Today’s heart turned into a little foodie-do.
#44 – a healthy choice!
A very healthy heart this was! I believe taking good care of yourself is also a form of (self)compassion. I can tell you: it was delicious.
A Heart A Day #44
Tag Archives: tessies projects
A Heart A Day #43
Not only was yesterday International Peace Day. It was World Gratitude Day, too! So my heart for today is inspired by gratitude.
I like gratitude. Every morning and every evening I write down the things I’m grateful for. At least 3 things in the morning and at least 3 in the evening. In the beginning it felt a bit strange and it seemed hard to get to 3 things. But a year onwards and I easily write a list of 6 or 7 things, sometimes even 10. The smallest things, the most random things, all those things I tend to take for granted. The longer you do this, the easier being grateful comes to you. Magic! And the good thing is, gratefulness, like happiness, shines. It beams right out of your face! So I’m turning into this advocate for gratitude…and before you know it, so will you ;-)
At this very moment I’m grateful for so many things, that I’d like to share some with you. In case it might be inspiring to you…
I’m grateful for my very loving and golden friendships; I’m grateful for my amazing and loving parents and brother; I’m grateful for the sweet and thoughtful responses on my hearts; I’m grateful for my creativity that’s boosting; I’m grateful for the fact I live in a country where there’s no war; I’m grateful for you, reading this blog!
And now onto the heart of today. I drew one heart, created two others out of it and then failed to choose one. So you’ll get 3 hearts from me. An amazing 3-for-1 deal! Enjoy!
#43 – the drawing mixed with a confettied “thank you” I once made.
#43 – a negative
#43 – the original heart
A Heart A Day – Major Catch Up – Part Two
Hello there!
Another catch-up. I’m getting there! One heart I made, as a reminder to act if you want to achieve your goals. I made it beautiful and dreamy, so that it’s a kind note to self ;-)
Last week I was in a creative mood and took inspiration from the materials used.
This week, pages were the triggers of my fantasy, and origami crane birds.
Here are 9 new catch-up hearts! How are your hearts getting along?
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
Self-love September
September is a month I’m very excited about! As it turns out September is the month of Self Love.
Self Love is my life’s quest.
From pulling my hair when I was not older than 4 or 5 – because I had told myself Tess was a boy’s name – to an eating disorder between the age of 11 and 22. And frankly, everything in between. I’ve always told myself
- I don’t deserve love
- I’m not pretty enough
- nobody likes me, let alone will ever love me
- I’m too fat, too short, too boring, too weird, too sensitive.
And that is just the top of the list. I have hated myself dearly. Very dearly indeed.
Change came. At some point. The realisation that you can’t search for love outside yourself, if there isn’t any inside of you. Baby step after baby step. But boy, I’ve grown! I’m surely not completely there yet, but I’m on the move. And I know where I’m heading to.
Two years ago I decided to start writing a book about self-love. A journey, literally. I quit, then continued, quit again. But at the start of 2016 I realised this is the journey I want to continue. I’m gonna take my time, it may take some time before you’ll see the result. But I came to realise that I’m an actual expert on this topic, not by study but by experience. So why would I keep telling myself I wasn’t good enough?
It’s gonna be an epic journey, a big part of my quest. I wish that anyone suffering from self-hate and related issues, will find a companion in my book. In due time…
As Self-love September is now upon us, I simply wish that anyone suffering from self-hate in whatever form has someone to reach out to, has the stamina to continue the journey along the bumpy road to Self Love. For me there’s no way back and I know if I can walk this road, so can you. Let’s make this month a powerful one!
If you have any thoughts, if you want to share a piece of your Self Love journey – do feel free to get in touch via the contact-form on the About-page or via social media. Or share this blog, to let more people know about #selfloveseptember!
For you.
