Another series of classes begins! How's your BE Attitude?

Hello, one and all ... here we are at the start of another series the Vision Journal classes. Since so many of you are repeat attenders (thank you so very much!), I thought I'd take a different approach to this series. I'm calling it: The BE Attitudes. Nothing Biblical, I promise. More of a recognition that in our lives all sorts of things come our way, good and bad, and the most we can control is our ATTITUDE towards them. In other words, how we choose TO BE in any given moment can change our experience and the experience of those around us.

A brief example from my own life ... at one time I commuted for work from the depths of Surrey to downtown Vancouver on public transit. As you can imagine, there were many times it was absolutely NO FUN at all. One day I had a particularly unpleasant encounter with a rude person on skytrain, and I found myself sitting at a bus stop (step 3 of a 4-part commute) with a black cloud over my head thinking unkind thoughts about how horrible humans are to each other. I realized it was a terrible start to the day and, knowing what was waiting for me at work (more no fun), I *really* wanted to have a different kind of day. So I stood up, walked to the nearby bus stop sign, put my hands on the metal pole gently, closed my eyes and actively *let my anger go*. The second I did that, I felt lighter, happier and calmer.

I'd let that rude person pull me out of equilibrium, and by actively letting my anger go, I'd set myself upright again. I tuned into the present moment and its positive potential and stepped away from the gloom I'd been feeling. I'm not saying there isn't a place for the occasional righteous anger and other kinds of actions, but in that moment, the only thing my anger was doing was harming myself and ruining my day. As a bonus, I also noticed in that moment, that I could feel the rumble of the traffic through the metal pool, and a kind of singing sound that I realized was the trolley wires connected to it as well. And I noticed birds ... and the roads shining from recent rain, and someone walking away with a beautiful umbrella. When I was centered in my anger, I'd hardly been aware of my surroundings at all - I'd robbed myself of a positive experience on many levels.

When I got to work, I had a great day. Not because the workload was any easier, but because I was still standing in the kind of power you can have when you realize you can control your emotions. I've never forgotten that day, especially in bad times. You can't always fix what's happening, but you can almost always adjust your attitude. Knowing that can give you strength and power, and with that knowledge comes your opportunity to improve the situation for yourself, and most likely, for others as well.

The first BE Attitude we're going to look at is: BE Yourself. Each of us is unique, and the push to conform is a strong one. One of the purposes of having a Vision Journal is to have a safe place where you can explore YOUR hopes, dreams, history and fears without judgment (even from yourself).

Being yourself in your journal is always the goal. The more honest you are, the more you will learn about yourself. Artwork by: Penelope

The first two pages of our handouts are all about why keeping a journal is such a powerful tool for self-discovery and things I've learned in my years of keeping a personal journal.

At the bottom of page 2, and in class, I went over some of my favourite journalling tools and materials. Most of them are available at scrapbooking and craft stores, but I wanted to list a couple of local stores that I depend on:

• Urban Source (3126 Main St. ~ dangerously close to home!). They have all kinds of alternative art materials, some of which are offcuts from various local manufacturers and would otherwise be discarded. Everything is sorted and labeled and easy to find. They're very friendly, and I usually take advantage of their "fill a paper bag from our bins" option. 
• Daiso (Aberdeen Centre, Richmond). If you've been to my class, you know how I feel about Washi tape, double-sided tape and quirky papers to work with. Just sayin'.
• Collins Educational Supplies (8358 St. George St. ~ just on the south side of Marine Drive). This is where all the school teachers go to get the fun stuff they use in their classes. I buy my coloured masking tape here, and other things.
• Trendy Bucks (4101 Main St. at 25th Ave). That's where I bought all the really cool duct tape I used for the covers for the new journal covers. Little rolls (not too pricey), lots of great colours and a matte finish - not glossy (more on this later).
• Deserres (1731 West Broadway, near Granville). For acrylic paints, particularly.
• Opus (1360 Johnston Street, Granville Island). More acrylic paints (they often have really good sale prices), but also where I bought the cool multi-colour pencils I talked about in class. They also carry some of the stencils we used to make our covers (more about this in the next post).
• Clipper Street Scrapbooking Company (105-6360 202nd Avenue, Langley) Yes, it's a long way, but they have an *amazing* selection of stencils to make journal pages and covers. And a bunch of other stuff (of course). Although they don't have an online catalog, they will take phone orders and ship to you (they charge shipping by Canada Post rates).

I do buy some of what I use online, in particular, I've found it's hard to find my favourite thing of all time (I feel like that should be in CAPS, don't you?), which is Neocolors II, water-soluble wax crayons from Caran d'Ache. I buy these from Dick Blick online because I like to pick and choose my colours (I use some more than others). They last pretty much *forever* (still using the first ones I bought 10 years ago), and even though they're a bit more expensive than other water solubles I've found, they are *totally* worth it. You can sometimes find starter kits of 10 or 15 at Deserres and Opus, but try them in class and you'll see why you'll want all the colours. Again, just sayin'. 

There is always Amazon, of course, but I prefer to support local businesses where possible.

In the next post, I'll talk about how to make your journals and explore some of the options for making your journal covers your own.