What Will You be Happy Making? by Catharine Bramkamp
Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Catharin
e Bramkamp as she shares with us “What Will You be Happy Making?” Enjoy!
***
The Role of Art in Happiness
Yeah, yeah, the arts are important.
Got it.
What else can art do for me?
Art will make you happy.
I believe strongly in spending my days happy.
What I’ve discovered is that often we are happier with a schedule that in turn helps you do what you’ve always wanted to do.
The Challenge of Free Time
Is this you?
You’ve always wanted uninterrupted time, time to finally do what YOU want, free from schedules and to-do lists.
Yet when you do earn that free afternoon, that open day, that schedule free retirement, what you get in return is . . . a vague sense of unease.
We spend our days organizing our lives and trying to keep the schedule:
- School, job, children, more school, medical protocols, caretaking, meals.
What happens when all those requirements fall away?
What if we wake one morning to endless summer?
We can do what we want?
But what do we want?
The Disorientation of Doing Nothing
All those afternoons just reading a book have made you twitchy.
You know you want to exercise, but just can get up the energy (which is ironic) to do so.
You finally have the evening to create gourmet meals, but instead you just pick up take away and eat in front of the TV screen and wonder where the evening went.
This isn’t about joining a drumming class (which could be interesting), this is about how a lack of schedule is surprisingly disorienting.
Lessons from Italy
Last year I spent two beautiful weeks in Italy, returning home with plans to keep up the vibe.
Enjoy the summer, postpone projects, just hang out.
By day three, I was experiencing escalating dissatisfaction.
I was cranky, and cranky about not enjoying my own imposed endless summer.
Doing nothing, just relaxing was oddly inadequate.
The Power of a Schedule
So I made a new schedule.
And you can too.
Mark up the calendar to make your new perfect day real:
- Read the news over coffee
- Exercise
- Walk
- Lunch
- Art
It is not counter intuitive to schedule art making.
Label an hour as the art time.
Start assuming that’s how the hour will be spent.
Treat the art time as important enough to protect.
Earning Time Off
After a half hour working on your art in the morning, you will feel you earned an afternoon at the lake or on the beach or in the hammock.
Earning the “time off” is necessary for the American mind-set.
Most of us feel we need to have accomplished something on our to-do list before we can relax.
Even if that to-do list is one of fun or optional projects.
If the art spills into more time that is the big win.
You entered into the zone and that’s how we connect to the universe, to our own inner voice, and to our needs.
A Low-Impact Art Schedule
Create a low-impact schedule for your art.
The shorter the expected time, the easier it is to enter and do.
It will work.
You will work.
Now take a break.
***
Want to read more articles like this one Writer’s Fun Zone? Subscribe here.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catharine Bramkamp is a successful writing coach, Chief Storytelling Officer, former co-producer of Newbie Writers Podcast, and author of a dozen books including the Real Estate Diva Mysteries series, and The Future Girls series. She holds two degrees in English and is an adjunct university professor. After fracturing her wrist, she has figured out there is very little she is able to do with one hand tied behind her back. She delights in inspiring her readers.
