Here’s an interesting Facebook page: http://bit.ly/bDA6C8. I am always so interested in seeing what environments artists set up in order to be able to create. My own studio, humble as it is, is a place where I feel good, almost without exception, and even when I’m not making beads. I know I am fortunate to have such a place! If you are interested in artists, their occupations and environments, go check out this group.

This article interests me: http://bit.ly/bSGkb3 . Apparently persons who are diagnosed with depression have reduced ability to perceive colour contrasts. I wonder what we’d see if we looked at art works made when the artists were experiencing depression? Time to look at some of the beads I made in my darkest times.

“I can’t sing!” I heard several students in a recent short course I teach on creative/expressive media say that. And we sang anyway! An interesting article for anyone thinking of using singing as a therapeutic medium: http://bit.ly/cPtsK7

I don’t know why I remembered this phrase this morning. I used it years ago in the infancy of the web when communicating with other “early adopters” of Web 1.0 in OT. I made nametag stickers with a purple spider web pattern for one of the AOTA conferences so we could find each other more easily, as we’d never met F2F. Then I stopped using the phrase as a colleague claimed she planned to write a column with a very similar name. I don’t know if that came to pass, but I was thinking again this morning of all the ways my life is “caught (up) in the web” now. I think that Twitter and Facebook most epitomize this. I so enjoy sharing what we find interesting/helpful/puzzling/bizarre with people I admire. It helps me to stay caught up. And it often captures me, spending more time than I’d planned and perhaps encouraging my “random abstractness” more than other current media can.

Today was the first 4 of 20 NS-RATIO (Not So Random Acts of Therapeutic Intervention through Occupation) activity group labs the first year OT students plan, run and evaluate this time of year. It was fun to see the variety – 2 sessions focusing on gratitude using different media, progressive muscle relaxation and food and mood. Next week, belly-dance, karate, walking a labyrinth, card-making, journalling, yoga, …

Here’s to a new decade lived with an eye to healthy doing and time for simply being, the joy that comes from belonging and the excitement of becoming.
I read an interesting piece on mental time travel that makes a lot of sense to me. Fascinating to see how this simple routine can affect well-being and decrease anxiety. Here’s the link

Just read that an OT colleague I truly admire has, with her integrated dance troupe, won an award for their work from an agency that champions peace and human rights – info here: http://bit.ly/5KM3k4
Wonderful news- congratulations Lindsay, Roxanne and all!

Just upgraded our mattress. What a difference! No tossing and turning, fewer morning aches and pains. Knowing how much quantity and quality of sleep influence health, this may be the smartest thing I do this fall. Zzzzzz …

I spent the afternoon in jail. I had the opportunity to do a “jewelry with meaning” workshop at the local women’s prison with the Occupational Therapist and two OT students who are there. It was great to see what the women created and sad to see how hungry they are for purposeful, meaningful things to do. The project encourages participants to identify strengths and then make a bracelet that reminds you of those strengths on a daily basis.
Thanks J, L & L for letting me be a tiny part of the work you do.

What’s your favourite mass media story of the power of occupation to restore or maintain health?
I’ll start – “the Knitting Sutra” by Lydon and “Slow Dance” by Bonnie Sherr Klein. And of course movies – “Forever Young” and The Full Monty” come to mind. What have you read or watched lately that just screamed OT to you?