dear creative

a guided meditation, 2022 reflections, and book preview

In this newsletter, find:

• A guided meditation for creatives (Listen along to the full audio of the meditation here. This meditation for creatives will be an exclusive sign-up bonus for all new subscribers going forward.)

• Reflections on 2022

• A link to the first piece in this is a love story: poems and essays on mental health, love, and friendship

Dear creative,

Your mind is spinning again and you can’t pay attention to the words on the page, the keyboard, the paintbrush, the instrument, or the people in front of you. It’s so easy to let your doubts fill you and overcome you, and leave you stuck, frozen with terror and self-doubt. Maybe you’re there now: sitting at your desk, or nowhere near your desk, frustrated and angry at yourself. Your thoughts are dominated by negativity, mostly towards yourself. I won’t repeat them, because you know what they are already.

Let’s take a step back. Refocus. Put down your pen, keyboard, laptop, phone. Find somewhere comfortable to sit or lie down, or even take yourself out for a slow, meditative walk. Step away for a moment. I’ll give you a moment.

Are you comfortable? Take a few deep breaths, becoming aware of any tension in your body.

Inhale. Exhale.

January

Remember your body with gratitude, your body that keeps you breathing, that keeps you walking, that keeps you alive, and that cradles your beautiful, messy, creative mind that above all just wants to tell stories.

• “This year I started with a commitment: I want to live. The next step was asking myself, okay, so then what do I need to do live?” love letters to storytellers: alyssa sherlock

• “Despite everything, you seem to be thriving, little green shoots. don’t stop now.” love letter to: those green shoots

• love letter to: self compassion

• love letter to: trees

February

Remember you will create. Remember that even if you don’t feel inspired, or motivated now, remember that passionate rush of inspiration moving through you. Remember those moments that you created things, by getting your story out, and reworking, and editing, and rewriting. Remember the patience you had to have. Remember each small moment that, added up, eventually made something beautiful, in the end. Remember the moments in between each victory and each failure. These are the moments of creation.

• “It's all connected. Stories create connection, whether it be in the brains of young children, or between people, and the creation of those connections demonstrate care. Stories, for my mom, are about caring.” love letters to storytellers: my mom

• “Questions and self-doubt arise: can I really do this? Am I good enough? What do I write? What if I don’t belong in these spaces, in this industry?”

• “I have to constantly remind myself I write first and foremost for me, because writing helps me make sense of my story, and my desire for sharing my writing is about making connections overall. I can get caught up in newsletter subscribers or Instagram followers, but that’s not what this is about. This is about stories.”

• little somethings press “recovery”

• love letter to: small celebrations

• love letter to: depression days & cats

March

Remember the stories you want to tell. Remember how important telling stories is to you. Remember how you’ve been touched by others’ stories, how they have changed your life, and your mind, and made you the person you are. Think of a story that you hold close to you always, and remember how it affected you.

• “Books and stories are a place where Lisa can find joy. ‘It’s why I keep coming back to it; books bring me joy. And sharing why I love books brings me joy.’” - love letters to storytellers: book reviewer lisa

April

Remember the things that make you want to shout, that make words pour from your fingertips. Remember the people that cry for your voice, for your story. Remember there is someone that needs your story.

• “When I asked Amber why she chose to create a life where she could prioritize her art, she said, “I don’t know, I just wanna do it.”” - love letters to storytellers: meet my illustrator

• love letter to: being

May

Remember to let go. As you’re letting tension out of your body, let go of those expectations you have for yourself. Let go of all the “shoulds” you have placed on yourself. Accolades you should have, milestones you should have passed, creating you should have done. Let go of comparing yourself to others on similar paths. Everyone has a journey you know nothing about from the outside. Remember, your journey is built from the little moments in between.

Inhale. Exhale.

• “‘I find some peace of mind with body issues through my writing. Writing is a testament to time passing through health issues, and can document an experience of someone changing or evolving in the space of mental illness, for example.’ Poems are ‘a celebration that I’m still here or others are still present despite struggles they’ve faced.’” -love letters to storytellers: amber o’reilly

• “I’m continuing to always struggle with questions and contentedness: what am I doing with my life? How can I support myself? Should I be writing more? What should I write? What do I want to write? How do I let go of the ideals of production and progress, and focus on finding joy in creativity?”

June

Remember you are exactly where you need to be. You work so hard. Take a moment to appreciate all you have done and accomplished. Don’t diminish it, or excuse it, don’t add “buts” or qualifiers. Own your accomplishments. You have worked hard. You have accomplished. Be proud of yourself. Your creation is beautiful. Your creation is worthy. You are beautiful and worthy.

• “Let's go for a walk together today. I think you and I both need a break.”

• “One thing I have learned about deciding on a slower pace of life, to listen to your body, to integrate rest into routines is that... everything is slower. You would think that would be obvious, but it turns out, rest also takes time.”

July

Remember you are enough. Maybe you feel like there’s always more you need to do. There’s always something else, that could make you more known, more successful, more prolific. But you are enough here, now, with what you’ve created and the ideas in your head, and with your love. You have done so much already to get to this point. You are unique that you have committed so strongly to something you believe in.

