Today's Google search history includes...
What happens to the brain during prolonged chronic stress?
Unsurprisingly, it’s not good stuff. Getting stuck in fight, flight, or freeze is universally considered a bad thing by all the articles I read this afternoon while scrolling through the Google search results.
Results range from your brain shrinking, to anxiety, depression, reduced memory, and poor decision making. It’s actually science that you are creatively blocked when you are stressed out all the time because your brain is focused on surviving (read not dying) and can only figure out how to do that — maybe not how to effectively pivot your business or teach your 8 year old.
I am sure none of this is shocking, but it can be surprising (or even heighten our already high stress levels) when we are inundated with folks on social media using the quarantine to bake, workout, or deep clean. Personally, I vacillate wildly between extremely high levels of workaholism and wanting to lay down in a dark room and do absolutely nothing.
Both of these are normal responses to the trauma we are living through. I know Instagram is also brimming with positive affirmations, self-care tips, and promises that “everything will be okay” (I am guilty of this too), but it’s also worth noting that this all really sucks and we don’t know what’s going to happen and things are really really stressful right now.
So instead, I am giving you permission (even tough you definitely don’t need my permission to do anything) to just revel in the suckiness of now. This is weird, hard and definitely not all good. Now please excuse me while I go lay on my bed, stare at the ceiling, and listen to Vanderpump Rules.
Financial Wellness for Creatives during Covid-19
Okay, I know I just opened this email with how difficult it is to do anything when we are stressed out… but here is something to do when you feel up to it & taking stock of your finances can actually be empowering and help to alleviate some stress.
Figuring out how to make $$$ during Covid-19 has been a theme of webinars, podcasts, and IG lives/stories this week. A couple weeks ago, I released Broad Room’s own webinar Finding Funding for Artists during Covid-19 (password HONESTMESS). Still, pivoting your business, navigating unemployment, and confronting the reality of money lost is daunting af. So, I created this helpful little guide to try to make it easier to visualize where you can reallocate time and resources to re-coup some lost income during tis wild time.
Brainstorm all the ways you have made money or can make money. Below, I have a sample list of some ideas that may or may not work for you. There are probably more than a few income streams that I didn’t think of that would work for you and your business.
Now, think about which ones bring in the most money for you + where you spent most of your energy during non-pandemic times.
Here’s a sample for an artist who generates income from events (or in-person sales), freelancer gigs, online sales, a part-time job, and in-person workshops. This represents many of the creatives in Broad Room’s community.
Now, consider the changes that have come with the pandemic. In this example, the artist lost their part-time job and has had all events either cancelled or postponed.
Without in-person events or a part-time job, this artist is pivoting to offer online workshops, taking advantage of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, emergency relief funding (there are many options including the Sacramento Covid-19 Artist Relief Fund), and seeking grants (check out Artwork Archive, The Atrium, and Booooooom for resources). She is also maintaining a focus on online sales and freelance gigs.
Also, do your taxes. Ask for help. Help others when possible. And fully embody the feeling that your worth is not defined by your ability to make money and you are certainly not alone in this.
Here’s a template to make your own income generating reallocation plan, tag @broad_room if you post it on Instagram so I can check it out and share with others!
In this special pandemic edition of Broad Room’s signature Shadow Side of Creativity workshop, we will explore the shadow side of us, our triggers during the pandemic, transmuting burnout, radical self-compassion, holding space for our community, being un-well, daydreaming as self-care, and more…
This is a donation-based class, so just pay what you can! There will be a live webinar Friday 5/5 at 1pm and a recording sent out to registrants following the live class.
Embrace the shadow, revel in discomfort, and cozy up in the chrysalis this time provides.
Tarot for the week ahead
Worry, anguish — that’s where our bodies (or subconscious) are at right now. Everything feels more difficult, things that have come easily in the past feel like a struggle. Let yourself feel this way, don’t try to mask it with avoidance or coping mechanisms. Just feel the uncertainty wash over you.
Discipline, self-reliance — that’s what our mind is trying to focus on. We may find ourselves preoccupied with thoughts centered on our perceived lack of worth during this time when many of us cannot accumulate financial wealth the way we were before the pandemic. Accepting this reality is hard, but upping our self-compassion can help mitigate our mind’s spiraling as it tries to compare our quarantine life to that of others.
Ending of a cycle, a pause before the next — Our soul is reminding us that this is a wild time. We have reached the end of a collective cycle, things will be different going forward, and all we can do is survive right now. Surviving is the only thing you are responsible for right now, so congratulate yourself for making it through another week. You earned it.
Stuff I’m into right now…
IF CAPITALISM IS AN ECONOMY THAT VALUES MASCULINE TRAITS, WHAT COULD ANOTHER ECONOMY LOOK LIKE? THE FEMININE ECONOMY PROPOSES A NEW SET OF VALUES AND A REDISTRIBUTION OF MONEY AND POWER BASED ON FEMININE PRINCIPLES.
This empowering manifesto is so perfect for the time we are living through right now when it feels like masculine energy-dominated capitalism is literally killing us. It is a quick read, but full of empowering information. If you can’t purchase a book right now, follow sister.is on Instagram to get a taste of the philosophy.
Debra Silverman is on to give us a much-needed astrological update on what’s currently happening in the world. She shares what was written in the stars when the virus came and things started to shift, when it looks like we’re going to get out of it, what every sign needs to be doing during this time, what transitions in astrology we need to be aware of over the coming year, and what the new normal will look like on the other side of this.
I am especially fond of this astrological episode of the podcast because it focuses more on the generational period we are living through, how the Age of Aquarius is challenging us during this time, and provides some guidance for working with the collective trauma to offer our unique gifts to our community. It’s a really empowering episode, I *highly* recommend.
And that’s it for this week! Thanks for reading & as always please let me know if you have anything you’d like to contribute next week :) Please share this with anyone you think would enjoy Honest Mess Express!