Phil Hansen was a 'pointillist' artist - he made art using tiny, tiny dots. After developing a hand tremor he was told that he would never regain capacity to make art the way he used to. So, his neurologist told him to 'embrace the shake' in his art. This video is partly about the new and hilarious ways he discovered to make art. The art is beautiful. But the reason I love watching this, the way it takes care of me is that - Phil  shares how he discovered that limitations can be used to harness creativity. He invites us to seize our limitations. Thanks Phil.

I made a contract with myself this week. It's been a difficult week and a couple of times I found I was doubting myself. I know this is a reasonable and human thing to do. But. I find that when doubt is sustained it really gets in they way. When I don't believe in myself it doesn't work on so many levels. This week I noticed that a couple of times I thought that I wasn't strong enough. So of course I wasn't. Then I decided it was time to turn it around. I have made a contract with myself for a month - that I believe I am strong enough every single day. No correspondence will be entered into. Strong or Strong. So far so good. If a conversation starts up in my head, a seed of doubt, I remind myself that I said - no choice here, you are strong. I think this is about forming a new habit. Will let you know in a month how it goes. If you were to make a contract with yourself that helped you to take care of yourself, what would it be? 

This week I discovered the work of Shane Koyczan. WOW. Shane is an award winning Canadian poet, author and performer. In 2013 Shane released an animated video of his poem To This Day and also shared the poem at a TED Talk. The video/talk describes Shane's experience of bullying and how he survived it. The video has had over 13 million hits. Shane has also produced a video called Instructions for a bad day. It is beautiful. I've saved it to my phone and listen to it when I am having a shitty day. I take warmth and strength from listening to it. In the section below I have posted his TED talk, then his animated video, followed by his Instructions video. I will also post his Instructions video somewhere here as as permanent fixture - I think lots of people will get something positive from listening to it. Shane also has a stack of inspiring stuff on his website: www.shanekoyczan.com