Today’s reading is from the Sacred Rebels oracle deck by Alana Fairchild. The card I pulled for us is “New Birth, Guarded Vigilantly”.
This card reminds us about the vulnerability inherent in all creation. It’s a warning to protect our work.
I have been failing at this lately. My days are spent doom-scrolling through social media and the news. Then I wonder why it’s been so hard to make progress on my writing. Or why my chest feels tight all the time. Or why I’ve lost the ability to look forward to anything.
Then my friend Nicole Peeler reminded me that I need to take care of myself. I realized I’d been enthusiastically exposing my neck to energy vampires. Drained and exhausted, I had nothing left for creation.
So I deleted Twitter, TikTok and Facebook from my phone. I posted to Twitter that I’m taking a break. This morning, instead of starting my day watching people tear each other down on Twitter, I read some Hemingway.
I’m breathing easier because I remembered the importance of protecting my work.
Ideas are fragile, especially in the beginning, and creative vigor is fleeting in the face of reality.
Protecting our energy, our ideas, our work is critical. Especially now.
The world needs your stories, poems, and paintings, but the world will also destroy them before they start if you aren’t careful.
Your Assignments Today:
-Create a sacred practice. Meditate for two minutes before you sit down to write. Light a candle. Or it can simply be setting aside a specific time to show up for your work every day.
-Build a bubble of protection around your work. Put a special sign on the door to alert yourself and those you live with that you need privacy. Don’t talk about your idea with people who haven’t proven themselves supportive and trustworthy. Be careful about the types of information you’re consuming. Write this on a sticky note and post it over your workspace: Garbage in, garbage out.
-Take your work seriously. Show yourself and your work respect. Prioritize your work and try not to use dismissive or deprecating language when talking about it.
-Guard your time. When you’re a creative professional, your work can look a lot like not working from the outside. People don’t see the late nights, weekends, the early morning writing sessions. They don’t get how hard it is to create a world from scratch or how exhausting a three-hour writing sprint can be. Some of the people in your life will think you have lots of free time. They’ll call you with their problems. You’ll want to fix them because it’s easier than trying to fix your broken plot. The next thing you know, you’re pale and drained and wondering why you haven’t written in days. Set aside work hours—turn off the phone, turn off your Wifi, turn off your need to please. This is the greatest gift you’ll ever give your writing.
In summary, I want you to imagine your work as the tender green shoot of a new plant —water it, get some sunlight, and use kind words so that your work will flourish. \
It’s okay to leave the world behind. In fact, it’s essential that you do on a regular basis if you want to thrive creatively.
Let’s chat in comments about other ways to protect our work.
I just found time to read this. Ironically because I've been taking care of other people's problems. From now on I will put aside my writing time for 2 people only, my 86 yr old Mom and my 86 yr old Dad who takes care of her. The rest can fend for themselves.
Jaye has spoken and the way was shone. 🖖
The universe is stranger than I ever give it credit for - I literally just had this discussion about creating writing time and boundaries for my household with my therapist yesterday! Thank you for your insight and perspective on this issue. I don't think people realize how much energy we give away to things that don't deserve it. I too have been doomscrolling like crazy and it just gets overwhelming. Tldr: you're right on the nose, per usual, with this post (for me, anyways). I really can't thank you enough.