"The busy have no time for tears." – Lord Byron
"Happiness is not in the mere possession of money;
it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." – FDR
GUS (Gave Up Smoking) is a community support diary for Kossacks in the midst of quitting smoking. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are quitting or thinking of quitting, please -- join us! You can also click the GUS tag to view all diary posts, or access the GUS Library at dKosopedia for a great list of stop-smoking links. Check it out!
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not the kind of person who can just sit there and quietly concentrate on one thing at a time, unless I absolutely have to.
I don’t just watch TV, I’m always reading at the same time, or checking the blogs. If I’m blogging, I have the TV or music on in the background, and I’m checking my mail, or updating Facebook, and who knows, I might even be on the phone. At minimum I usually have a couple of things going at once. I really, really hate being stuck without something to read.
It's even worse if I’m stuck at a restaurant or bar waiting for someone (or the check); I’m that wiseass who draws cartoons on the napkins, makes little mini art installations out of the jelly packets or swizzle sticks, and turns the check into an origami swan or a Cootie Catcher - I’m basically a server’s worst nightmare. I tip extra knowing they’ll have extra stuff to clean up. I can’t help it; in my mind, materials + time = create something already!
I’m not super fidgety, mind you...I mean, I can sit still for long stretches of time without wanting to climb the walls, but I definitely have a hard time not doing something with my hands. When I was a smoker, that cigarette wasn’t just a nicotine delivery system, it was a prop, a way to keep my hands busy – flicking the Bic, tapping the ashes, underlining my every gesture. When I quit, my awareness of my now-idle hands went into overdrive. They were just sort of...hanging there.
Doing nothing.
Well, that wouldn’t do at all.
"You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star." - Nietzsche
Back in the day, I held a bunch of what are now called "creative economy" jobs: I’ve been an illustrator, a muralist, a copywriter, a window display designer, and a freelance writer. I’ve hand-painted shirts to sell to tourists; I’ve designed packaging and displays for stores in Japan and restaurant menus for local restaurants. I used to design those little decorative rubber stamps people use for crafting and scrapbooking, and come up with the craft projects for people to do, too. I've worked as a typesetter, temped as a traffic manager at a marketing agency, and spent a year as a writer and editor for a magazine.
I also did a lot of artsy, creative stuff on my own time: refinishing or repurposing furniture and yard sale finds, making jewelry, paper crafts (collage, decoupage), freehand embroidery, sewing, painting or sketching. I suck at knitting and crochet (it’s the counting thing), or I’d probably be doing those too.
So when my newly non-smoking idle hands itched to flick the Bic or fiddle with the nonexistent pack of smokes, I at least had an answer to the question of what to do with them: crafting! I'd always sort of linked creativity with smoking, but once I quit, I figured out one very important thing: I was creative before I smoked, the smoking didn't actually help the creative process, and I was still creative now that I didn't smoke anymore. And boy, were my hands itching to do something!
Have no fear – today’s crafting is not your Grandma’s (or Grandpa’s) paint-by-numbers kit, not even close! (Although, come to think of it, those things are fetching a pretty penny on eBay these days.) Today, crafting is everywhere, and the variety of options is staggering. Crafting can be extremely extreme,subversive, clever and competitive, even tasty!
And even when your efforts go horribly awry, they can be a source of amusement and distraction. Of course, if you do it enough and you’ve got some talent, like GUSsack Fineena, you can even open up a shop on Etsy and sell your stuff.
Everyone’s getting in on the fun – even Ceiling Cat!
Not sure where to start? There’s a lot of stuff online, and a few magazines that can be fun to check out: try HOW, Make (great if you have a techie bent), or ReadyMade (if copying the always-too-perfect Martha Stewart is just way too much pressure right now).
"All children are artists.
The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Pablo Picasso
It’s never too late! Don’t be afraid to unleash your inner artist. If crafting’s not your thing, there are lots of other creative pursuits that keep your hands busy and away from the Bic: playing music, cooking, decorating, writing prose or poetry, photography, sculpting, painting, making LOLcats...the sky is the limit. It's a great way to keep fidgety hands busy, and you may even surprise yourself at how much you enjoy making something uniquely your own.
And I dont' want to hear any of those "I don't have a creative bone in my body!" excuses. I firmly believe that everyone’s got it in them to create something unique and wonderful. You did it when you were five and someone slapped a sheet of paper and some finger paint down in front of you, and you can do it now. So here’s a GUS challenge: share something you’ve made with the class!
Current members of the GUS team! Please post a comment in the butt can if you would like to join, or if your name is here in error:
1BQ, 3rdGenFeminist, Abra Crabcakeya, addisnana, AfroPonix, amk for obama, Anne933, aoeu, Archie2227, ArthurWolf (in memoriam), awkawk, bamablue, barnowl, bgblcklab1, Bike Crash, BirderWitch, blue husky, Blue Intrigue, bluestatedem84, BoiseBlue, breedlovinit, BrowniesAreGood, bsmechanic, burrow owl, Chocolate Chris, ChurchofBruce, coppercelt, dadanation, dangoch, Dexter, Dingodude, donnamarie, DRo, droogie6655321, duckhunter, EdgedInBlue, Everest42, Fineena, Flea, flumptytail, FrugalGranny, Garrett, greylox, gchaucer2, Geiiga, grndrush, Im a frayed knot, Indexer, interceptor7, inventor, itsbenj, Jahiz, Jyrix, jvolvo's Mom, jwinIL14, kai99, kailuacaton, kestrel9000, khloemi, Khun David, labwitchy, Lady Kestrel, ladypockt, langerdang, LarsThorwald, Last Starfighter, Lipstick Liberal, lmdonovan, luvsathoroughbred, maggiemay, magicsister, marknspokane, mdemploi, Mikeguyver, Minerva1157, MinervainNH, mskitty, nannyboz, ncsuLAN, Nick Zouroudis, one pissed off democrat, Ordvefa, PaintyKat, Pennsylvanian, post rational, revelwoodie, rkex, rosebuddear, SallyCat, seenaymah, Scrapyard Ape, sheddhead, smartcookienyc, spmozart, theatre goon, triciawyse, trueblueliberal, Turn VABlue, Turtle Bay, uc booker, Unduna, Vacationland, webranding, weelzup, willy mugobeer, Wood Dragon, x
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