My 30s being easier & other expectations I'm letting go of...
It's time for the second HONEST MESS EXPRESS newsletter!
Helllllllooooooo,
So glad you’re back for the second Honest Mess Express newsletter. This week, I am ruminating on some untruths that I am letting go of + still struggling with no-heat hair styling month (riveting, I know).
As my 20s came to a close, a number of people assured me that my 30s will be so much easier than my 20s. I turned 30 on Feb 9th, just over a month before Covid-19 became the only thing that mattered in pretty much everyone’s life. The world already wasn’t setup for Millennials to succeed — 9/11 (I was 11), a never-ending war on terror, a recession (happy high school graduation!), climate change (I personally grapple with the thought that having children now almost seems like child abuse??), school shootings (not one but two shootings at my high school in one day!), the current administration, and now a pandemic. I am sure I am missing some things + my inherent privileges have made coping with these world events easier in some regards, but overall it hasn’t really ever been easy to grow-up or exist in this world. So, I am releasing the expectation that my 30s will be any different than the first 29 years.
The time is ripe for releasing expectations + learning to flow with the unfolding of life. It’s a time to practice letting go of control and embracing radical self-compassion. Nothing in my life is a better example of my struggle with these two concepts than my month of no-heat hairstyling. I am releasing control of my hair, letting it be wild and frizzy, while trying to establish a baseline of self-love that is not conditional on having done my hair. I hate it. But I’m trying, and really that’s all any of us can do in this wild pandemic time.
My hair is not done in this photo, nature is amazing, and Covid-19 can just f*ck right off.
Links to things:
Webinar Recordings:
Finding Funding as an Artist during Covid-19 recording
Password: HONESTMESS
Finding Funding as an Artist during Covid-19 slides
Social Media for Creatives during Covid-19 recording
Password: HONESTMESS
Social Media for Creatives during Covid-19 slides
Honest Mess Private Facebook Group
Week ahead tarot reading
This week is going to feel off balance, but that’s pretty normal at this point (right?). The entire spread is reversed, meaning every part of us may feel out of whack and turned on its head. If you thought you’d figured this pandemic life out, think again. The only constant is change, as if everything that happened to this point hadn’t already confirmed that. Our body, represented by the Chariot, is seeking movement and flow — but we are obviously going to have to mitigate our expectations and think about moving our bodies (even just relating to them) in ways that are different than normal. Our mind is restless, it knows we should be seeking to embrace The Hermit (#quarantinelife), but this is flooding our psyche with anxiety. This anxiety probably stems from the 7 of Wands in our soul — a card I’m reading as the numerous responsibilities, worries, and Instagram trends we feel coming at us from all directions. As I said in my opening, this is a week for letting go of control and opening up to the unfolding of life. Take each day for what it is, allow yourself to grieve for the life you once had, and look for the goodness that still exists. It’s a good week to mute accounts on Instagram that aren’t aligning with you right now, to limit your news intake to the essentials (I recommend CapRadio’s Corona Virus blog), and remind yourself that this isn’t going to last forever.
Stuff I’m into right now
Epic Star Wars binge. I’m lucky enough to have a family Disney+ account, so I just rewatched all 9 movies, plus Solo + Rogue One, as well as Mandalorian. It was amazing escapism. I highly recommend watching them in this order.
Bookending my days with slow, pleasurable experiences. Right now, I’m re-introducing coffee pour-overs into my morning routine with 1.5-2 hours of doing something fun/relaxing and spending time with friends in nature in the evenings. So far I have gone to the river, a spectacular viewpoint, and a local park. I’m trying to go to secluded areas near home & bringing my own food to limit unnecessary interactions.
What’re you into right now? Recipes, hangouts, games, books, tv shows, apps… Let me know so I can include it in upcoming newsletters!