush to the white page.”
And when I got stuck (and sometimes wanted to curl up in a ball and cry) my kind teachers came over and gently nudged me to keep meeting myself head on.
Looking back on my very first paintings, I see how alive they were. How vivid. How amazingly real. They were powerful, honest, and vulnerable, and all because I felt encouraged to simply meet myself in the present.
I’ve been painting for process now for 15 years and I am an entirely different person. I am freer, out of my critical head, and happily more inventive.
The need to produce a “good” product is out of my way, and I am able to meet life, my work, and my relationships with the same creative principles I learned.
Here are 50 creative questions to ask yourself to meet life head on and create the life you really want:
What gives you “juice”? Where is the energy calling you? What if you gave yourself full permission to engage this? Going toward what gives you energy and meeting it fully is the first step to creating profound change.
What if you could take a risk? If you put your hands above you head and dove off the high board? If you didn’t second-guess yourself? If you were spontaneous? What would you create if you couldn’t fail? Taking risks jolts us into the new and creates immediate change.
What would happen if you followed your gut? If you listened to your intuition rather than your mind? What would you create if you could think later and create now? Creating what we want doesn’t happen in the future—it happens today.
What if you could explore? If you used everything as a learning opportunity? What if you dared to discover? What if you let go of what you know? Creativity exists beyond what we know. Love the unknown and let the mystery unfold.
What if you focused on play and fun? If you didn’t worry about what people think orcompared yourself to them? (Comparison is a killer of creativity.) What if you were like a child again? Create just for the sake of creating and the rest will organically unfold.
What if you went wild? Got crazy? Did something you would never do? Unleashed? What if you could be free? Hold a loving, safe container for yourself as you express and create what is innately inside you.
What if you gave yourself permission to be it ALL: The good, the bad and the ugly? What if you accepted all of “what is” because life includes it all? Avoiding what makes us uncomfortable makes us even more stuck. Many times it is the difficult and the “dark” that shows us the light.
What if you were fully present? What if you connected only to this moment of now? If you didn’t hold onto the past or reach for the future? If you didn’t worry about what could happen? All of creation is born in the now.
What if you were to stay determined? What if you didn’t give up? What if you took one step at a time? It’s in the follow through where creativity blooms.
What if you were disciplined? What if you showed up when you said you would? What if you scheduled time to do what you want to do? Marked it in you calendar? Didn’t avoid? What magic could happen? Gently approaching what we want to create each and every day is how we ultimately create change.
What if you allowed space and time? If you didn’t force the current or want everything to come the way you want it NOW? What if you were patient and accepting of life’s natural timing? What if you allowed space and time to allow the fruit of your creativity to ripen.
What if it didn’t matter if you failed or not? If the result was not nearly as important as the experience you have in the present? If you used everything as an opportunity to discover? Knowing who you are and what you want to create has nothing to do with success or failure.
What if you could be free? Free to be, express, and create however you are called in the moment? What if this simple act of freedom gave you your greatest happiness? Once a product is finished, it’s over. Even though it still carries the memory, it is no longer alive. We are only fully alive in the present.
What if you continued to ask open-ended questions such as these? If you didn’t search for answers or meaning or try to make sense of it all? Asking open-ended questions gets you out of the box, relinquishes the attachment to product, and leads you to exciting new places.
We are innately creative beings whether we realize it or not. Change is a creative process. To create change, begin with meeting yourself within. What is it that you want to create in this moment? How will you dive in?
At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable.
– Christopher Reeve (1952-2004) American Actor
I am someone of a firm religious background. Often times its been hard to reconcile my beliefs of faith and prayer with understanding the struggles of mental health. But today in church, I heard an encouraging word that I wanted to pass along…
“there is no testimony without a test. there is no victory without a battle. we are called to fight, but we are destined to win.”
Regardless of your beliefs or your background, these words can mean something to you. Often times our biggest struggles come right before a calm. Whenever I feel like things arent going right, I take a deep breath and think that its really things shifting so that they will eventually work out in my favor. Every good thing I’ve ever shared with others has been about me overcoming a struggle.
Here’s a word of motivation to use your struggle, whatever it may be, as a motivation to encourage someone else.
I found this blog post on tumblr on one of my harder days..
“Daily life can be made happier. It’s actually a matter of choice. It is our attitude that can make us feel sad, happy, unhappy, angry, and so on. Yes, we meet all kinds of different situations everyday, and some may not result to happiness. It’s either we ponder on thinking about unhappy events or we choose to refuse to think about them, but instead enjoy the happy moments. All of us constantly go through various situations and circumstance, but we should always put in mind that we shouldn’t let them affect our feelings and reactions.
If we let negative events influence our moods, we slowly become their slaves. We will lose our freedom. Our happiness will be defeated by those negative forces. But, we can always free ourselves. We can always choose to be happy, and do stuff that will add up happiness in our lives.
