With so many dramatic events and changes happening these days, at a genuinely merciless pace, it's hard for anyone to not feel a bit untethered by it all. But it's especially difficult for those sensitive, creative types whose job it is to remain open to all that life brings, even in the face of great turmoil, in order to express and aid in human understanding/comfort.
For the creatives and the empaths of the world, it is crucial to spend some extra time on self care right now. To ground themselves in what is real and true. To take stock of what can and can't be controlled. And to put their own parental controls, so to speak, on the information they will and won't take in, and at what quantity. Because over taxing your nervous system, spiraling into cycles of analysis paralysis, and perpetually lowering your energy (thereby cutting off access to your own inspirational source) helps nobody.
If this speaks to you directly, then allow me to suggest that maybe it's time to resist the societal pressures to always "be on", "connected" and informed 24/7, as if that's the way to be "responsible", that that's the way to "make a difference", and instead go within, as much as you can, within reason. It's time to quiet the noise, confer with your own inner counsel (that wisest part of you) and really sort out what's what. Stop doing the dance with what you're against, and start listening to the internal voice that knows what you're for.
All anyone can really do to make a difference in this world anyway, is to really show up in the world with whatever gift they're meant to give. The gift that is unique to them. And you can't do that effectively, if you're living in a state of constant chaos, stress and burnout.
But we are living in times that likely aren't going to get calm and create that kind of space for you. Nope, these are times where you're called to have to create that for yourself. To create your own "eye in the middle of the storm" quiet place, while the hurricane winds whip dramatically all around you. Do it anyway.
The only way I know to do that most effectively is to write. There is something about the act of writing. The act of getting still, pondering and then allowing your pondering to spill out on the page, that gets you focused on what's real and true for you. Something about the daily practice of writing gets you trained at hearing your own voice. And the better you get at hearing your own voice, the better the access to your own highest wisdom gets. The more grounded you start to feel in your world.
Writing doesn't change your world (okay - sometimes it does), but it most definitely changes you and how you feel about your ability to handle it. It deepens your knowing. Like they say, if you can name it, you can tame it.
You don't have to be a "writer" to get to writing. It doesn't need to be pretty. It doesn't need to make sense to anyone but you. It just needs to be you, your higher self and some daily and consistent conversation on the page. If it helps, gamify it. Decide you're going to commit to 100 days of writing about what you're grateful for (for example) and see where it leads. Do whatever you have to do to clear some space, make the commitment and get to writing. You won't regret it.
And please let me know how it goes. Would love to hear from you. Tell me what you're doing in these crazy times to help ground yourself?
***Holly Payberg-Torroija is a writer/writing coach and founder of Loving The Process, a coaching program designed to support writers in getting out of their own way, so they can write the stories they were born to write. Book a free consult by clicking here