• “Stories have power. There’s a magic in the way they can provide us comfort, they can bring us hope, they can resonate lessons with us. They can bring people together. And that meaning is also what they’ve brought to my life. Stories have helped me feel not so alone in a world that often saw me as different.” love letters to storytellers: adventure dice’s andrea driedger

• “Always fun to do in-person things with writers and realize as eloquent they are, and as full their bios are with publication credits, they’re still maybe a bit socially awkward, they sit alone sometimes, are friendly, commiserate over imposter syndrome (it’s contagious apparently, everyone seems to have it) and mumble into microphones.”

August

Maybe you don’t really believe it – that you’re enough now, when there’s so much you don’t know, when there’s so much to learn, when you feel completely out of your league, when everyone is so much better than you. You can absolutely learn, and grow, but here, now, you create, you observe, you love, you tell stories. How can you accept yourself where you are at, now, with all the mess and inconsistencies and fatigue and frustration? It is human to be incongruent. It is human to be inconsistent. Accept your humanness. Your humanness is what makes your stories come to life, what connects with others.

• “From the beginning, the decision to write and publish my book, this is a love story (coming spring 2023), has been about telling myself things.”

• “It’s me telling myself, your story has meaning. It’s not just mess.”

• “It’s me telling myself: you can do this. I am saying to myself, you have the skills and the knowledge to accomplish this. You are so capable. I believe in you.”

• “This book is me telling myself, your story has a place in the world. You have a place in the world. Your story can connect with people; it already has.”

September

Remember that everything is temporary – those feelings of overwhelm, of hating everything you’ve ever created, of imposter syndrome, they come and they go. Don’t let them consume you. You don’t need to ignore them, or push them away, or make them into another “should.” You are allowed to feel. Remember another day will come, and with each new day, new struggles, new feelings, and you will ride each wave, and you will learn. Don’t beat yourself up now. Extend love and self-compassion.

• “There is a reason I titled my book this is a love story. It’s about struggles with mental illness, yes, but it’s also a story of hope. Hope I draw from my friendships and other relationships in my life. I purposefully decided I didn’t want section breaks in this is a love story because I wanted it to read like a narrative, with a beginning, middle, end, climax, and resolution. The beginning is the “problem”, journeying through poems and essays about anxiety, depression, and other mental health struggles. The latter half is the resolution, found in my friends.

  My book is not only about my friendships, but is created entirely in collaboration with my talented friends.” - friendship matters

• how to measure friendship

• “I find a lot of anxiety is connected with time (guess what I write about that in my book) and being worried it will run out, you don't have enough of it, I won't get everything done I need to! Now I can remind myself it's okay, you don't need to have everything done at once. It's okay it might take you longer to do some things now that you have other commitments. Take care of yourself. Give yourself grace. Slow is just fine.”

October

Remember to go slowly. Savour every sip, every word, every failure, every struggle, every connection, every step.

• “I have discovered this year how delightfully counterintuitive creative work is. Creative work, for me, is inextricably tied to rest. It requires slowing down, going deep into thought and self-reflection while uncovering and connecting pieces of my past and traumas. It involves putting structure to what I thought was mess. It involves making sense of chaos.” - rest matters

• “I think writing itself is a method of healing for me. I do take long breaks from my writing at times because it can be so heavy to submerse myself in a character for too long, as I tend to take on the persona of that character until I am done writing.” - In Conversation with Katlia

• “All writing is personal, even fiction. It comes from the individual and therefore it’s like someone constantly scooping water from our wells. As writers we have to refill, we have to replenish.” -In Conversation with Chelene Knight

• “I sleep, I spend time with friends on the weekends, I cook, I clean, I write, I read, I go to sleep and wake up, I make to-do lists and schedules and then cross things off slowly. At one point, all this repetition I would have thought a burden, but now I’m just glad I get the chance to do it again, and again, and again.”

November

You deserve gratitude for getting yourself here. You deserve to stop and absorb everything that brought you to this point. Let go of all the things on your to-do list that you haven’t done. For a moment, on your inhale and exhale just notice where you are at right now.

• “The best part of publishing by far is connecting with readers. It’s piercing into someone’s soul and making someone feel known. That’s a huge reason why I read, and a huge reason why I knew about mental illness before I experienced it.” - connection matters

• “Writing comes from community, so it must serve it too.” - In Conversation with Joshua Whitehead

• “These moments of joy are so important to everyday life, I've come to realize. It's so easy to get stuck on the extreme highs or lows, especially for a writer like me, as I often gravitate to writing the most emotional moments. But extreme highs and lows are a bit much, to be honest. These everyday, mundane moments are really where the life is.”

December

Remember your community. Remember the love that surrounds you, that holds you. Remember those people that love everything you do, and are in awe. Remember those that you’ve created with and alongside. Remember those that you have commiserated with, that remind you that you are not alone. You are never alone. Remember those that connect with your creation, the way their excited comments put a smile on your face. Remember those that encourage you and cheer you on every step of the way. Remember you are surrounded by this joyful love and faith.

• “On the verge of actually having this book out in the world, the fears creep in. I haven't spent enough time building a platform. What if no one buys it? What if no one reads it? What if I made a career-ending mistake trying to self-publish first? What if I'm missing something? What if I'm missing everything?
  
  Thankfully, Jane Friedman ends her book by saying, take the pressure off yourself. As much as I'd love to do everything RIGHT NOW, this is a long, slow process. I'm still at the beginning. Thanks for joining me as I stumble through.”

• the cover

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And, the beginning. Click to read “nim”, the first piece in this is a love story, and a preview of the accompanying illustration.

Thank you.

Happy new year,

Alyssa