I call this making of space “Singing so the sadness can sleep, under the willow tree.”
It’s a line from a poem I wrote back in 2016. This speaks to me because it evokes tenderness; I have this poor little sadness, and I will take care of it. I will sing to it so it can feel safe and sleep, in a place of quiet, peace, stillness; under my favorite tree.
The goal here is to create a space in your week to mess about with joy, color, permission, sparkles of creativity, images, words, emotions, things that speak to you.
It doesn’t have to take a lot of time either, if you’re busy; even half an hour will be enough to connect with yourself and make something purely for the joy and fun of it. Even 15 minutes will do.
Journaling is an intensely personal thing.
It can be anything you want, anything you need. A tool for self-knowledge, a record of your life, a place to explore your thoughts or write down your dreams.
It can be a sanctuary for the bad times, a refuge when you’re overwhelmed, a map of joy when everything feels wrong.
The world is burning. Everything is breaking.
And so we look for joy, because joy is a subversive thing.
Humans are amazing. We make art with shrapnel and turn our pain into song, into poetry. We play piano while waiting for the bombs. We tell jokes and plant gardens and write stories and gather around the table or the fire to celebrate anything we can. We look for joy alone and together, and often find it in that togetherness, in sharing, in community.
Joy is as universal as breathing.
The holidays are almost here, with their cheerful extra-helping of anxiety and, for many of us, increased mental health issues. You can’t magically make it all disappear, but you can make a plan to take care of yourself the best way you can, and minimize the struggle as much as possible.
I use Notion to manage my ideas and WIPs for fic writing (and a lot of other stuff, but for today I'm focusing on fiction writing). I've been talking about this to everyone who will listen, so here's a tutorial on how you can do the same without much hassle.