“I want to feel free to write what I want when I’m inspired and eager to share it.” And that’s as it should be.
I have a Substack and I’ve posted exactly one time. I was hoping to post weekly, then twice a month, and now maybe once a month? Life, with all its messiness and grief, conspires against me. And that’s okay.
Thank you for sharing your work, life, and wisdom. I have learned so much from you.
Thank you Terri ❤️ It's so easy to get excited about a new thing and have a bunch of expectations only to then find life has other plans! But we can find our way back to it in a way that stays true to our needs and energy, I believe it's possible xo
I love the “feel free” idea. It sounds so soft and welcoming. I always feel guilty when I don’t show up as I hoped let alone promised. Hopefully my readers are just happy hen I do post something new.
I really look forward to learning more about your creative life Susannah. I love the idea of a joyful creative circle online. ♥️I also really appreciate your process with figuring out what this space is intended for. And honouring your experience. My own issues with starting in this space is that I have to have it perfect and all figured out before I begin. Which is a recipe for procrastination. Thank you as always for sharing from your heart.
Love the power of starting over in a way that's newly right for you. It's tough to do that in public writing spaces and it's so important.
My personal niche is in exploring how mental health/neurodiversity/ wellness impacts creative process, content, medium, productivity, identity and business. I was struck by what you shared about the ADHD trait of "impulsive promising" (which I think shows up for other people as well, for example in anxiety and in manic phases of bipolar conditions.) If you ever feel inspired to write a guest post, do an email interview or have a chat about this, I would love to collaborate and learn more!
I love the new name! And thank you for being so open and vulnerable about your unraveling through this process and this page. I have many of the same/similar ADHD traits, so this hits home for me and helps me understand myself a little better. And it inspires me as I ponder my next creative steps and how to bring them into the world. So thank you for all of it. I love this space, am excited to see what comes forth. Hugs and love. ❤️
As someone who overpromises and underdelivers, or at least that's how my mind perceives it, I've learned to not make promises in online spaces. Instead, I'm learning to simply follow my delight which has given me a massive permission to "disappear" when there's nothing that wants to come out. Also, I believe there is something to be said about the beautiful magical pivot when we feel the time has come. Love the new name. ❤️❤️❤️
Ooooh really feeling so much of this! I have had to learn the hard way many times about over committing and instantly feeling flattened by it! I look forward to reading more of your words when the inspiration comes to you! Xx
As someone who lives in the shadow of Hollywood, movies are a big thing here, and I’ve noticed a plot point that happens repeatedly in many films: The Big Promise, which is immediately followed by LIFE Conspiring to Block Action on Said Promise.
It happens so often you will find me yelling at the screen “Stop making promises you can’t keep!!” And they are always promises that are often just beyond the reach of human capability, often equating ‘living forever’ which is unrealistic! 🙄
Life really does intervene with circumstances beyond the control of the Very Human protagonist but we humans can’t seem to get it into our brains that we have very little control over anything, we barely have control over our selves or our emotions, which is part of being Human.
All this to say, it’s okay to NOT MAKE PROMISES TO ANYONE, but maybe more important to make promises to ourselves that we work to keep and build our muscles for being true to ourselves before being true to others 🤔
Maybe it’s time to look at this impulse for making promises to others which is followed by being (unnecessarily!) hard on yourself when the promises have yet to be fulfilled...and maybe look at the fact that they HAVE YET TO BE FULFILLED as a different view that there’s still time to fulfill a promise made 🤷🏻♀️
Thank you for sharing your self so openly with us all, it’s good to have role models of ‘imperfect’ humanity, there’s too many role models of ‘perfection’ that are unrealistic and it’s time to stop all of that ✨🙏🏼💗
"maybe more important to make promises to ourselves that we work to keep and build our muscles for being true to ourselves before being true to others 🤔" - yessssss xo
It's always a delight when you post, Susannah, regardless of what your topic is, so don't hesitate before you write thinking you have to give us something "profound". Just a "hey, how are you, Baba & I are fine and here's what I've been thinking about this week" will do. And I do like the new title. Unravelling things is a fabulous description of how I work my way through life day by day. As for living a creative life. Well, that's a question, isn't it. What does it even mean to 'live creatively'?? And if we do manage to figure out what it means (& I suspect it's different for each of us), how do we then DO that? Maybe that's where we start. "If I were living a creative life, it would look like--"
Susannah I really think we’ve been trained into structures and rhythms that are now a thing of the past. Not everyone has figured it out just yet but just wait and see. This idea of weekly or monthly or some other self imposed regiment because it’s what we think is better or what people want has expired. I gave myself permission to write sometimes and podcast sometimes as long as I honored what needed to be shared in the way that made the most sense to me. And to make this a tad more interesting, my sense is that much of what you describe is the structure of new earth. Multidimensional and on linear. Lean in. Such fun!
Love the new title. It feels right. Looking forward to whatever comes. I’ve enjoyed your emails, Instagram posts & classes. I’ve always appreciated the “come as you are” feel to what you do. No pressure to have it all “perfect” or “right”. It is what it is & that’s how it should be - sometimes silly, sometime serious, sometime profound.
“I want to feel free to write what I want when I’m inspired and eager to share it.” And that’s as it should be.
I have a Substack and I’ve posted exactly one time. I was hoping to post weekly, then twice a month, and now maybe once a month? Life, with all its messiness and grief, conspires against me. And that’s okay.
