Hello all! And welcome to a new season.
While I did successfully take my planned summer break, enjoying that time off was another thing altogether (more on that next newsletter).
I spent a lot of the summer feeling clunky, low, braced, disconnected… And that uptick of ‘back to school’ energy I usually experience with the fall weather change hasn't kicked in yet.
If you, like me, are having a tough time transitioning into a new season, adrienne maree brown has an offering for us:
Small is all.
If there are routines you’re struggling to get back into….
If you’re finding yourself in old self-protective habits (raises hand)…
If there's a change you know you need to make…
If there's important/necessary work you find yourself procrastinating…
If you're doing the brave and vulnerable work of repatterning how you show up to a longstanding relationship…
If you're grieving the state of our world…
Small. Is. All.
What is—and I truly mean this—the smallest next action you can take?
- Forget writing the whole newsletter/blog post. Do you trust yourself to write for 20 minutes a day this week? 10 minutes? Make the practice your focus. Let go of the outcome. Same goes for any movement/meditation practice you might have. Do you trust yourself to meditate for one minute? Stretch those limbs out for three?
- You don't have to send the hard email today. This week, outline it. Next week, write a draft. The week after, edit and send it. (Yes—this is a real life example of me giving myself a whole three weeks to send an email. Slowing down isn't silly, it's strategic).
- Exasperated by your compulsion to open social media? Can you try taking one breath when you notice yourself reaching for your phone? Take a breath with your discomfort. It's okay if you still end up opening the app—that tiny redirection does open the path to future possibilities. (Again, these small actions aren't silly or ‘not worth it’. And if you think they are, I'd ask you who that belief is serving).
Do what you trust yourself to do and no more.
That's the key here—actually letting it be enough. We're not writing for 10 minutes and secretly hoping we'll want to keep going. We're writing for 10 minutes. Honouring and celebrating that action. And checking in with our internal/nervous systems.
This is where the humility comes in.
We are not trying to trick our systems, we are trying to build trust with our systems.
It's humbling to go small. It's humbling to begin again.
Whenever I feel like I've “fallen off” or I'm doing something hard for the first or hundredth time… this is where I endeavour to start. What's the smallest next action that moves me in this direction? What do I trust myself to do today?
Small. Is. All.
Thanks, adrienne. And thank you, for being here.
— Kate
P.S. I apologize that I'm back a week later than I said I would be. I decided to shift my fall publishing schedule to better fit the few trips I have planned (this time last week I was in the middle of the woods backcountry camping—see below!).
P.P.S. I've switched email providers and I'm still in the process of setting things up and playing with design. If you're experiencing any tech/formatting wonkiness on your end, please let me know!
