Unexpected Benefit

if you have been around for a while you know that i am a firm believer in practices (things that you do regularly in an intentional manner to enhance your creative and/or spiritual life).  one of the practices i have been engaging in as regularly as possible is art journaling. 

  after a tentative and very skeptical beginning, i find myself loving the pressure-free means to practice new techniques and try out various (mostly found!) art supplies, while at the same time expressing myself and even dealing with some underlying issues.  oh, and besides all of that, it’s just plain FUN!!

but there is another benefit to this practice that took me by surprise.  i’ve never been a good sleeper.  oh, i can fall asleep all right, but staying there is the problem.  so lately, i’ve found that when i’m lying there in that half-awake state, longing to sink deep back into the land of slumber…. that instead of going through the annoying details of the upcoming day, i’m thinking of colors, shapes, textures and doddle patterns.  since that is not exactly a stressful train of thought, the train actually leaves the station and heads back into dreamland.  very cool.  who’d’ve thought???