I've been overthinking this...

The idea for this project came to me a month ago. I was having an emotional moment and feeling overwhelmed by school, my return to Chicago after a long absence, and personal relationships. In sitting with these emotions, I tried to figure out a strategy for processing them--how to move beyond this moment and towards a peace: "ART! JUST MAKE CRAZY ART!" Said a little (wise?) voice inside of me...and this project sprang to mind. What if I enlisted the advice of those around me, gathered their tactics and practices for engaging in self-love? What if I practiced these strategies every day for a looooooong time? Would building a practice of self-love actually lead me to it?  

That was the initial idea, but between that time and today, I've been overthinking my way out of this project. Feeling a sense of vulnerability, fear, overcommittment, risk and guilt--about indulging in self-love when there seems to "real" tangible chaos. What are the ethics of practicing self-love in this moment? I'm thinking very specifically about my relationship to Haiti and how, as a member of the Dyaspora, I am watching and waiting for word about Sandy as well as ongoing post-quake efforts.

I don't have the answer to the question of ethics and self-care amidst chaos and disaster. I can only attest to where my head and spirit are right now, and right now I need to take some time to care for me and make myself whole...so here I am once again. Moving towards self-love and self-care.

The Rules:

1.) Engage in a deliberate act of self-love, daily for the next six-weeks. 
2.) These acts will be the practices of my friends, family, acquiantances; their methods for showing themselves self-love and care.
3.) I will follow (or "perform") their self-care practices and document the experience via photos, short entries, etc.  

All this is aimed at building an archive of self-care and self-love. But I don't doubt that it is also about working through the questions of guilt, performance, ethics and what it means to take time for oneself (myself) during a moments of disaster/chaos.