I have nothing to say

Happy Sunday, Soothers. As I write this to you, it's a Monday (I always write my Sunday Soothers on a Monday) and I have literally nothing to say to you.

This isn't to say I don't have ideas to write about. I have an Evernote parking lot ideas list with about two dozen random scraps of thoughts and subjects. I could absolutely pick any of them and start writing and see where it takes me.

I just honestly don't want to.

And that's okay.

For somebody as prolific content-wise as me (near-weekly newsletter, podcast, regular Instagram posts, workshops, etc) I think it's really important to model and share about the ebbs and flows of a creative work life.

Right now, where I am in the East Coast of America in the Northern Hemisphere, it's late January. The trees are bare, the roads are frozen and muddy, and while the days have technically been getting longer since the December solstice, they're still pretty dang short and dark.

My energy is low. And that's okay.

This is a time of year I actually re-purpose a lot of content. I generally re-run at least a few essays from the archive in the Sunday Soother in the winter, and over on Instagram I'm definitely re-sharing lots of posts from the past couple of years rather than creating new ones at this time.

I used to feel guilt and shame about this content re-purposing, until I thought of this analogy:

People who used to farm/grow their own food (or still do) and it was the main sustenance they lived off of, aren't growing new food in winter to eat. They literally can't. The earth won't allow it.

So instead, they are living off the harvests from the summer and fall, and it's the food that was grown months ago that gets them through winter.

For me, it's turned out, it's very similar for content and creativity and my work overall.

Since I do think I'm a rather naturally prolific person, there are of course times in winter when I do get and produce some new ideas. But on the whole, I am inspired and create a lot less than the months of say, April through October or so.

So why shouldn't I "live off" the content created in those months as my body, mind and soul burrow into the darkness and rest of the winter months?

It's really annoying, I have to admit, but sometimes I feel pretty sure the entire point of being a human born under capitalism is to learn throughout our lives the point of coming back to nature and its lessons. To remember, that we are OF nature.

We're human. We're cyclical, just as nature is. We are not meant to burn forever hot ad fast like a rocket shooting into the sky. We're meant to shed, and rest, and go underground, and nourish, and push through the soil, and peek to the sky, and bloom, only to do it all over, again and again, and again.

Be willing, wherever you are right now, to give yourself permission to tune into the gentleness of this season in whatever way you're able. To rest, to pause, to turn the dial down if you need to, just as the natural world around you has done.

To repurpose content, in my case 🙂 Or simply not produce content at all. To go to bed at 8pm. To...

Sigh.

...to be honest, it is really hard to give nature-based, cyclical advice living to those of us stuck under capitalistic work systems, which are based on 24/7/365 blankness and sameness, on the idea that Q1 should look like Q2 should be as good as Q3 and Q4. That your energy should always be the same or increasing. That you should give as much effort to your work in winter as you do in spring.

So it'd be disingenuous for me to tell you to try to figure out ways to rest when most of us really just can't.

So I'll leave you with this: Clear yourself of any shame for being lower energy, slower, less productive in this time of year, if you can. Even if you have to show up pretending to be shiny-faced and full of energy, even if you have to pump caffeine into your system to meet current work or life demands, even if whatever you have to do to be here, you are doing.

It's okay. You are 100% doing your best.

And wherever you are, whatever your life looks like, may the rest of winter bring you a deepening into yourself, abundance, gentle nourishment, and what I hope for all of us: the sense that we are deserving of all that we desire, that we are enough.

(...guess I did have something to say, after all.)

PS: If you're interested in learning to live more aligned with your true nature, with the seasons, with magic, with self-trust, I have two 1:1 life coaching spots open. These are six-month engagements where we meet 3 times a month. We set a vision for your life and I teach you mindset, nervous system regulation, how to clear shame and self doubt and emotionally regulate through fear, as well as a hefty dose of magic and energetic management to get you there. You get lifetime access to my private community, voice note support Monday-Friday, magical custom Tarot pulls and a lot more. Book a discovery call here to start in February. You can also reply to this email with any Qs, and I'm happy to talk to you in our inboxes!