Our regular mental health chat returns for 2025, with a few thoughts on lowering expectations of ourselves a bit.
12 mini tubes of acrylic paint, one roll of cling film, and a 20cm x 20cm canvas board. Those were my main tools, a couple of days ago, as I watched reruns of Young Sheldon. It was not only the most relaxed I had felt in a long time, but it also made me realise a few things. The main lesson; we don’t take time to enjoy The Moment, enough.
My original plans for the day had included lots of writing that I had loosely planned over the festive period, then some housework, practicing some of my handwriting exercises, chasing up friends, and some cooking. Looking back, now, I see that plan was flawed from the moment it was made – there were too many expectations for myself, and it is no wonder I started to stress out early.
Instead I decided to start the day by ‘taking a break’. Hey listen; me waking up is a chore in and of itself, so I need a break before I continue doing life. It took two mugs of coffee, a Twix, and three old episodes of Unsolved Mysteries before I was truly able to enter the Land of The Living. But forget the chores and plans; I wanted to paint.
Quite what I wanted to paint was a mystery, even to myself, but it didn’t stop me grabbing the nearest necessities. A few random blobs of coloured paint, later, and I still had no clue what I was doing. Briefly covering said blobs with cling film – something that had lived in my kitchen for years without true purpose – the process of pressing the blobs into splats began. Then I removed and scrunched the cling film and began to dab, blot, and sort of blend the colours together, before using a fan to speed up the drying process. (I know what you’re thinking, but no; I am not Banksy, despite all the jargon.)
In the end, I found myself looking at a non-specific splattering of colour that really made me feel great about choosing crafts over bleaching the loo. It is just an explosion of colours without any purpose behind it, and I enjoyed every second.
It set me off thinking about the visit I had with my nieces, just before Christmas, in which the 8-year-old asked me repeatedly to use my camera to snap some photos. After (nervously) giving in, I watched her as she carefully aimed at the scenes she wanted to capture, began to zoom in and out, and was surprised at one point when she even lay herself on the floor in order to seek a different angle.
Most children of that age just point and shoot, repeatedly, and are excited to provide 96 blurry images of something that they can vaguely identify. But upon viewing the photos on my laptop, later that day, I was caught off-guard by how few images there were and just how impressive they were for someone of her age and hyperactive nature. Perfect? No, of course not. But for sure far beyond what I had expected.
We need to lower our expectations, sometimes, and just enjoy the moment. Paint like you are a child, again. Sing and dance as you hoover the carpet, Mrs Doubtfire. Grab the camera, or the canvas and cling film and see what masterpiece you can create, just because you feel like it.
2024 drained a lot from us all. Let’s try and reclaim some of that energy by soaking in the imperfect, unplanned, but enjoyable moments during 2025. It’ll be worth it.
