Spring cleaning in the creative realm 🧹🎨

Hi Reader, 

Happy spring to you! 🌺🌺🌺 (Or, happy autumn to you Southern Hemisphere folks…either way, a fresh start!)

I really resonate with the cultural traditions that celebrate spring as the new year. It’s such a beautiful time of reawakening and new life, which I don’t usually feel in January when there’s less daylight.

The potential energy of spring can be very exciting but also overwhelming and overstimulating. Coming out of dark, hibernation mode into bright, active mode is more of a shock to the system than we realize, so it might take a little extra attention to feel more balanced and focused, and less scattered during this time of year.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to balance that unsettled energy and feel more grounded in your body:

• Body scan meditation, or just 5 minutes of feeling your feet on the floor
• Grounding or calming scents (vetiver, lavender, cedarwood, or whatever makes you feel the best)
• Soothing touch like touching a pet, hugging someone, taking care of your skin, or putting a hand on your heart
• Acupuncture is great for balancing and unblocking stagnant energy
• Use your voice - singing, chanting, yelling, however you want to express yourself to expel excess energy
• Channel that energy into a low-stakes creation (whatever kind makes you feel most comfortable), without expectations.

You also may want to harness some of the fresh-start energy for spring cleaning, if you’re craving clearing out the old to make room for the new.

When I hear the phrase “spring cleaning”, I first think of the obvious cleaning, organizing, and tidying of physical items, but we can go deeper into many aspects of your creative life, too.

💻 A great place to start is with a digital declutter of the files and photos on your devices, email lists you subscribe to (I won’t be offended if this one has to go!), notification settings, etc. This checklist from Brittany Berger of Work Brighter is a great way to start. 

Spring (or any change of season or routine) is also a great time of year to reassess how you’re spending your time. 

I’m a big fan of the “stoplight exercise” (which I learned about from Sarah Von Bargen, and I’m not sure of its origins), where you write down everything, then highlight each item with either:

• Red for things that deplete your energy and aren’t enjoyable
• Yellow for things that are neutral or necessary and unchangeable
• Green for things that give you more energy and joy

You can apply this exercise to so many different things:

• Regular work activities
• Regular non-work activities
• Communities you participate in
• Creative projects you’re working on
• Creative project ideas
• Your budget and where you’re spending money

(Let me know if you have more ideas!)

This will give you more clarity on what’s worth keeping, and what you really have space for in your busy life.

If there are a lot of things that you marked red, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to cut them all out immediately, or ever, but perhaps they could be reduced, or intentionally put on the back burner for a while? 

I like to keep a “maybe someday” list, so that those ideas have a place to be saved, but obligation is released for now. Then I check in with the list every quarter or so, and delete/prioritize as needed.

Also, if you’re like me, and spring is a busy season for you, no pressure to do all (or any!) of these things - starting with just one will also be refreshing!

💗💗💗

Are you doing any spring cleaning at the moment? Any fresh insights? I’d love to hear about it!

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

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• Give Me Anything That Sparks Joy in Your Soul and I Will Monetize It - This McSweeney's piece gave me a giggle but is also a little too real. 🙃

BAWP is currently on winter break (new spring episodes coming soon!), but I popped in with a new year update: 

• Ep. 71: My 2023 Word of the Year + Reflecting on 2022

I still love the practice of choosing a theme word for the year, to help guide new year intentions and goals. It can be a wonderful filter for what feels intuitively right to do and create, whether in place of or along with more structured planning and goal setting.

In this episode I share about my intentions for my 2022 word PLAY, how it turned out in practice, why I’m excited about my new word for 2023, and some tips for choosing your own word of the year.

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• Rise Above the Overwhelm: laser-focused 1-time sessions

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