A good mind exercise this Diwali!

Belated Happy Diwali everyone! :) I always love Holi and Diwali (minus crackers). Such amazing festival of colors they are bringing in so much of positive vibes. 

I especially love Diwali for all its pujas and because of more holidays from work :) Have 3 back to back holidays which is giving me so much more time for myself and family. This Diwali, I thought of spending time in painting mud diyas. Everyone asked my why do you want to waste so much of time in this? They are easily available in the market at a very economical rate. Yes, Agree. And my reason of doing this was not because the artist in me woke up suddenly or I had to kill time. But because this was a stress buster for me.I am a restless soul. It takes me quite an effort to focus on any task for long. And I had read somewhere that for such diseases, doing some creative work is therapeutic :)

My role, or rather any woman's role, is about multi tasking - juggling between myriad of tasks starting from early morning till late night and the mind is perpetually churning in making sure things are done well, personally and professionally. Some are able to manage things flawlessly. Others like me need some practice and persistence :)

So I bought some water colors, brushes and diyas. As a child, I was good in Arts and took active part in Drawing competitions. The Digital Era spoiled me and the touchscreens took over the paintbrush. Doing it all over again was like reliving my childhood. I researched for some basic design ideas and started off. Anyone whose made hand painted diyas would know that more than creativity, it requires patience. Patience of first soaking the diyas for a while, letting them dry for a while, doing the first coating of color and waiting again for it to dry. Phew! Intezaar.

So this was a great exercise for my mind. Even while painting, so many thoughts were crossing my mind - past memories, future planning and blah blah. But after a while, my mind got completely absorbed in this activity.  My focus was all on getting the colur combination correct, having different color diyas to boast of - red, golden, green, white, yellow, blue, orange and on having different design patterns. Though an amateurish attempt, but I feel they turned out pretty well for a beginner like me. And it was indeed a great mind exercise as I did not even realize how time flew from 1 pm to 4 pm! I personally did not want to show them off on social media as the mind may get caught up in all the praise and accolades. But Diwali pe ek post toh banta hai :) 

This exercise of painting Diyas made me realize how important it is to spend time to settle our mind. I felt so much more relaxed and in the present moment. 

And as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says, " If you can win over your mind, you can win over the whole world!"

Keep Smiling :)

Swati