Creative Wellness Letters - Why I'm kind of glad my laptop died

Hi Reader, 

Today I intended to send you a letter related to my interview on Being A Whole Person with Jenni Kowal (kindred spirit and fellow creative coach who focuses on helping artists with self care), which was supposed to come out on Friday, but instead, my laptop died, leaving me without access to most of my files (which are backed up, thankfully!!)

I started with a new therapist this week, who said it was kind of a metaphorical reboot on the eve of starting therapy again, which I liked. My brain has been feeling a bit overloaded and in need of a reboot lately, with more things going on lately, and I also know that I've needed more rest. 

So, having my computer inaccessible was the universe telling me that, yes, maybe I'm not supposed to work as much this week.

The other disrupting factor last week (which you may have seen already, if you follow me on social media) is that, after 7 weekends of visiting animal shelters, we have a new fuzzy feline friend: Tsuki! 

On Tsuki's first night here, he took his name (moon in Japanese) very literally, keeping us up all night with his curious explorations and needs for attention. In my late 30s, it takes me a while to recover from a sleepless night!

You might remember me calling my late, very chill cat Rusty my relaxation mentor, so, though he's irreplaceable, I thought I was hiring for that position in our search for a new cat. 

Tsuki is part relaxation mentor, but I think he's really here to teach me about play (my word of the year for 2022!) and curiosity, because he is an active, chatty, affectionate goofball who's very enthusiastic about exploring everything. I'm looking forward to what he has to teach me - look forward to more updates and lessons from him as the year goes on.

So, basically, not a lot got done last week, compared to my original plans. 

I noticed that having a limited ability to work brought up a lot of feelings and unhealthy toxic-productivity habitual thoughts around productivity, such as:

• Is having a dead computer enough of an excuse for me to work less?
• Not doing my normal marketing efforts this week will have a hugely negative impact on my business
• I was already feeling behind after taking a couple days off the previous week, and now I'll never catch up (whatever that really means?!)

My brain was trying really hard to create false urgency, to protect me (thanks, but no thanks, brain!) from leaving the relative certainty of my normal routine. Letting go of some of the things on my to do list did not feel safe, since brains love certainty, especially anxiety-prone ones like mine.

It can be uncomfortable to practice compassionate productivity and work within your capacity, even when your best self knows it's the right thing, and even when you have lots of practice!

As I was doing my weekly review this morning (if you want my weekly + monthly review templates, the PDFs are right here!), I realized that a lot of important work did get done, it was just less tangible. One silver lining of less screen time was having more time and mental space to compose and be creative - I received more ideas than I expected to last week!

An "unproductive" week can still include lots of important insights, processing, and creativity.

Even though I did not want to be disrupted or spend money on a new laptop, I am grateful to the universe for providing these reminders to unhook from doing in favor of being, and that productivity (however you define it) isn't always tangible!

Next time you're lamenting your lack of tangible productivity, ask yourself what might be growing underneath the surface that'll be clear to you in a few months or years. 

I'm sure it's going to be great!

What less-than-tangible progress and growth might you be undergoing right now? I would love to hear about it. Hit reply if you'd like to share!

Stay well, my friends - I'm always rooting for you. My inbox is always open, so please feel free to reach out if I can help in any way. 

I always love hearing from you!

Have a lovely week! ⁠

Rebecca

3 podcast episodes I really enjoyed lately: 

• Susan Cain on The Good Life Project, talking about her new book Bittersweet: How Longing Makes Us Whole. I loved and felt seen by her previous book Quiet, about introverts!

• Anna Sale on Everything Happens with Kate Bowler: Kate and Anna are both people whose honesty I admire, and them talking with each other is wonderful. Anna's podcast Death, Sex, and Money, and book Let's Talk About Hard Things are both excellent, too.
• Jane McGonigal on Metaphysical Milkshake: How Can You Tell the Future?: Her work on game design and futurism has always been really interesting, and this episode actually made me feel hopeful about climate change, which is a huge achievement!

• Mini-sode: Being before doing (it's about the process!) 

• Mini-sode: 2 things: A mini-update
  
  

I share about our new fuzzy family member 😻 and some new community offerings coming in May, as well as a change to the podcast. (Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere!)

Look forward to an interview episode with my kindred spirit, self care-focused creative coach Jenni Kowal after my laptop comes back from the doctor!

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