Mental health Wednesday
Today I gave myself a much needed mental health day. I had a dose of sunshine, companionship, good food, beautiful surroundings, art, second hand shopping and finished up with a bit of yoga.
It's easy to forget that you need those things regularly to keep you sane and happy, because when you are missing a lot of them (or at least when I am), I find my mood starts spiraling down very quickly. I think I did the very best thing I could for myself today as I was starting to feel very claustrophobic being inside so much (due to the usual studying lock down that I put myself into).
I also read an amazingly inspiring book called "The Left Bank" about an Australian woman who starts an Australian bookshop in Paris (it's a true story!). It sounds like a crazy idea, but she was so passionate about it that she made it work (until ridiculous French bureaucracy caught up with her, and despite having followed all the rules and advice she'd been given, she was forced to shut down).
It was fascinating to read about how invested the French are in the arts. It makes me a little sad that we don't have a similar mentality in Australia. Here our national obsession is sport, particularly football, and while I guess there's nothing wrong with that, I have almost zero interest in it. I should have been born French or Japanese, those are two cultures that seem to really value art and creative endeavours.
I just don't understand why it's more unusual here to visit an art gallery, or to go see a play or to read books regularly. And yet people pay money to sit, freezing cold, eat meat pies and watch men run around on muddy fields kicking and passing balls. I don't know if it's better in a bigger city, or in an artier city like Melbourne. Obviously there's an art "scene", but I just don't quite know why the creative arts aren't more mainstream? How is it that I know quite a lot of people who don't really read for fun? For whom reading one (non work or study related) book a month is a veritable achievement?
This wasn't intended to become a rant, although I think it's a good thing that I am ranting about something that isn't really about me. Always better to worry about problems that are external to yourself.
It's easy to forget that you need those things regularly to keep you sane and happy, because when you are missing a lot of them (or at least when I am), I find my mood starts spiraling down very quickly. I think I did the very best thing I could for myself today as I was starting to feel very claustrophobic being inside so much (due to the usual studying lock down that I put myself into).
I also read an amazingly inspiring book called "The Left Bank" about an Australian woman who starts an Australian bookshop in Paris (it's a true story!). It sounds like a crazy idea, but she was so passionate about it that she made it work (until ridiculous French bureaucracy caught up with her, and despite having followed all the rules and advice she'd been given, she was forced to shut down).
It was fascinating to read about how invested the French are in the arts. It makes me a little sad that we don't have a similar mentality in Australia. Here our national obsession is sport, particularly football, and while I guess there's nothing wrong with that, I have almost zero interest in it. I should have been born French or Japanese, those are two cultures that seem to really value art and creative endeavours.
I just don't understand why it's more unusual here to visit an art gallery, or to go see a play or to read books regularly. And yet people pay money to sit, freezing cold, eat meat pies and watch men run around on muddy fields kicking and passing balls. I don't know if it's better in a bigger city, or in an artier city like Melbourne. Obviously there's an art "scene", but I just don't quite know why the creative arts aren't more mainstream? How is it that I know quite a lot of people who don't really read for fun? For whom reading one (non work or study related) book a month is a veritable achievement?
This wasn't intended to become a rant, although I think it's a good thing that I am ranting about something that isn't really about me. Always better to worry about problems that are external to yourself.