THE BIG RESTART

January seems to be designated the time to Restart! 

[from Carolyn Tyger]

Restart your hobbies. Restart your regular activities.Restart your exercise program. Restart your life, even.

Every website I visit to learn about watercolor painting has one or more tutorials on how to get started again--the assumption being that we all took time off to celebrate the holidays and forgot all about our previously all-consuming interests.

Really?

I'll grant you: lots of folks go all out with decorating, entertaining, attending programs. And before they even got to that point, they dished out energy in tracking down that elusive "perfect" gift for You Know Who. 

Then there were all the things that had to be done before the arrival of whatever holiday was being celebrated: colored lights to be tested, possibly replaced; dinnerware that always graced the table for the holiday meal(s); candelabra polished; housecleaning or rearranging to accommodate family and guests who needed shelter during the season.

Shopping wasn't confined to gifts--there was also the search for ingredients (sometimes also elusive) to make Uncle Josiah's favorite holiday pudding. And woe betide the shopkeeper who no longer sold that one special addition to the mix--even if he said the company no longer made it so he couldn't order it even if he wanted to.

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As you can see--enormous amounts of energy could have been expended beginning 'way back in the autumn and continuing on into the new year. (In case you haven't experienced it, the energy drain takes on a life of its own; by New Year's Day, some folks have no bandwidth for what we used to call Normal Life Activities.)

Losing our bandwidth can create its own set of difficulties:

• forgetting how to manage the normal 24 hours per day we've always had
• losing track of simple stuff: how to make microwave popcorn without incinerating it, how long to allow for instant oatmeal so it doesn't turn into super glue, the process for thawing a frozen chicken/turkey/roast safely
• finding a bag of frozen vegetables ("it's gotta be here somewhere")

You get the idea.

So I can understand the thinking behind all the "let's get a new start" tutorials. The underlying assumption is: We've all been straining our brains and resources doing Other Stuff--we've forgotten how to organize a painting/quilt/family meal.

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Here's what I've learned by watching those tutorials:

• start small--allow 5 minutes, or 10, or maybe even 15; do the simplest part first
• start simple--no big projects, no complex designs, no 15-ingredient recipes or king-size quilts (Think: Less is More)
• when the 5/10/15-minute segments began to feel tedious, add a few more minutes
• when we get to the point we can feel our muscle memory returning and our mental acuity clicks on, we're probably ready to tackle the normal whatever-it-was we thought we'd lost

We could call it warming up the engine before starting out.

Or finding the thread again that we had to let go of when life got Too Busy.

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Two things to remember:

1. Restarting is NOT Starting from Scratch.
2. You didn't forget or lose all the experience and knowledge you  had before you took a break.
3. Okay, one more thing: Restarting is a process. Doesn't happen in a day, or a week--certainly not in an hour or two. Just go with it. You'll get there.

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I wish you well in getting your groove back. You're in good company, even if your friends won't admit they have the same situation. 

And if you want to change your habits--ideal time to begin! Just remember: start small and  let it build.

Up here in my neighborhood it's a windy winter day. Going out might be optional. Good time to get a new start!

Blessings,

Thursday's Child