How is it July? What did I do in June?

Happy July, writers! 

How is your summer staring out? I for one was forced to reckon with the fact that I don’t get enough rest. After 6 weeks of weird health things happening off and on (I’m fine!!) I realized that some of it was triggered by lack of sleep, stress, and my constant state of motion. 

When I say motion I don’t mean healthy exercise, I mean the go-go-go attitude I tend to have, paired with my inability to sit still, or rest for more than a few minutes. Even in sleep I’m running in my dreams like I’m on fire.

Subsequently, I have not been writing much. I did post a few essays I’ve written in the past on a website called Vocal, and I’m excited to explore that medium of writing and posting to take less pressure off of myself to finish projects.

I’m still working on my novel revisions, slowly, and I imagine I will be chipping away at her (yes, my novel is a She) for a bit longer. And I’m accepting that. I wasn’t for a while, and instead was mad at myself, frustrated, and truthfully, I was scared that I couldn’t do it, that I couldn’t make my book better, that it would never be good enough to be published. 

That thought process sucked, and if I were my coach, I’d gently remind myself that great, big things take time. And to stop comparing myself to others. And to get off of social media!

So what are we doing here? July is going to be about balance and when-to-say-when. I’m restructuring some things in my business as a writing coach, wanting to provide great service and advice to writers while also taking time to work on my own creative writing and prioritizing rest. We aren’t meant to drive ourselves into the ground. So why was I?

I’m giving you the heads up that this month I’ll be talking a lot about balance, boundaries, rest, and anything else that might come up. I may drop a few reading recommendations in as well because that seems to be the only way I know how to rest. First up: I just finished Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk by Kathleen Rooney and it was a delightful love letter to independent women and New York City.

Anyway, thanks for reading along, and I hope you are taking care of yourselves. It’s an important part of fostering creativity.