A Heart A Day – Major catch-up, part one
Here’s a major catch-up, part one; hearts 24 – 32. And I realise I’ll still be behind, as today should be day #36 of my challenge. Do I have a good excuses for this delay? Well, yes. I got food poisoning… When I was finally back on track I did pick up continuing making hearts, but simply didn’t get round to posting them. Life is what happened :-) But once I’ve caught up, I’ll be determined to pick up where I was, as creating a heart a day is the best challenge! The focus I now have on self-compassion and compassion towards others is what I was looking for. It triggers my brain every day!
So here we go, 9 hearts as catch-up part one. Descriptions underneath each photo.
#24 – my ode to food poisoning, as sea fruits were the cause of it all. Took me a couple of days before I could look at shells and create this heart ;-)
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- #25 – note to self. Pictures of the sketch and final drawing combined.
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- #26 – note to self. Pictures of the sketch and final drawing combined.
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- #27 – note to self. Pictures of the sketch and final drawing combined.
#28 – you have to look closely to find the banana-candy heart. Inspired by the colours of the picture underneath which I took while baby-sitting.
#29 – KISS MORE! Inspired by a good week for kissing ;-)
#30 – my flower heart as an apology to you. Sorry I kept you waiting for more hearts…
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- #31 – accidental as I wasn’t planning on creating a heart while clearing out my house… But then I found these, which I once made. In a very Dutch-flag mood.
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- #32 – look away if you have a toe phobia! This is the real deal when it comes to ‘accidental’. Painting my nails, my eyes suddenly noticed this tiny read heart!
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
A Heart A Day #23
Two hearts connecting. I’m trying to connect from the heart. With everyone. And foremost with myself. Listening to my own heart, doing what feels right for me. And not ignoring that. It’s a challenge – I learn to accept that some days are off-days, also when it comes to heart-connection – but a good one. It’s also totally in tune with my self-compassion journey and my heart-a-day challenge!
Today’s heart is actually a gift I drew for someone. A gift for the receiver to colour in, to make it into a unique and personal drawing. In my experience colouring makes the mind calm, so in a way it’s a mutiple-purpose present ;-)
With love,
Tess
PS: Heart 24 comes on day 25 as I’ll be on a festival tomorrow…
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
I’m gonna re-write me a love song
In the process of learning to love and appreciate myself I’ve come up with endless ways to make it happen. Some ways stick, others don’t. A favourite of mine is rewriting love songs. Finding the cheesiest love songs and then starting to swap you with me or I.
I do hear you think: that is SO SILLY!
True! But…do you ever really listen to love songs? As in ‘really’, word for word? If you do, you may have noticed that most love songs seem to be about how someone’s happiness and self-confidence depends on the other. It’s always focussed on the other. Never on the person itself. Never on you, your importance, the fact that you are the person you’ll live with your whole life.
So yes, it’s absolutely silly. It will make you laugh out loud at first. But give it a try, ‘cause after a while you’ll notice that the words really reflect with you. And the whole love song gets a different meaning. In fact LOVE gets a different meaning. It starts to become clear that it starts with you!
And here we get to one of my main realisations during my self-love journey. My happiness doesn’t depend on someone else. Not the other is responsible for my happiness, but I am.
I totally understand if you don’t get it right now, if you think I’m nuts – I am – or whatever it is you think. But fact is that this – rewriting love songs – is something that has helped me on my self-love journey. And to help you on your way, here are some examples:
To start, we’ll take one of the neediest songs from the ’90-ies. I need you by T3. If you don’t recall, bear with.
This is the refrain of the above mentioned song:
I need you
And I couldn’t live a day without you
I need you
More than anyone I ever know
I need you
And I wanna build my world around you
I need you
I need you
Yikes.
Now the fun part – rewriting it!
I need ME
And I couldn’t live a day without ME
I need ME
More than anyone I ever know
I need ME
And I wanna build my world around ME
I need ME
I need ME
And there you have it. The essence of life: you need yourself to get through life, you need to take care of yourself and build your world around you (not in a egocentric way, mind) before you can build a life with someone else. That’s the core of what I’m learning, little by little, bit by bit.
