Know Thyself
Day 21 of 31: 200 Words-A-Day Challenge
Today’s micro-essay is over 300 words (yikes and yay!), followed by a prompt for you… if you need it, that is. Feel free to write about something else. Just Write. To up the ante, I invite you to share what you’ve written in the comments under this post or via Notes. Go ahead… put your words out into the world!
Know Thyself
I’ve always been curious about the different ways individual writers handle the events in their lives that (seemingly) have nothing to do with their writing—both the expected and the unexpected events that distract, drain energy, leave day-planners abandoned.
Family reunions, weddings, vacations, caregiving, emergencies, funerals—all of it, all that is naturally part of every life.
I used to beat myself up if I didn’t keep up my writing practice whenever one of those types of events was happening in my life. I viewed it as a damaging derailment and since I would continue to flog myself even after the event was over, it would sometimes take weeks or months for me to return to my writing, thereby giving me something else to scold myself over.
Just writing this out, I see the ridiculous downward spiral these times were!
A few years ago, I realized it didn’t have to be that way. In addition to reflecting on how I’d managed such times in the past, I started consciously observing myself, really paying attention to what my actions and reactions were during those times.
I noticed that whenever something out of my routine occurs, I want (perhaps, need) to be in the moment of that experience, to be fully present in it, especially if it requires a great deal of sensory intake or is emotionally charged. Later, I may process the experience and might journal about it. Or I might not.
Either way, it’s been a healthy thing for me to acknowledge that I have a stimuli capacitor with a limit --even when the experience or event is a positive one. When these events arise, and they inevitably will, this self-knowledge enables me to give myself the grace and permission to be away from my writing without the chiding voices, which in turn makes me eager to get back to it.
I wish I’d known myself better sooner. At least I know now.
Your Prompt / Day 21 of 31
How do you act and react to things that take you away from your writing for days, weeks, or months at a time? Does your way of navigating them prolong the interruption or support a seamless return to your writing?