 Hi guys, we are here for the October Edition of explorations of me so this month is going to be less about art and more about talking and We're not looking at my face today because I do want to show a couple of things here on the table specifically So this month our topic is What do you do when you need a loan time? I don't think that's how she phrased it exactly hang on What do you do when you need me time? Do you do anything special and you do you like being alone at times? That's how she phrased it. That sounds a little better The answer is yes. Yes, and yes so there's a great example of It was an art retreat with my friends last year and most of them know this I went to the airport Earlier than my flight Not that I don't love them at all It just was a lot of people-y people-ness for a week and I just needed some time To myself with my headphones in and my iPad and my my notebook I had one of these with me Where I could just sort of chill and decompress and a decompression time. I really do need that and When I need to retreat I retreat here to my art space I work in my journal Here's my page from last month and this journal Sometimes I will just put Stuff in the journal in a random fashion because I need to use stuff up at the table And I just use up extra paint and whatnot Other times I'll do a page. It just depends sometimes I work on I do my paper clips or tags But I need that time to myself if times are really stressful and I'm really kind of really on overload Then I will sit and just read and I've been known to lose myself in a book and read that Literally read the day away That's happened and I know y'all do that. I know it's not just me. I do find that More often than not especially during times of stress and anxiety that my Small black notebook, which is the actual one is downstairs that I'm working at the moment. This is a blank one is Invaluable, so I have these small B6 size Notebooks they have 60 ruled sheets in them. These are from Daiso the Japanese dollar store They're a dollar 50 each so when I go to Daiso to Cal when I'm in California I try to pick up a handful of these and if I have a friend like my friend Vicki in Texas If she's going to Daiso where she is I ask her can you get me some of those little notebooks? And I just always have a whole bunch of them around because I do go through them So I always have one of these around and a big crystal pen why you ask I'll tell you why and then I'll show you what my thoughts are on that So I will just crack open the book Start with the first blank page And I will just write What's on my mind good or bad? ugly or pretty swear words However, it's coming out of my mind. It goes on the paper Whatever my thoughts are about it someday my great-grandchildren are going to read it and go God great-grandma was kind of nuts Anyway There's no care in consideration for spelling or punctuation. It's literally just one giant run-on sentence for three pages So one two three I do date them and then I'll start the next page One two and then three I call it daily pages. It's my version of daily pages So every morning or every evening Writing it all out getting it out of my brain and onto the paper So that I can go forward in a more positive light and less stressed out Than I was before I started it really does help It really does bring things up because you're literally just writing what's on your mind and at some point You're like holy crap. You've written something and that you're like really I really felt that way about that situation I didn't even realize that I did Believe me. I know it sounds like a bunch of hooey, but it's not it really does happen I find it very cathartic I find it very peaceful and even when my husband is in the room when I'm doing it I'll put my earbuds in and I'll turn some music on and I'll just do my daily pages It's my version of alone time. Yes, I need it. Yes, I need it often And this if nothing else is one of my ways of doing that I know you all thought I was gonna say painting or art some kind of I do do art on a very regular basis But when I truly am stressed and I really need that alone time Daily pages and then when I'm done with the daily pages Then I'll go read a book and I'll really decompress and get lost in someone else's story Then by the time I'm done with that then I am ready to move on with my day my life and do something else But if things are really stressed out, I really need my daily pages and getting lost in someone else's story Which is why I think I like reading really does also help, too My thoughts behind this image are it's just a little plain black notebook And there's nothing wrong with that use the one that works for you This particular small size really works for me because it's easy for me to take with me when I'm traveling It's not too thick also for me to like be working in this one book for like forever I can get it filled up pretty quickly and then move to the next one But if you don't like the plain black cover and I do think it comes into a couple of other colors You could take a calm soothing image like this one is out of a magazine of these balloons and you could Adhere it to the cover With some glue and then cut like cover the whole thing with packing tape to really make it really sturdy That would be really cute So you definitely could do that. It's kind of like a vinyl material. It says leather type. It's it's vinyl plastic so you might have to like scratch it up a little bit or You rough it up a little bit to get this to stick, but I think that would be really cute You could also probably paint it. I like the plain black Notebook nobody really knows what it is and honestly it kind of stands out in my drawing bag downstairs And also if I'm taking it with me because everything That I travel with tends to look like this and be kind of colorful and so then you see this and you're like, oh, what's that? So it's kind of sticks out. It's easy to find So yeah, daily pages. I do recommend them. I do recommend you at least give it a shot. It may not be for you Whatever works for you to get your alone time and your one-on-one time that you need to do to be alone with Yourself and your thoughts to reset yourself and re-energize yourself for the rest of life You need to do that male or female Artistic or not, it doesn't matter. My husband sometimes goes in his office and he just goes in and he's in there on the computer He's reading reddit. He's you know watching whatever car thing. He's doing his me alone time Sometimes he goes out and he just goes out and he's outside in For hours gardening. We don't even have that big a garden. That's his way of alone time He needs that you don't need to be under each other's foot all the time and you don't need to be driving everybody else around you crazy all the time you need to reset yourself and the people around you need to understand that you need to do that and if they are True friends and family if they really love you and care about you, they will understand You know why because they need it too So that's my thoughts on today's prompt think about trying to do daily pages get yourself a little notebook and a pen It doesn't have to be fancy. This certainly isn't this whole thing together I mean these are what 10 for like a dollar 50 right now because it back to school And this one's almost empty and this notebook is a dollar 50 so Less than two bucks And you can just start trying daily pages and if you're going to just try it and you're new at it Get a thin notebook don't get a fat one because if you just don't like looking Don't like doing it and it doesn't serve you then you know You haven't wasted a lot of money and you don't have a huge giant notebook. You feel like you have to fill up All right, and you also don't have to save them. Don't be like me. You don't have to save them My a couple of friends of mine who I know do daily pages. They do them They fill up the book and then they burn it. So there you go You could shred it in a paper shredder too So that's it daily pages. I do recommend it. It's my version of alone time besides art So that's it for today. I'm gonna link everybody else's Videos in the description below. Let's see what they come up with and what they do and what they want to talk to you about. I Think they all have some great ideas if you want to support The free content here on YouTube and over in the Facebook groups Art Facebook groups or just follow me as social media and see what I get up to in the way of art and one of my daily practices You can do that by clicking on the link tree list of links in the description below Besides all the videos from the other explorations of me participants Go show that everybody some loves like like share and subscribe And the most important thing is go out and do something nice for yourself because you do deserve it All right, I'll see you later. Bye guys