Looking For Inspiration

I did it. I signed up for the virtual AMTA conference this fall. It's been about two years since I went to an AMTA conference due to many reasons - primarily disinterest. I am slowing down on my CMTE pursuits, so my professional development monies can be used for the AMTA conference these days. I just realized that this conference will interfere with my intern's graduation, so I will have to do a bit of juggling to get things going, but I should be able to take the day after the conference to make up for the possible day that I will miss due to checking my intern out of her internship. I cannot miss that event for anything!! My next intern will not start until January so no conflict there.

I am looking for community and inspiration in how I do music therapy. This year has been isolating in many ways, and I feel like I sometimes get into my little ruts. I have no idea what is going on in the world of music therapy. I am okay with that because most of what I have been part of before has been negative and bullying and not the type of interactions that I want to have as part of my music therapy professional experience. Since I have isolated myself from much of the conversation that happens among music therapists these days, I am out of the loop on what is going on in the world of the music therapy profession. Hence the registration that happened on Wednesday.

I often go out looking for inspiration for different things. Right now, I am looking for professional inspiration because my creative inspiration is happening without the need for searching. That's how things go around here. I have a creative block and then I can immerse myself in professional writing and thought until my creativity comes back. I think I am pretty fortunate in that I have these shifts in attention and inspirational waves...

Today's task is to clear off the top of my desk. Things have piled up around my computer, and it needs to stop! I also have two storage drawer sets and a tub in my car that are migrating home from my office switch this week, so I need to clean out the car. I will be going on a trip in a bit, so the car needs to be ready to go to the car place for an oil change and has to be cleared as well. If the rain lets up, I will move those containers out of the car into the house to start that process. I may not be blogging during the trip, so don't worry if I disappear for about a week...

I will also do some reading for my Sunday series about what I'm reading. I want to do some bullet journaling - next week is my last week in the book I've been using for the past year. I have already started the next book because I like to make my calendars and weekly planning papers several months in advance. I think I am going to be setting up the weekly calendars for September this time around. I think I may do some things a bit differently in October. I like to try different things every once in a while, but I can't change it up immediately due to the way that I plan. This makes planning each week a bit of a surprise because I set the book up so far in advance! I've been using my stickers and ever growing post-it note collection to decorate each week in a loose theme for each month. I'm going to start trying to post pictures on Instagram at my musictherapyworkslandaker account of my work bullet journal and (probably) my personal bullet journal as well. I'm always interested in what other people are doing, so why not share my own? Instagram is still a bit of a mystery to me, so it is time to make this my focus for a bit. I've also recently started looking at TikTok again, so that mystery is still very baffling to me. I'm not focusing on posting there AT ALL! I am so confused about its actual use and benefit to me as a human being, so for the moment, I am a spectator who cannot figure out how to like things or ignore things or ask for things to be removed from my feed. Instagram seems so much more intuitive for me right now - all it took was an immersion in TikTok for me to find Instagram less confusing!!

I will be using Instagram for my professional inspiration. My professional account is linked to music therapists from all over the world. My personal account is linked to family and friends and Sesame Street and ZooBorns and National Archeology and the US Botanic Garden and things that I love that are not music therapy. I find that I need some separation from what I do and who I am. So, I have two Instagram accounts - one for music therapy type things and one for the parts of me that are not part of my music therapy identity.

I'm off to look for some inspiration on my desk and in my current reading book. I will spend time on the couch today. I will do some writing and some dreaming and some planning. I will also take pictures to use in my posts... things to try.

Happy Friday!

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