Yadelin's Blog

            This week I decided to draw a simpler picture on my iPad and focus on neatness and a clear message. Looking back on the past couple of weeks, I think my practices are starting to become more personal to me especially since I've started to reflect on my past self and her dreams. My theme of clarity is connected to this piece because it is meant to portray my younger self and the dreams she had of being a doctor and that dream still being mine today. The mirror is supposed to be reflecting a picture of my younger self playing doctor with her stuffed animals as I used to do frequently. Reflecting on how far I’ve come already to get to this dream has played a big role in getting me through this last week as I had intense exams and busy schedules. It seems surreal that I am able to attend UF and study hard for something I’ve wanted ever since I can remember and it gives me a newfound clarity to the extensive effort I put into school every day. ...

  This week I decided to make another drawing on my iPad. This time was a lot easier than the first blog and I also wasn’t super technical with drawing perfect lines which was something I struggled with on the first one. Instead, I just let myself sort of scribble on the brain part of the drawing and erase what I didn’t like. Overall, I’m really pleased with how it turned out and think my work is becoming more of what I envision. The drawing of the brain with flowers sprouting out of it was something that fitted my mentality shift this week. I felt incredibly down after getting grades back that I wasn’t pleased with and just overloaded with work. Around Thursday, I decided to look at things differently. I reminded myself of where I want to be in the future and how the work I’m doing now will get me there, even if it doesn’t feel like I’m moving forward all the time.  I began to look at my future as a motivation to study harder and take care of myself. This mentality shift ga...

This week I chose to make a drawing on a small post-it note that resembled how I felt for most of the week. My health was not the best as I had a lot of stressful events like exams and big assignments that were constantly on my mind. I thought that drawing a person in a storm would be a good representation of these feelings, but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to portray that. I ended up settling on an individual sitting in the storm, because I felt that I could not do anything but simply survive the storm this week. On top of that, I thought that it would be fitting to hide the face of the individual with a mass of lines because there was so much going on that I was overthinking and trapped in. Though I might have appeared peaceful or “in control” there was so much that felt out of my control and scary. The picture depicts the opposite of what “clarity” looks like to me. But this week was just that, and I think it helped me see that clarity does not always mean I have to look ahead, but in...

  This week I reflected on certain aspects of my daily life that bring me clarity. I have used my practice this week to form a picture board of different things that bring me a peaceful and clear mind. Some of these things include taking walks in nature, watching the rain fall, being outside when the sun sets and watching the moon come up, and spending time with friends. I used pictures from my camera roll but also online to blend things I already have in my life and do often and things I want to do more to help improve my overall wellbeing. Most of these things include being in nature and I have realized that spending too much time inside buildings brings me negative energy and often makes me feel stuck in a box. Another thing that I have tried to incorporate more this week is keeping my workspace organized and clean. Clutter, especially when it comes to school, elevates my stress levels and clouds my mind. Keeping my desk at my dorm organized while I do schoolwork but also decl...