On Monsters

So, Havi Brooks, who has the only blog I am currently subscribed to (I had a big info purge, details later) is opening a pirate themed yoga studio. Sort of. Yes, it’s more complicated and way better than that sounds, but whatever. And I did a thing to help raise some money for it, which I was going to tell you about, but then it sold out and there was no reason to mention it here on the blog anymore. So I will tell you now.

Havi likes to talk about monsters. It’s a metaphor, a way to deal or interact with fear and, um, negative self-talk. (Guess who reads too many self help books folks!) Yeah. So, whenever you think stuff like —

• Man, this is never going to work. Why do I even bother? or
• I wonder what she really thinks of me. She must have noticed what an idiot I am, maybe she laughs about me with her real friends. or
• I can’t mess this up! This is my one big chance, what if I mess this up? IcantmessitupIcantmessitup!!!

That’s your monsters talking.

By pretending (for a moment) that the source of these thoughts is external to you, you can get a bit of distance and interact with the part of you that’s afraid, angry, self-recriminating or running around with a “THE END IS NIGH” sign. It’s surprisingly effective. And a fantastic opportunity for goofy illustrations.

So, about a week and a half ago, I uploaded some pictures of boxes to a special secret page. Like these:

Inside these boxes are monsters, I said. You can buy a box, tell me what your monster says, and I’ll draw your monster for you. And some of the money would go towards Havi’s pirate yoga studio. Which is actually called The Playground. If that helps.
Yesterday, as promised, I sent out 6 boxes and monsters as a cut-out-and-stick-together card. Like this:

So you can turn the monster side up when you need to talk to it, and you can put it back in its box when you need it to shut up by turning over the card.

Yes, it’s silly. But I believe in the power of silly. I believe that being light hearted about things is more important and more useful the harder it gets. Taking the effort to laugh about serious things, or at least not take them super-seriously super-all-the-time, strengthens your emotional immune system.

So, with that said, I should probably take my own advice and draw myself a monster. Although I’m not sure what it would say. Or, if I did know, whether I would tell.
<3

*If you like the boxes-with-monsters idea, I may put some more up for sale soon. Stay tuned! That is to say, you could subscribe to the blog with the handy box on the right, for instance. Although the first to hear will be the good people on my mailinglist.

**This doesn’t really have anything to do with food, does it? More on mindful eating and losing weight later this week. Sorry, I do drift off topic now and then…

Tagged as: monsters