I made a commitment to myself to take a four week break from alcohol earlier this month. It has been three weeks and five days as of today (when I write this). To be honest, I was hoping for some huge noticeable difference in the way I felt or to get an influx of creativity as a gold star from the universe for doing self-care well, but neither of those happened. Rather, I’ve been dragging. I had a very “unproductive” month with the fires raging, an ever present thick layer of smoke, the attempted murder of Jacob Blake, my realization that dangerous Qanon conspiracy theories were seeping into some of the wellness spaces I’ve been following for years, and the ongoing pandemic. I could feel the familiar fog of depression settling in characterized by numbness, feeling like nothing really mattered, and an oppressive lack of motivation. All of this is to say that making a commitment to take care of myself didn’t immediately result in an amazing, cosmically flowy month.
But here is what did come from this decision: I didn’t feel even worse, which very well could have been the case. I was sleeping better (even relatively small amounts of alcohol can disrupt our sleep) and I wasn’t engaging in any level of numbing my feels with alcohol. As this month off alcohol comes to a close, I’ve felt another cosmic suggestion or tap from my intuition to take a break from Instagram. I have been circling around this idea for a while now as two of my favorite accounts to follow, Marlee Grace & Yumi Sakugawa, have both been talking about (and following through with) breaking from social media often in the last few months. I’ve had a lot of feelings about it. The thought triggered anxiety about how Broad Room would make money if I wasn’t present on Instagram all the time and I’d tell myself that taking a break from Instagram wasn’t something I could do -- those other bigger accounts could take a break, but not me. The thing is, the anxiety that comes from the thought of taking a break from Instagram is beginning to pale in comparison to the anxiety I feel opening the app everyday.
Sakugawa’s point resonated with me so much in this post. She explains how she’d gotten into the habit of constricting the content she consumed and created to be bite-sized for Instagram 🤯 🤯 🤯 🤯 🤯 🤯 🤯 🤯 🤯 . Personally, I used to read all the time and I enjoy writing long form pieces (obviously, hah). But these are no longer rich, joyful things I indulge in frequently. I no longer protect my time for engaging with long form creativity. So, I am going to figure out how to take a break from social media. I am going to create more space for myself, think bigger than an Instagram square for Broad Room, and (most likely) struggle mightily against the urge to open the app compulsively.
As a first step, I’m going to take Yumi Sakugawa’s upcoming class HOW TO SPEND MORE TIME OFFLINE IN QUARANTINE: RITUALS, HABITS, AND MEDITATION TECHNIQUES TO UNPLUG AND RECLAIM YOUR LIFE
Last chance for the Workshop Incubator!
We are so close to the launch of Broad Room’s first four-week course designed for artists, chefs, culture workers, designers, makers, and any other type of creative who wants to teach an online workshop or pivot an in-person workshop to a virtual platform.
The course presents an opportunity to invest in yourself + your creative practice! For just $77 (that’s less than $20/week!!) you’ll get everything you need to design, plan, and execute an online workshop you can be excited about!
Each week, students will get the week’s course material emailed directly to them. These will be recordings that can be completed on your own time, so no need to make time in your schedule for a live class.
We will also layer in ways to overcome the triggers that may come up when you consider teaching a workshop including imposter syndrome, your inner critic, creative blocks and more.
Newsletter subscribers get a discount too! Just use code HONESTMESS at check out for 10% off!
In this week’s episode of the Honest Mess Podcast, Claire reveals her most embarrassing job interview (🥵) and talks about her path to discovering her ~dream job~ after a heck of a lot of stubbornness.
She touches on doing what is expected, rather than what is actually aligned with her desires, and chronic burn out and more!
Check out the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more!