Peace – How to Be Creative

4 sustainable rituals I’ve incorporated into my week

January 4, 2023January 23, 2023by KatLeave a Comment

Real talk: I am very bad at being consistent. I can commit to doing something daily for, like, a week before I inevitably miss a day and never pick it back up. (The lone exception is the New York Times Crossword; my streak is 525 as of this writing.) But recently, I’ve been putting more of an effort into developing little rituals that make my life feel more luxurious, which I’m finding is much easier than developing habits like, “Wake up at 6:30 every day.” Here they are:

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Focus, Growth, Peace, Personal, Productivity

How to quit

September 8, 2021by KatLeave a Comment

I haven’t signed into my Twitter account since June 4. “I need to be on Twitter” is one of the stories I’m testing out during my #40StoriesProject, a yearlong attempt to learn which of the things I’m telling myself are outdated. The plan for this particular story was to stay off Twitter for three months, but having hit that milestone a few days ago, I don’t see myself going back. I was better informed when I was doomscrolling every day, but about what? If I want to know what’s happening in the world, I get the important stories elsewhere—newspapers, texts from friends, even Instagram. I don’t miss being extremely online, and my reduced exposure to, well, everything has freed up a lot of space and energy, which I’m putting toward personal projects after a lengthy creative drought during the pandemic. Even the alleged value of Twitter for someone interested in a writing career seems largely negated by how bad being on Twitter makes me feel about writers and writing.

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Flow, Focus, Peace

How to get out of your own way and do the work

January 21, 2019by Kat4 Comments

I’ve mentioned before that I’m three months into a yearlong creativity course: the Raise Your Hand Say Yes Inner Circle with Tiffany Han. Our group discussion the other day turned to how to push past self-created drama to actually do the work. I shared some thoughts in our private group on Mighty Networks, but wanted to share them here as well. Here are three ways to shake off doubt, fear, anxiety, whatever to get your work done:

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Grief, Growth, Peace, Personal

Carrots

January 20, 2019October 26, 2021by KatLeave a Comment

A few months ago I received a deeply shitty text message. I won’t get into specifics, but the sender reminded me that I could have something I wanted, if only I could change something about myself that I cannot change.

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Flow, Growth, Peace

5 things I’m obsessed with this week

October 14, 2018by KatLeave a Comment

This is a hopefully weekly post where I share the things that are lighting me up. I get very, very into things and I love to tell people about the things I am very, very into. Here’s what I’m obsessed with right now: Continue reading “5 things I’m obsessed with this week” →

Growth, Peace, Spirituality

Spiritual band-aids vs. sustainable change

September 9, 2018February 4, 2021by KatLeave a Comment

Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s recent New York Times article on Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop ends with Brodesser-Akner being stuck on a bus, desperately having to pee. This incident, fortunately resolved without catastrophe, nonetheless leaves the author unable to regain the feeling of zen she’d accessed just a few hours earlier at the In Goop Health wellness summit, described earlier in the piece: Continue reading “Spiritual band-aids vs. sustainable change” →

Peace

How to stop wasting food

September 4, 2018by KatLeave a Comment

While everyone loves SMART goals, it occurred to me a couple of months ago that vague goals can also work — if they’re tied to values. It also occurred to me I really wanted to stop wasting food. When 49 million Americans are struggling to put food on the table, I really don’t want to throw food away because I never got around to eating it. Continue reading “How to stop wasting food” →

Peace

5 ways to refill your tank post-burnout

August 19, 2018by Kat1 Comment

I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. Between work, the heat, familial obligations, and my summer social calendar, I feel burnout creeping in at least once a week lately.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve tried to get better at slowing down, but it sometimes feels impossible to take a sizable Continue reading “5 ways to refill your tank post-burnout” →

Flow, Peace

5 things that made my life better this month

July 31, 2018by KatLeave a Comment

Five things that made my life better in July: Continue reading “5 things that made my life better this month” →

Flow, Focus, Growth, Peace

Plan a DIY creative retreat for this weekend

April 22, 2018by Kat1 Comment

A few weekends ago, I cleared my schedule and holed up in my apartment for a DIY creative retreat. The main goal for this weekend was to catch up on the writing schedule for my novel, which meant writing 21 pages over the duration of the weekend. There were other things I wanted to get done — two blog posts, a visual rebrand for my blog and social media accounts, and an editorial calendar for my blog through the end of April — but all were secondary (and tertiary, etc.) to the main goal.

During the weekend, I reached my desired page count, wrote two blog posts, and made incremental progress on my other goals. Want to do something similar? Here are some tips. Continue reading “Plan a DIY creative retreat for this weekend” →