Meditating With A Friend On A Weekend Afternoon | A Mixed Media Project

A few days ago, my thoughts turned to relaxation. Specifically, I focused on the lack of time I devote to recharge and de-stress. I've had several episodes of nightmare involving deceased family members the past few months, so I wanted to step back and dissect them to figure out the reason they were foremost in my thoughts.

I know that for the last several years, my stress level has risen instead of decreased for my age bracket. So I decided to take breaks from online daily involvement. If one's mental and physical health aren't in order, then you can't expect to accomplish your goals.

And one item specifically that has fallen off pace for me is my engagement. I feel myself becoming burnt out. A lack of physical and mental energy. But more so because of the physical. New medications to control my blood sugar continue to be experimented.

So I have to find new ways to calm my self down and focus on tasks when I do have the energy.

What a relaxing retreat. Meditation. Friendship. Two essential items I feel are needed oftentimes to enhance one's quality of life. Numerous benefits exist when we interact with family and friends in a social setting. Not only do we share memories of special events, but gather insight into the other persons' perspective on ideas and happenings either in their persona lives or of the world in general.

The interactions can create close bonds and stave the feelings of isolation and loneliness. It's awesome to have a confidant, one who will listen if that is all one requires.

I've always heeded the saying that people come into your life for a reason; a season, or a lifetime."

I started speaking with family more to check on them and also recount my dreams. Often I keep those things private and write them down in my journal. But these particular dreams involved more than one deceased family member approaching me in the same scenario.

What a surprise! Other family members have experienced the same episodes with dreams that I have; although they didn't classify them as nightmares. I'm happy that I reached out to them. The experiences have helped ease my mind about certain family situations.

When you need to contemplate an issue or just desire to be in the company of someone who understands, whom do you seek the company out?

For my current mixed media art project, I wanted to recreate a scene in which I'd travel to the beach. There, I'd relax, staring out over the waves as they rushed to the shore. Then, I'd feed the seagulls.

I utilized Canva to blend the different type images. I leave with you my procedures which began with a blank, white canvas. I then add layers of elements that includes tools to colorize, remove or detach images from their backgrounds, resize, filter, duplicate, and reposition items as required. Perhaps of all the tools, the ability to remove backgrounds thereby creating transparencies of the images is crucial to the blending process.

The images I included in my design are set out below. I love the background that exudes peace and tranquility. The young woman sitting as though meditating gave the perfect foreground image with which to transpose onto the the female in the skyline. Locating the right image for your design is key. I was excited to discover the female with the forest landscape on one side of her face as though she's connected to nature.

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Meditation scene ~ female with forest in face ~ Pure Fractal titled "Bouquet Of Flowers-Blue ~ Pure Fractal titled "Flower Twirl" ~ Pure Fractal titled "Flowers Accompany 2"