My inner and creative journey during the COVID-19 pandemic

Before I share my journey of the last couple of months with you I first wanted to say that I truly hope that you and your loved ones are doing fine during this global pandemic. It’s a bizarre situation which you don’t have any control over. You can only take the precautionary measures to make sure the chance of infection for you and your loved ones are limited.

There are a lot of people on this beautiful planet and every person has their own personal opinion about the COVID-19 virus and I respect everyone’s opinion. I also have my personal opinion but I don’t feel the need to share this with the world, I do hope you respect this too. It is a fact that we don’t have any control over the virus (yet) so we have to live with the fact that the virus is among us (for now) and just be conscious and careful.

How and what I’ve been doing the last couple of months?

In the beginning of the pandemic (the first person who was diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus here in the Netherlands was on 27th of February) I was following the news every day but as the days and weeks went by I asked myself why. Why did I expose myself to all the misery that was going on in the world, it was effecting me a lot. It wasn’t that I wanted to ignore what was going on in the world (I’m a very realistic person) but it was more the realization that I couldn’t control what was happening in the world, the feeling of powerlessness. For me that was the ‘flick my switch’ moment. I decided to focus more on myself, my inner being and also my creativity instead of letting myself be bombarded with horrific news every day and with the fearmongering of this new virus.

In March I began to work from home and that created more space and time to work on my inner being (remember that you’re always learning no mather how old and how spiritual you are). My alarm clock did’n’t ring at 06.15 AM, instead I came out of bed around 07.30 AM or even later in the beginning. When my workday was done I was already home, no travelling from work to home, so I had more time to focus om myself and my family. A more relaxed routine started for me and it felt and still feels so good. No more running in the mornings and evenings, I had more time to reflect and asking myself some questions wich made me force to think about a lot of things and letting go of certain things.

When I was working on my inner being I also got my creative flow back again which I lost at the end of last year. At that time I mostly felt tired after a long workday and had no energy to start creating mandalas or working on my handmade watercolor collection. When my weekend started on Friday I sometimes layed down on the couch and did nothing. At that time I accepted it and gave into what I wanted to do, even if that meant doing nothing at all. Doing nothing is also healing and good for the mind, body and soul. I also felt and knew that that was what my body needed, resting.

When the pandemic was a fact I decided to temporary pause making handmade watercolors. To me it made no sense to create new handmade watercolors because most of my buyers are from outside the EU. Most of the airplains were grounded at the aiport so it would take weeks before my handmade watercolors would reach the buyer and I knew that would give me tension. By pausing my handmade watercolors it created time and space for me to focus more on creating mandala artwork and also creating new things like mandala bookmarks, mandala sketchbooks and mandala cards. I had so much fun making these. My creative flow was and still is flowing all the time and I’m so grateful that I have the ability to create art, especially in these crazy times.

I feel rested, I feel renewed, I feel focussed, I feel more energetic, I feel inspired and ready to create more colorful mandala art. I truly experience this pandemic as a wake up call. I believe that this is a period of awakening, resting, time to reflect, ask yourself questions like ‘Am I still happy where I am at this point in my life?  ‘Am I still happy with what I do, the work that I do, the friends I’m surrounded with?’ ‘What is it that I want and can change in my life and where do I want to be in 5 years from now?’ You certainly don’t need a pandemic to ask yourself these questions but it sure can force you to do so and open your eyes.

I have created several artworks which will be for sale in my Etsy shop in time, also the mandala bookmarks, mandala sketchbooks and mandala cards. Below some of the artworks I created but this is not the whole collection.

Stay safe and healthy everyone!