Let’s try another song. This Love, This Heart by Phil Collins. This is what it looks like after the formula of self-love:
This love, this heart, these arms to hold
So tight to me, I won’t let go
Can this be real, or just some dream that feels so true
I wish myself love, I wish myself more
I’m all that I live for
I’ll never hurt me, believe me
My heart beats just for me
It only beats for me
I’ll keep the fire alight for me
Can’t think of nothing else, what can I do
This lonely heart of mine, it only beats for me
It only beats for me
I bring me peace, I make myself smile
I give myself strength and all the while
I ask for nothing, only love
And my heart beats just for me
It only beats for me
—
I won’t give up, I’ll wait for me
‘Til I come back, it’s all I can do
I’ll be right here, I’m going nowhere without me….!
Okay, that one may sound a bit sad. On the other hand, don’t you wish you would tell yourself “I wish myself love” or “I’ll keep the fire alight for me”? Amazing, wishing yourself love! That’s what I’m trying to wish myself and give myself: love. And by singing love songs to myself, literally, it sticks. There you have the whole point of singing them to yourself: it is so funny, that it can’t do much else but stick. And slowly it will start to make sense. These days I can tell myself in the mirror that I love myself.And that’s the best feeling!
Save the best for last, Charles Aznavour’s Me, eehm, She:
I may be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I’m alive
The one I’ll care for through the rough and ready years
Me I’ll take my laughter and my tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where I go I’ve got to be
The meaning of my life is me
I mean, come on! This is the core of it all. You are the reason you are alive. The one person to take care of is you, in the first place. Why neglect yourself and expect others to do all the caring and loving for you? Why do you think that, if you loathe yourself, you are able to love others? Why expect others to love and adore you and take care of you if all signals you send out are signals of self-hate?
I hope I’ve given you some food for thought…or at least something to smile about ;-)
With love,
Tess
Love and music. Essentials.
A Heart A Day #22
Today’s heart from me to you is a cheesy one. In light of tonight’s full moon I cut a little heart out of cheese. As children’s stories say the moon is made out of cheese, it seemed logical. For the background I used a photo of the moon in its fullest glory. And they match well together, moon and cheese! What if those children’s stories are true…?
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
#22
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
A Heart A Day #21
Day 21, three weeks and counting!
Compassion, compassion, it’s a difficult one. Today the weather was Summery. I wore a short skirt and went to the park. And I got whistled at and checked out by a guy. Not my type. And I felt like I could explode! Couldn’t he mind his own fucking business?! Other women may recognise this ;-)
And then I inhaled deeply. Exhaled and thought “compassion, that’s my goal, compassion”. I didn’t even have to analyse the why’s of this guy! I left it there and continued my walk, then found a nice spot in the sun and had a very relaxed afternoon enjoying the warm sunshine. No frustration, no anger. Just enjoying and relaxation.
It takes some practise and I won’t be faultless after today, but boy oh boy, to just let it be and not let negativity take over. JOY!
And whilst enjoying the sun I created today’s heart from little gem stones I found earlier today when I was clearing out my study. They’re old, as in childhood-memory-old! And so useful today.
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
A Heart A Day #19 AND #20
Oh yes, you caught me there! I missed day #19… The heart was ready, but I just didn’t find a moment to post. But that’s okay. I’m compassionate towards myself ;-) And today you’ll get two hearts from me instead. How lucky do you feel now?
Yesterday’s heart I created on a party last Saturday with the help of a friend. Shadow and light and the famous hand-made heart on a rough old factory wall. The lights create two shadows, two hearts. They look so bold!
The heart for day #20 I made from a game for children. Totally different than yesterday’s heart, but I think it’s pretty colourful and cool, too.
How is your heart doing today? Are your actions and thoughts slowly growing more compassionate? Towards yourself and others?
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
#19
#20
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
Confetti In Your Face 