NOTES🖤 / 2 / About Time

Hello!

Thanks for being here.

We're on to Chapter 2, or Issue 2 of MJ's Zine.

I think these newsletters are a place where I can share my thoughts on the process of getting to create this work. I want to share how I'm doing with the Daily Flow of practices that support me in rebuilding my health from the point of just rediscovering my will to live–through art. It just so happens that you can think of them as the 5M's. They didn't start out that way. But, I sort of plan out my weeks and days around a little bit of each of these things–most–days.

Meditation • Music • Movement • Making • Metta

Meditation. Every morning. I'm on the cushion first thing after a visit to the bathroom when I first wake up. Which is about 5am. I used to be a night owl. I'm happier now as a morning person. Different seasons in life.

From my cushion I sing mindfulness songs while playfully articulating my core and spine. This brings in Music and Movement. It helps center my heart through the lyrics, and rhythms, and harmonies. It gets me out of my head and in touch with my body in the present moment.

Sometimes I will have things weighing on my heart that come up as I sing. This is helpful because when I can see and feel them, I can help myself work through them. Sometimes I will talk things out with my deeper intution that comes up with the music. Sometimes I will work on the art or on the story for this project, and the practice of Making.

The last 20 minutes on the cushion, I use a mandala and cycle through a prayer I learned from a Tibetan Buddhist teacher that so beautifully brings into focus the most helpful core reflections of buddhism. Then I do some visualization and connect with beings no longer in this time. And, finally, I end with a round of a special visulaization for Om Mani Padme Hung that is so helpful to me, repeating this until I get to the end of the Mala. Thats when I close the practice and ring the bell, offering Metta to all of my relations.

Throughout the day, I revisit these practices again in different ways.

An hour or two in my studio for Making Practice. Learning watercolor and working on my zine project. A little Music making with my drum. Or in my recording booth, playing with harmonies. Qigong for Movement practice, which is where I REALLY practice How To Breathe Like a Star. Also walking, sometimes roller skating, sometimes paddling, or rowing. Time on my nonprofit work, which to me is Metta practice. And my volunteer work, too. Places where you get to build community with people and work towards something meaningful.

I have some tools and systems and things.

They are really helpful.

And, I have learned how to use them very flexibly in a way that actually supports me and ignites my creativity. Instead of putting pressure on myself, being rigid, and stifling my spark.

But I struggle sometimes, too.

With avoidance and procrastination. With the resulting overwhelm.

I'm just not letting that stop me.

I'm going to keep stepping into JOY.

That is my activism. And art is my way.

~ Fight Like Water ~

Selene

BLAST // ISSUE 2 // About Time