Practicing Self Care with The 100 Day Project
One of the tricky bits for me with self care is I worry that I’m being selfish.
I’m not used to putting my needs above other people’s needs. Since I’m a people pleaser, I don’t want to say no when people ask me for help, especially if I’m saying no because I want to take care of myself. It’s an endless negative loop.
Intellectually, I know that I can’t give to others if I’m depleted. It’s that thing about putting on your own oxygen mask first, blah blah blah. Still, I find it hard!
I need practice taking care of my own needs first.
Making my needs a priority.
Putting myself at the top of my to do list.
That’s why I do The 100 Day Project.
The first time I participated in The 100 Day Project, I needed an art process that was small, that I could do almost anywhere, that didn’t need many supplies, and made no mess to clean up. I was still homeschooling, and I spent a lot of time waiting in my car or in the charter school’s library, or sitting in various therapy office waiting rooms. I desperately needed me time, and there just wasn’t much to be found during that season of my life.
But the idea of spending just a little bit of time each day, making art for myself was so appealing.
The idea wouldn’t let me alone. I had to figure out how to make it work.
I could “justify” taking this time for myself if I could fit it into my waiting time. So I chose to hand draw mandalas.
I had a bunch of 3”x4” index cards leftover from my scrapbooking days. I stuck a few into my purse and school tote bag. I had several fine tip Sharpie pens, so I made sure to put one in each bag as well. I was all set. I could literally spend a few minutes each day and draw a mandala.
I ended up drawing over 130 mandalas that year.
I really enjoyed being part of something that was larger than myself. I would check the Instagram hashtag #the100dayproject and be so inspired by what other people were doing.
One of the biggest impacts on me personally, was seeing and feeling the changes in my art.
Before starting this project, I hadn’t actually drawn many mandalas. Maybe half a dozen, if that.
At the beginning of this project, I made myself a cheat sheet of shape ideas, individual components I could draw to help build up the layers of the mandala. By the time I was drawing my 10th mandala, I wasn’t using that cheat sheet anymore. I was just making it all up as I went. I started playing around with colored pens, and putting washes of color on the cards before I drew the patterns.
Early on, I had to really focus on my drawing. I would beat myself up when the curves I was drawing were wobbly, or the spacing between repeated shapes wasn’t even. I learned to take a deep breath when my inner critic showed up, telling me my art wasn’t good enough, or since it wasn’t perfect, it had no value. I had no value. Sigh. I can be so mean to myself.
After drawing over a hundred mandalas, I had a lot of practice in noticing my inner critic. A lot of breathing, and reassuring myself my art did have value, that I had value. A lot of practice having self compassion.
Along with growing my art skills, I was growing my self care skills. I practiced loving my imperfect art and practiced loving my imperfect self.
I’ve learned that what my inner critic says isn’t the truth.
I can acknowledge my inner critic by calmly saying “Thank you for sharing,” and I don’t have to take the criticism to heart. My inner critic is just trying to make me perfect, and I can remember that I am human and flawed, and perfection isn’t my goal. Learning to love myself is.
Participating in The 100 Day Project moves me closer to my goal. By committing a small block of time daily to creating a small project, I show myself that my needs matter. I make myself a priority and put my needs first.
I encourage you to jump into a daily art practice. You can start smaller than 100 days if that seems too scary. Try creating daily for a week or a month and see how it goes. You may just keep going and surprise yourself.
Remember to breathe.
Extra love,