I finally did it. I broke down and bought one of those “grown-up” coloring books and a set of really nice prismacolor colored pencils. I picked up the Enchanted Forest book, by Johanna Basford, and I came home and colored— for hours! Seriously, I didn’t do anything else productive— I didn’t even shower! (I meant to, but I never got around to it!) All I did was color. My inner 6 year old was in heaven!

At first, I felt guilty spending so much time coloring when there was so much I needed to do (like shower, laundry, work on my art shop & etsy store, paint, make dinner, etc.) I feel guilty if I’m home and I don’t do something “productive”, and this feeling gets worse the busier and crazier life gets. These past few weeks have been especially crazy since I’ve been at my moms house nearly every day helping her pack up and move out of her home of 45+ years. Definitely not an easy task. So in the brief time I am home, I feel like I need to do ALL THE THINGS. Instead, I gave myself permission to play, color, and relax. I spent the whole afternoon listening to my favorite music, drinking copious amounts of coffee, and coloring.

And you know what? I feel pretty darn awesome today AND I was really productive! I managed to shower, do laundry (and fold it!), and clean up around the house a bit. I even made pumpkin banana bread. All before noon. How’s that for productive? While coloring yesterday, I came up with a few blog post ideas too. I would consider yesterday’s coloring endeavor really productive and I’m so glad I took the time to relax and take care of me.

What do you find a hard time giving yourself permission to do? Share in the comments section below!

Permission to Play