A regular practice – just not the one I’d expected
30 days ago I casually set myself the challenge to write a blog post every day this month. As it’s the last day of November it seems fitting to look back on the experience and ask some questions about how it went. It’s quite obvious to me that I haven’t established a new daily writing […]
Dealing with a disconnect, accepting some truths about expectations
Returning to a daily practice after a break always take a little more effort than I’d like. Today I noticed the struggle getting here, to my writing, as well as going for a walk and doing some yoga. I think that something has shifted in me over the weekend, seasonally as well as emotionally. I […]
What kind of creative space do we most need to be ourselves?
It feels like we are in a kind of limbo, as we wait to see what will happen with the American election. Although my anxiety from earlier in the week has calmed down and I am no longer doomscrolling and checking the news feeds incessantly, I am still agitated and a bit preoccupied. I wanted […]
Remembering the 5th of November years past
I haven’t felt so great today, so I’ve not written a new blog post. Instead I spent a bit of time re-reading old notes, searching for snippets of ideas in things discarded. I’m not sure I found what I was looking for, but this entry from 5th November 2018 reminds me how circular time is, […]
Navigating the early days of a new daily practice
I set myself the challenge to write a blog post each day this month because I know how useful I find it to have daily practices. Anchor points in my day that offer me moments of stillness or movement, of contemplation or escape. These routines, once I can get them established, help me to navigate […]
When anxiety appears, what do we forget about ourselves?
Once I’d decided that I was going to challenge myself to write each day, the scale of it made me pause. Am I up to writing a whole blog post every single day, when I’ve barely had the mental bandwidth or energy to write once a month for the past 10 months? Wouldn’t I be […]
Starting a new thing – noticing the emotions that show up
Where to start? Already this morning thoughts of what I might write have been pulling my focus away from my quiet breakfast in the SAD lamp glare, from the energising wind on my daily walk, from my breath on my mat. In the shower ideas started to come together and I could feel the tangle […]
A new creative challenge for November – restarting a routine
November is NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. Since it began in 1999, aspiring novel writers from all over the world set themselves the challenge of writing 50 000 words in the month towards a novel. That’s approximately 1667 words a day. Last year almost half a million people gave it a go. I was […]
Energy review
For the last couple of years I’ve been using the seasonal markers of the equinoxes and the solstices to remind me to review the previous three months. These points of change and balance feel right for noticing how things are going with my creative and personal endeavours. But, I’ve also noticed something else happening when I slow down at these moments of seasonal shift – I become more aware of my own seasons and the rhythm to my year.
This year, on today’s equinox, I’ve decided to look at energy as the thread throughout my work and life. I’m going to review things from that point of view rather than using the usual metrics of accomplishment and activity.
There is nothing wrong with doing a review based on what you did in the past 3 months, 6 months, 9 months… and asking what you still want to do in the months ahead. But, it focuses very much on numbers (quantity of work, frequency), and it can be quite binary (done/not done, successful/not successful). And this can sometimes leave us feeling a bit disheartened if we haven’t done as much as we set out to do, even if we are trying to be kind to ourselves in our analysis! In choosing another way to frame the review, I wonder if the same work can be done, but in a way that embraces the nature of life to be messy and not go to plan, that we are all imperfect and that’s ok.
Today I’m going to share the process that I’m using, based on energy, for a slightly different approach:
Today is all about balance
I would love to say that this week things have felt less rushed, but if anything I think I may feel a bit more stretched than ever. I am still quite busy with work-related things and I’ve compounded that by not managing to take as much time as I’d like for ‘me’ activities like exercise and creative pursuits. As a result, somewhat inevitably, I’ve been unwell (with a 2 day migraine and a neck injury) which has left me feeling tired and frustrated. But I also know the signs well enough to know that I need to take note and be careful.
And so it seems fitting that as today is the vernal equinox my post is about balance. Today is a special day for me and noticing it, marking it, is important. Today winter ends and spring begins. The day and night are balanced in this moment. And from here, for the next 3 months, the days begin to edge out over the night time and light returns to our lives. For someone who suffers from seasonal affective disorder the shift from dark to light has a massive effect. I’m not sure if that’s purely psychological – it definitely helps to know, as a fact, that the days are getting longer – but I know I feel different mentally and physically this week.