Priorities: Live Your Life

Setting priorities can sometimes be a difficult task. Other times, the priorities set themselves. I am in one of those situations right now. With the new school year started, my work is picking up rapidly. I am an occupational therapist. I started a new job last spring with a company that provides therapy for children who attend several virtual school systems here in Ohio. They do their classes via the internet, but I see them face to face in their homes, the farthest is 40 miles away. (Luckily, I get paid for therapy time plus milage.)
I had 2 kids I saw very briefly the end of the last school year. Now I am up to 6 kids I see, half of whom I see 240 minutes a month or more. An hour or an hour and a half a week per child doesn't seem like that much time.If you add in prep time, note writing time, and driving time, it begins to add up.Especially since I have not worked with kids in years, so I am having to relearn what I forgot, and catch up with all the new stuff that has come along.
I started feeling stressed, trying to work out a system to keep all my paperwork straight for these kids, learn what I need to know to treat each one for their particular issues, and keep up with my blog and other writings. It wasn't happening. One day it occurred to me: I am my own boss. I am doing the OT as an independent contractor, so I can set my own hours (with the families I see, of course), I can decide how many kids I see, etc. Same thing with the writing. Ideally, I would blog daily, and write a little on my book daily, but life isn't ideal. I had been blogging about once a week. Lately, it has been about twice a month. I think that is where it will stay for the time being.
This has been a hard decision to make, even though it eased my stress as soon as I decided to cut back on how often I try to post. I feel like I am losing a part of myself, like one era has ended, and another, unfamiliar, unknown one has begun. I guess that is true. I am starting a new adventure as an OT for children. I am losing the freedom I have had since I was laid off last February. I guess that is my lesson for today: don't be afraid of starting a new adventure, recognizing that if you do, you may need to cut back or drop some current activities. That is life. Live it your way, and to the fullest. I will be here writing a new post twice a month.    

ARTIST AND THERAPIST

Welcome to my blog. This blog is about art, healing, and using art for healing.

ART: I am an artist. My favorite media are colored pencils, papercutting, stained glass and silk painting. I like bright colors, and often contrast them with black. My themes are Jewish/spiritual, nature, humor, and anything else that calls to me. Sometimes I will show a piece of my art, and tell what inspired me, and about the techniques I used, and sometimes I will have patterns and instructions for projects you can try.

HEALTH: I have Sjogren's Syndrome, fibromyalgia, and a variety of other odds and ends. For people who don't know what these are, I will help you understand. For those people who know all too well what they are, I will write about coping, and about living your life the best you can with chronic illness, chronic pain and fatigue.

ART FOR HEALING: Evidence has shown that art can heal in many ways. The process of creating art can be soothing, can be a release, can be similar to meditation, and much more. Art also provides a means of expressing thoughts and emotions for which we can't find the words. I will write about these processes and benefits, and sometimes provide projects or ideas for you to try.

So, who am I? I am not an art therapist, but I play one on TV. Actually, I sometimes play one at my job on an inpatient psychiatric unit at a hospital. I am an occupational therapist, I work with a team that includes occupational therapists, art therapists, recreation therapists and chemical dependency counselors. I don't work full time, I work PRN. That means I work 'as needed'. Whenever someone else on the team is out for vacation, conference, sick or whatever, they call me in to cover for them. I lead groups on a variety of topics, including stress management and anger management, with a different slant depending on who I am covering that day. I am also a founding member and co-leader of our local Sjogren's Syndrome support group. My actual title is 'education chairperson', though I sometimes accidentally refer to myself as the 'science officer'. I am the one who either finds a speaker for our meetings, or leads the session myself, on some aspect of coping.

I also love books, and will share with you some of my favorites creative and self help books.