I don't often take a class or spend a day away from the kids. This week I did both, twice. Wednesday I spent the day at a continuing education seminar. It was really interesting. The title was How the Brain Forms New Habits: Why Willpower Is Not Enough. It was really interesting, all about the neurobiology of habit formation and what works for changing habits. One of the big take home messages was that willpower doesn't work if you want to stop doing something. It works well to keep you doing something and to pull you through, but not to keep you from doing it. In order to exercise willpower you need to keep something in your working memory, in your mind all the time. That's great if you want to remember to do it, but not if you want to stop doing it. If it is in your mind, you will think of it all the time and be very difficult to stay away from. It is much better if you fill your mind and life with "enrichment", things that make you happy and send little dopamine bursts to your brain. When your life is full of good things the bad habits can fall away.
Saturday I took a one-minute drawing class. That was a lot of fun. I want to be an artist when I grow up. I do a little bit now and then, but I want to improve my basic drawing skills. The instructor encouraged us to use a drawing style I haven't really used before, continuous line drawing. It ends up looking a little like Calder's wire sculptures.
He taught us how to shade the pen drawings. Since the ink is water soluble you just use a wet Q-tip and smear it around a bit. Very easy. We also did blind drawings where you draw without looking at the paper. It looks a little Picasso.
It was fun and by the end of the day I was able to do more than I could before. It definitely encouraged me to draw more.
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