Autumn by Lori411 via Etsy
Fall is my favorite month– by far. There’s something about hot apple cider that warms the soul… aside from the fact that it’s “hot” which would make it, I guess, naturally warming. There’s something about the smell of the falling leaves and the blush your cheeks get when it’s chilly outside. I love it.
I’ve noticed, with my creative pursuits (most of which you cannot see via this blog because it’s mostly all MENTAL), that I haven’t been enjoying fall. This is no good. I can’t take fall for granted. We didn’t even get one last year! (Thanks, Global Warming.) This is why I am declaring November my NO month.
No more feeling obligated to be creative.
— Do you see how that doesn’t even make sense? Oh yes, I will go home and take these hours to be creative… these designated hours. It’s like saying… I’m going to take time to… to be short! I just am. The more I tell myself I have to reflect on anything the more it makes me feel awkward, gives me the heeby jeebies, the more I question my integrity, the more I DON’T WANNA!
No more Google Reader.
— I live and breathe Google Reader. When they made their SLIGHT visual changes this past week, my heart fluttered a little bit because I resist change. After realizing.. okay… you’re fine, your subscriptions are safe, I went back to enjoying again– but, Yes, that did happen. I love Google Reader but sometimes it overwhelms me. Intimidates. Scares the bleepity-bleep outta me. I follow fascinating people. It’s like 24/7+ inspiration. I feed off of that inspiration but you know around, well around this time of year, when you stuff your face with all of that turkey and cranberry sauce and heaps of mashed potatoes and every first bite tastes like heaven and makes you feel alive… but then eventually, before you know it, you’re bloated and tired and kind of feel like finding the nearest corner and taking a moment to sit and reflect on what you just did. Maybe turkey is a bad example because it makes you naturally tired and that’s certainly not the parallel I’m trying to make. Google Reader is the doorway to so much inspiration that instead of being inspired on my own terms it allows me to soak up everyone else’s creativity until I fall into a creativity coma… Which would then lead to a big, Holy crap, Heather, stop reading about creativity and just BE creative. Google Reader, for me, is best in small doses… but for November, I’m gonna have to say No all-together. (Which of course doesn’t mean I still won’t be stopping in on my inspiration faves from time to time separately, just not as one long list of pending posts to read.)
No more e-courses (but, oh how I love thee).
— E-courses are still a recently discovered love. I took my first one a few months ago and fell head over heels for the sucker. Online communities, where I can meet people like me, and we can have conversations from locations all around the world… um, AWESOME! I loved that first e-course so much that I signed up for…. SIX more… and an online book club. WHOA. Talk about needing to schedule creative time (which we’ve already decided doesn’t work for me). I delved into each for about two weeks a piece and then backed away completely. My evenings consisted of: You have to go finish exercise 7 of Course B. Didn’t you see that email survey for that week you completely didn’t get around to participating in for Course D? Don’t forget all of the material from Course A will be taken offline in 10 days… TEN DAYS, HEATHER. I know your mind is telling you guitar would be a really good option for today but you can’t play guitar until you finish X, but you really can’t finish X until you’ve finished Y but you haven’t even started Z so how could you really finish X in a way that will be satisfying with Z looming behind you.
I, Heather Astorga, do declare that for the month of November, I will only DO what I FEEL like doing. I will not work on my creative endeavors unless I feel like it. I will not feel guilty about this decision. I will listen to my mind and my body and tell them to shut up when they start to bicker and fill my head with “shoulds” and other silly self-projected obligations. I will relax (or at least try since it isn’t really part of my chemical make-up). And most importantly, I will enjoy the heck out of fall!
I am so in love with this post! I think I might join you on the no Google Reader bandwagon, it’s been stressing me out lately. I feel like there are all these different sources telling me what I “should” be doing and instead I just need to go out and DO it and not worry about what “so and so” blogger would think about it. And WOW six E-Courses? That’s gotta be a record!
Thanks, Patty!! And thanks for the tweet!
It’s funny the second I said NO, my mind said YES! And I wanted to write this blog post and I figured out my color palatte for the website… it was so strange! I felt so relaxed doing it– which is not at all how I’ve felt the past two months when this was “Scheduled” creative time.