Hi First name / friend! I think a thing a lot of creatives say to themselves silently in the back of their brains is “I’ll have made it whenever blank happens,” whether it’s their first piece of sold art, their first paid collaboration or sewing their first quilt. We give ourselves BIG goals and work toward them, ready for the day that we’ve “arrived” as an artist or maker. But as many say, it's all about the journey. Taking time to enjoy the moments, the little triumphs. I was one of those creatives that thought that the joy would come when I achieved a certain accomplishment. If only I could zoom out and see how even the little triumphs were really big collectively, I would see that I WAS already doing well. But how do we remember how to celebrate those little special moments? I had always struggled with slowing down to smell the flowers and I imagine you can relate too. I knew this all had to do with how busy my brain was. Since I was little I had always been great about hyper focusing on tasks and goals, but had a hard time with planning, especially planning for down time to reflect. My parents struggled too, so it was hard to learn how to plan past the current day or to slow down and enjoy the current day. We were always in survival mode, but I know they did their best with what they had. As a result, I never learned those techniques to self-pace, to reflect or to self-sooth. I became a work horse. That was my way of coping with any kind of stress. I chased after every sucess-based comfort I could find, only to see in retrospect that I was already enough. Just me, without the accolades. My kids taught me this. They helped me to see that they just wanted to be around my inner being, and that was enough. I am enough. |
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This realization set me on a quest to learn some techniques to slow down my busy brain. To be in the moment and have some mental space to plan AND to rest. I knew that I could learn anything if I could find the right tools, which is a special awareness in itself, and I am thankful for that. That was my cue to start journaling for time and more creative thinking space. After a friend mentioned their success with Bullet Journaling I had to try it out. I gave it a day. And then I gave it the next day. Then a week, then two weeks. After a year, I had this complete book that was written proof that I had gotten better at focusing, slowing down, and prioritizing, something that I thought I could never improve. It was like magic. |
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All the sudden deadlines aren’t flying by. All the sudden I have a physical reminder of what I’d accomplished, making it that much easier to celebrate my achievements and to just BE. My mind even got a little bit quieter. And even now it’s given me permission to attempt artistic and career avenues that I thought were off limits to a busy brain like mine. Are things perfect now? NO. But progress is better than perfection. I feel as though I have changed the path that I was on and I am better for it. Pretty cool, right?
Can you relate to the feeling of not being able to slow down and think? If so, I wanted to share a Bullet Journaling class with you that I created back in 2020, for free!
The link is below. |
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I hope you get a little something out of this class, even if it's just to know that there are resources out there to help if you have a busy brain too. I should mention too, that I was recently diagnosed with ADHD after going through all of the medical testing. Bullet Journaling has helped with that so much! I also highly recommend the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. That. was a game-changer for me. Enjoy! |
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We want to share with you some of the things that we've been loving lately with the! Click the links below to check them out! Sarah is listening to the audiobook With the Sound ID feature you can see what birds you’re hearing around you in real time! Melody has been really into Casey Johnston's Liftoff program which is like a couch to 5K for weight lifting, and speaks directly to people who are intimidated by the gym. |
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