Art of small Acts
In moments of pause, inaction or recovery, the smallest of actions can contribute to a far bigger mission or purpose.
An act is a way to divide an opera, play, or other drama. Each act is a group of scenes that form an important part of the story.
Inaction is not my comfort zone. In the feverish first days when I got covid, I wrote 2 blog posts, knitted a scarf and bought a book about doing nothing. During my recent recovery period after an operation, after being signed off I cleaned the house top to bottom, stalling my recovery and giving myself a ton of pain in the process, before I let myself rest. Writing a to do list for a week gets my hyped up and I try to do it all in a day. I have old stories that mix up laziness and rest and regularly shush my inner critic as she cackles that advice to stop is for other people.
Over the last few years I’ve learnt a lot about managing my energy and nourishing my body and mind but this tricky habit of hyper productivity prior to deep (needed) rest is one I’m still to kick.
Conceptualising this experience through elements of plays, acts and scenes is one that seems to work for me. I think of the time period I have to rest as the ‘play’ then the ‘act’ as collections of moments that contribute to the bigger story. The whole story does not need to play out in a single scene or act, the smaller moments exist inside a bigger experience. So putting bird-food outside and spending 15 minutes watching for birds is not a waste of time, in the bigger story of the whole day.
When I’m working through a tricky limiting belief or unhelpful habit, bringing art and creativity in helps me explore further and make sense of the reasons behind the behaviour or thoughts. One activity I have found really satisfying during my time off is creating story-art on Instagram. I’ve been collecting images then stringing them together with words, to explore a personal/work development theme. These ‘acts’ are like collections of scenes with titles like ‘emergent’ ‘potential’ and ‘refine’. You can see the collections of stories here
Ive started using this idea to shape some of my journalling, splitting a page up into 3 areas and recording the days scenes (list of small things that happened) acts (themed collections of the small things) and the play (the broad-brush story of the day that the themed collections contributed to). Its helped me get unstuck from hyper productivity and make my days feel more meaningful and less cluttered with activity. My body has got the rest its needed too.
I think this approach could be applied to our work-lives. For freelancers and founders the sheer volume of different type of activity can leave you with the ‘what did I actually do today?’ feeling. Reflecting on time with the play/act/scene lens can in just a few days give you back a feeling of meaning and movement that cant be achieved through productivity alone.
If you think reflective and creative practices might support your development, take a look at my services.
