caricature girl

Life is short.

Live like you mean it.

"Living simply is not about living in poverty or self-inflicted deprivation. It's about living an examined life where one has determined what is truly important and enough … and then just let go of all the rest. "
— Duane Elgin

By last December, I was really burnt out.

Years of working REALLY hard had worn me down....

caricature gigs,

commissions and magazine layout work,

teaching classes and workshops,

pursuing my painting and creative pursuits,

all the responsibilities of life with 3 young children,

taking care of a house (and all the things that go along with that),

having a commercial studio space to also maintain and pay for

......all on VERY little sleep (average of 4-5 hours per night)

Unhealthy coping habits had become the norm.

By December 2010, I knew I wanted to make some changes.

So I decided that I was going to make 2011,

the year that I began to completely realign and

reorganize my life again

for a purpose.

These are the things I have done so far this year towards this:

• I completely de-cluttered and simplified our home, our life and my studio.
• I stepped back from all my art for a bit and thought about what parts of it excited me and what parts drained me. I am still in the process of redefining the areas in my art career that I want to expand, in alignment with the art I produce purely for income.
• I analysed my "time" habits and saw where hours were leaking out. I then figured out the boundaries I would need to make to get the full use of my time aimed towards what I really wanted.
• I devised a new daily pattern that invested my time in my dreams FIRST in the day, instead of later.

Then a couple of weeks ago,

I stumbled upon Kris Carr and her crazy sexy life story

in a magazine article and something about her intriqued me.

I love to be intriqued by people,

because they always have something to teach me.

So I looked more at her website crazysexylife.com

and her amazing cancer healing story.

The things that struck me the most though,

was that nothing I read about how she got healthy was new to me.

It was about juicing and whole foods and living with less stress etc,

things I had read about for the past 20 years.

The thing that struck me this time,

was that I felt like I finally knew what I needed to do.

In your late 40's you know that physical health and vibrancy has a lot to do with your eating habits and your lifestyle and I was aware that although I wasn't feeling negative results from the way I was living yet, it was probably only a matter of time.

So today to start with,

I begin her 21 day detox and

I guess we'll see where this takes me.....