Lily Verlotte in England is doing a project about "focusing on the good things about each day. Instead of dwelling on the negative things I'm going to try and create pictures from the positive aspects of my daily life." She calls it Finding The Beauty In Life-365...
Why did you decide to do this project? After I had my son I developed postnatal depression, and it seemed to radically alter both my personality and my perception of things around me. My son will be two in May, and a few weeks ago he put a sticker on my knee, when I asked him what it was for he told me it was "to make mummy feel better." I asked him what was wrong with me, assuming we were playing a game, only to be told that "mummy is sad."
I started thinking a lot about what I surround myself with, what I put out into the world and more importantly what effect I have on my son. I always thought I hid it well, I play games, read stories and try and make things as fun for him as possible, but he is bright and clearly much more perceptive than I gave him credit for. I realised at that point I need to make some major changes to the way I think and handle life, so instead of dwelling on bad things I began documenting at least one positive, or inspirational moment, or one completely beautiful moment about each day.
I've been doing this for about two weeks, (though I'm only on day 5 of the 365 project) and at first I really had to dig deep to find something positive- never mind beautiful about each day but now I find it a lot easier, and I'm beginning to view bad things as something to learn from rather than be defeated by. When I discovered the 365 project I immediately thought that I could merge it with my new positivity regime. Having the chance to turn my written experiences into visual reminders that I do have good things in my life other than my son makes me work that bit harder to focus on the positives. As I love books, and like the idea of books as art I opted to keep my project in book form, the challenge will be seeing how I can keep each page interesting!
How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I’m fairly new to it, but I am already finding that I look at things in a different way. Problems are more manageable, and I usually tend to swing wildly between not caring what others think and being quite thin skinned, so previously if someone said something unpleasant to me this could affect my entire mood all day. I though I might really struggle to find something on those days, but although they do still touch a nerve I don't give in. I’m hoping that through this project and by exposing myself to potential criticism by putting it out there publically I’ll toughen up a bit and develop a thicker skin!
I have also found myself myself more ready to agree to invitations to social gatherings, so I have the experiences to use in my project. My major goal to achieve by the end of the 365 days won't seem like much to others but I would like to go on a date with my husband. When I had my son I really struggled to leave his side, the result was my husband and I have never left him with anyone overnight and anywhere we do go needs to be child friendly. I'm now beginning to feel like I want to find someone to babysit and go out just the two of us, unfortunately family members think I'm joking when I ask, but I still have time! Even more importantly, at the moment finding positivity to focus on can still be a bit of a challenge, but it is my hope that looking for the beauty in life becomes second nature to me, so even if I have dark days I can still remember there are good things to be found.
See all of beauty Lily has discovered HERE.
Why did you decide to do this project? After I had my son I developed postnatal depression, and it seemed to radically alter both my personality and my perception of things around me. My son will be two in May, and a few weeks ago he put a sticker on my knee, when I asked him what it was for he told me it was "to make mummy feel better." I asked him what was wrong with me, assuming we were playing a game, only to be told that "mummy is sad."
I started thinking a lot about what I surround myself with, what I put out into the world and more importantly what effect I have on my son. I always thought I hid it well, I play games, read stories and try and make things as fun for him as possible, but he is bright and clearly much more perceptive than I gave him credit for. I realised at that point I need to make some major changes to the way I think and handle life, so instead of dwelling on bad things I began documenting at least one positive, or inspirational moment, or one completely beautiful moment about each day.
I've been doing this for about two weeks, (though I'm only on day 5 of the 365 project) and at first I really had to dig deep to find something positive- never mind beautiful about each day but now I find it a lot easier, and I'm beginning to view bad things as something to learn from rather than be defeated by. When I discovered the 365 project I immediately thought that I could merge it with my new positivity regime. Having the chance to turn my written experiences into visual reminders that I do have good things in my life other than my son makes me work that bit harder to focus on the positives. As I love books, and like the idea of books as art I opted to keep my project in book form, the challenge will be seeing how I can keep each page interesting!
How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I’m fairly new to it, but I am already finding that I look at things in a different way. Problems are more manageable, and I usually tend to swing wildly between not caring what others think and being quite thin skinned, so previously if someone said something unpleasant to me this could affect my entire mood all day. I though I might really struggle to find something on those days, but although they do still touch a nerve I don't give in. I’m hoping that through this project and by exposing myself to potential criticism by putting it out there publically I’ll toughen up a bit and develop a thicker skin!
I have also found myself myself more ready to agree to invitations to social gatherings, so I have the experiences to use in my project. My major goal to achieve by the end of the 365 days won't seem like much to others but I would like to go on a date with my husband. When I had my son I really struggled to leave his side, the result was my husband and I have never left him with anyone overnight and anywhere we do go needs to be child friendly. I'm now beginning to feel like I want to find someone to babysit and go out just the two of us, unfortunately family members think I'm joking when I ask, but I still have time! Even more importantly, at the moment finding positivity to focus on can still be a bit of a challenge, but it is my hope that looking for the beauty in life becomes second nature to me, so even if I have dark days I can still remember there are good things to be found.
See all of beauty Lily has discovered HERE.
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