What is happiness? It’s a feeling of inner peace and satisfaction. We will experience it when there are no worries, guilt, fears, and obsessing thoughts. This usually happens, when we do something we love or we get something we like, win, gain or achieve something that we value so much. It’s the the result of any event, our reaction and outcome can be positive or negative and that will actually depend on the person.
For most people, happiness can easy come and easy go, it’s temporary. That’s because they allow external factors to affect it. The best way to keep it is by acquiring INNER PEACE. Think about positive vibes and do daily meditations. You’ll see it’ll be easy to choose the happiness habit.”
If you’re looking to do some yoga this fall, look no further than the comfort of your own house. Through October, each house will be holding weekly yoga sessions, which are a convenient way to fit some exercise and relaxation time into a busy schedule.
Yoga is great for your body and your mind, and boasts an impressive list of physiological and psychological health benefits that go beyond the obvious perks of increased flexibility, strength, and balance.
And honestly, after college it’ll be pretty rare to find yoga classes that are free… and even rarer to find yoga classes that come to you. So you might as well take advantage of these classes now.
Without further ado, here’s the yoga schedule for each house:
Sundays
Cabot Dance Studio, 10am (9/23-10/28)
Winthrop JCR, 3pm (9/16-10/21)
Quincy Cage, 4pm (9/23-10/28)
Mondays
Mather SCR, 5:45pm (9/24-10/29)
Leverett Old Library, 6pm (9/17-10/22)
Currier Dance Studio, 8pm (9/17-12/17)
Tuesdays
Eliot Dance Studio, 6pm (9/18-10/23)
Wednesdays
Adams UCR, 5:30pm (9/19-10/24)
Dunster Squash Court, 5:30pm (9/19-10/24)
Kirkland Media Room, 7pm (9/19-10/24)
Thursdays
Pfoho Pfojo, 8pm (9/20-10/25)
you’ll never know what word, what smile, what hug or embrace saved someone’s life.
The first of the year’s new house wellness boards has just been posted in Mather, and the wellness boards for each of the other houses will be popping up in the coming days. The board shows the house’s wellness team, including the wellness tutors and SMHL’s, as well as general information about the peer-support and mental health resources on campus.
Mather's beautiful brand new wellness board
Although September may still feel like summer, the school year is picking up speed (tests already say whaaat?) as we quickly return to the daily grind of classes, papers, and p-sets. But as the year gains momentum, we hope that wellness will remain a priority, and moreover, that students won’t hesitate to reach out to their house’s wellness team if stress, mental health or other concerns arise.
Keep an eye out for the wellness board in your house!
Taken from the Harvard Crimson
Discussions of mental health, mental illness, and suicide are often taboo topics in our society. But while we mourn the loss of Cote K. Laramie ’14, we must also confront the prescient issue of the mental well-being of all students on Harvard’s campus. An event as shocking as the suicide of a fellow student necessitates the immediate need for a more open discussion of the health of the many individuals struggling to deal with this tragedy. If any good is to come of this terrible news, it should lead to a continued frankness and attention to mental health at Harvard and the broad range of services ready for those who need them.
Many students at Harvard and other universities feel the burden of great pressure and resulting stress throughout the course of our semesters at school. Mental health challenges, however, are not always the product of habitual problems like exams, career plans, and the unique social environment of college. True enough, college-age students experience a unique stage of life in which they may be burdened with the expectation to do well academically and are shackled at times by the uncertainty of their futures. Of course, students may also face pressure from financial stresses or personal issues at home.
But not all cases of mental health problems, especially the most serious cases, are created by exogenous forces or temporary situation. Therefore, we should not only encourage a more open dialogue on the frequency of feeling down or anxious about one’s role as a college student; we must also discuss chronic mental health illnesses, like depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety.
Many people shy away from discussing or confronting the topic of mental illness. We frequently discuss depression and anxiety alone with more than a bit of reticence. By doing so, the Harvard community risks ignoring psychological disorders including mood, personality, and dissociative disorders. All of these include conditions that have the potential to completely devastate the mental well-being of the sufferer. At times when mental health arrives at the forefront of our collective focus, mental illness must not be left unnoticed.
It is of course normal to have difficulty telling others about our mental states. For this reason, Harvard students must work to break down the stigma of mental issues not only by speaking up ourselves but also by lending an ear, and learning to lend an ear better, to help those suffering from anxiety, distress, or disorders
No matter what distance one could go in search for an answer, most people could never fully comprehend why or come to terms with the fact that someone they knew decided to take his or her life. Though suicide is irreversible, it is preventable. Harvard has an array of resources that can help those who are currently suffering from any level of mental anguish, ranging from peer counseling services like Room 13 and Contact Peer Counseling, to Mental Health Services at University Health Services, to the Bureau of Study Council. We encourage all students to make use of these resources whenever they need them.
Everyone deserves mental well-being. No matter how big or small the issue, each member of the Harvard community should feel comfortable discussing and seeking help for any mental health issue they face. Every life is valuable and cherished, and we must work together to support everyone our community by openly discussing mental health and being ready to help those who need us most.