Thank you for sharing your work, life, and wisdom. I have learned so much from you.
Thank you Terri ❤️ It's so easy to get excited about a new thing and have a bunch of expectations only to then find life has other plans! But we can find our way back to it in a way that stays true to our needs and energy, I believe it's possible xo
I love the “feel free” idea. It sounds so soft and welcoming. I always feel guilty when I don’t show up as I hoped let alone promised. Hopefully my readers are just happy hen I do post something new.
So glad it’s not just me!
I really look forward to learning more about your creative life Susannah. I love the idea of a joyful creative circle online. ♥️I also really appreciate your process with figuring out what this space is intended for. And honouring your experience. My own issues with starting in this space is that I have to have it perfect and all figured out before I begin. Which is a recipe for procrastination. Thank you as always for sharing from your heart.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what you create x
Thank you, lovely! 🥰
I literally was falling asleep last night thinking about how to make personal zines by hand for some of my favorite Substackers :) :)
Love the power of starting over in a way that's newly right for you. It's tough to do that in public writing spaces and it's so important.
My personal niche is in exploring how mental health/neurodiversity/ wellness impacts creative process, content, medium, productivity, identity and business. I was struck by what you shared about the ADHD trait of "impulsive promising" (which I think shows up for other people as well, for example in anxiety and in manic phases of bipolar conditions.) If you ever feel inspired to write a guest post, do an email interview or have a chat about this, I would love to collaborate and learn more!
Happy to talk more about it!
I love the new name! And thank you for being so open and vulnerable about your unraveling through this process and this page. I have many of the same/similar ADHD traits, so this hits home for me and helps me understand myself a little better. And it inspires me as I ponder my next creative steps and how to bring them into the world. So thank you for all of it. I love this space, am excited to see what comes forth. Hugs and love. ❤️
As someone who overpromises and underdelivers, or at least that's how my mind perceives it, I've learned to not make promises in online spaces. Instead, I'm learning to simply follow my delight which has given me a massive permission to "disappear" when there's nothing that wants to come out. Also, I believe there is something to be said about the beautiful magical pivot when we feel the time has come. Love the new name. ❤️❤️❤️
Love you
oh my goodness. Is THAT what it is called? Impulsive promising! Girl, I understand.
I made it up but i think it nails it perfectly 😂
Ooooh really feeling so much of this! I have had to learn the hard way many times about over committing and instantly feeling flattened by it! I look forward to reading more of your words when the inspiration comes to you! Xx
As someone who lives in the shadow of Hollywood, movies are a big thing here, and I’ve noticed a plot point that happens repeatedly in many films: The Big Promise, which is immediately followed by LIFE Conspiring to Block Action on Said Promise.
It happens so often you will find me yelling at the screen “Stop making promises you can’t keep!!” And they are always promises that are often just beyond the reach of human capability, often equating ‘living forever’ which is unrealistic! 🙄
Life really does intervene with circumstances beyond the control of the Very Human protagonist but we humans can’t seem to get it into our brains that we have very little control over anything, we barely have control over our selves or our emotions, which is part of being Human.
All this to say, it’s okay to NOT MAKE PROMISES TO ANYONE, but maybe more important to make promises to ourselves that we work to keep and build our muscles for being true to ourselves before being true to others 🤔
Maybe it’s time to look at this impulse for making promises to others which is followed by being (unnecessarily!) hard on yourself when the promises have yet to be fulfilled...and maybe look at the fact that they HAVE YET TO BE FULFILLED as a different view that there’s still time to fulfill a promise made 🤷🏻♀️
Thank you for sharing your self so openly with us all, it’s good to have role models of ‘imperfect’ humanity, there’s too many role models of ‘perfection’ that are unrealistic and it’s time to stop all of that ✨🙏🏼💗
"maybe more important to make promises to ourselves that we work to keep and build our muscles for being true to ourselves before being true to others 🤔" - yessssss xo
It's always a delight when you post, Susannah, regardless of what your topic is, so don't hesitate before you write thinking you have to give us something "profound". Just a "hey, how are you, Baba & I are fine and here's what I've been thinking about this week" will do. And I do like the new title. Unravelling things is a fabulous description of how I work my way through life day by day. As for living a creative life. Well, that's a question, isn't it. What does it even mean to 'live creatively'?? And if we do manage to figure out what it means (& I suspect it's different for each of us), how do we then DO that? Maybe that's where we start. "If I were living a creative life, it would look like--"
Susannah I really think we’ve been trained into structures and rhythms that are now a thing of the past. Not everyone has figured it out just yet but just wait and see. This idea of weekly or monthly or some other self imposed regiment because it’s what we think is better or what people want has expired. I gave myself permission to write sometimes and podcast sometimes as long as I honored what needed to be shared in the way that made the most sense to me. And to make this a tad more interesting, my sense is that much of what you describe is the structure of new earth. Multidimensional and on linear. Lean in. Such fun!
Love the new title. It feels right. Looking forward to whatever comes. I’ve enjoyed your emails, Instagram posts & classes. I’ve always appreciated the “come as you are” feel to what you do. No pressure to have it all “perfect” or “right”. It is what it is & that’s how it should be - sometimes silly, sometime serious, sometime profound.
Thank you dear Chris! I'm lucky to have you in my corner ❤️
Hard relate to impulsive promising 😅😅😅