Sending lots of love your way. Pacing is SO hard, it’s the most difficult and complex thing I have ever had to learn. Not a lot of people understand the hard work that goes into being chronically ill and all the bumps along the way. I hope you find what suits you and your body whether it includes Substack or not. You will be missed!
Same! 🙋🏼♀️ I’ve described healing as a 24/7 job. Last year, after 4 years of practice, 4 years of learning and unlearning, 4 years of healing, it flipped. It’s now my way of life. But the learning to slow down part....by far the hardest and most challenging aspect of the journey.
I hear you. That tuning in, that listening, that meeting your body where it’s at. The making changes, the surrender. So much healing happening here. Though it’s doesn’t always feel like it. Though it feels like going against the grain. I never fail to receive the call to “slow the fluff down”. I retrained to offer a mobile beauty business so I could work around illness. I pushed & I hustled, I hustled & I pushed! (I broke the chronic pain cycle but I was still chronically ill). Then! The pandemic!! Swiping my income for a 2nd time in as many years. Then! I moved. And another lockdown and another. I started to learn. I really listened. I got going again.I moved again. That side of my business and healing treatments are exactly where they are meant to be. (Not enough to cover outgoings). Now I’m meant to write - though I don’t yet get paid for this. But I have to trust. Trust that I will be taken care of, trust that money is coming. Now I align my energy with the seasons. It peaks (yey!), it slows down (like this week). I listen, I adjust, I realign. We are so worth this. We are worth so much more than what we do (or don’t do). We are worthy just because.
Sending healing vibes Louise. It's taken me 3 year of chronic illness to learn to even vaguely listen to my body and I still find it hard to work out what it's trying to say to me. Go gently. And while it might feel like a hard bullet to bite I suggest (when you can manage and stomach it) you listen to recovery stories - at least 2 a week. I thought I would get angry that others have recovered while I wasn't...but actually it gave me quite the opposite, hope and kindness on the journey.
Same here. Just over three years and the lessons are finally sinking in. It’s taken quite a bit of therapy to realize that surrendering in this moment does not mean giving up. It means allowing our bodies to deeply rest and heal. Not everyone can afford to do this, which is pretty awful. Capitalism is much to blame, as Louise says.
Louise, wishing you all the best. Your subscribers will still be here when you are ready to return 🧡
Sending you good thoughts. Yes, this is what pacing looks like. It’s difficult when so much advice for craft out there is about being “consistent” - when you know what, life is not consistent.
Speaking from personal experience, being your own boss comes with its own challenges. The thinking and planning is a lot, and often the hard parts are unseen.
Oh Lou(ise)... thank you for your honest and vulnerable words here as always. There’s a great ‘kids’ book called “Slow Down World” that I think you might like ☺️.
I’ve also been listening to “Stolen Focus” via Audible lately...and so if you haven’t already read/listened to it - I also think it might be timely for you as it covers lots of themes that we can all learn from in terms of ‘unplugging’ from the digital (and capitalist) machine etc.
Well, I wish you all the best with your ongoing healing process. And yes - of course we will all still be here when you return 😌. Sending you love x
Sending lots of love your way. Pacing is SO hard, it’s the most difficult and complex thing I have ever had to learn. Not a lot of people understand the hard work that goes into being chronically ill and all the bumps along the way. I hope you find what suits you and your body whether it includes Substack or not. You will be missed!
Same! 🙋🏼♀️ I’ve described healing as a 24/7 job. Last year, after 4 years of practice, 4 years of learning and unlearning, 4 years of healing, it flipped. It’s now my way of life. But the learning to slow down part....by far the hardest and most challenging aspect of the journey.
Yup, it’s 24/7! It’s soo hard because we also love life and want to give to the world.
We can do that once we learn to give to ourselves first. This is what I’m telling myself anyway and it seems to be paying off🙏
I hear you. That tuning in, that listening, that meeting your body where it’s at. The making changes, the surrender. So much healing happening here. Though it’s doesn’t always feel like it. Though it feels like going against the grain. I never fail to receive the call to “slow the fluff down”. I retrained to offer a mobile beauty business so I could work around illness. I pushed & I hustled, I hustled & I pushed! (I broke the chronic pain cycle but I was still chronically ill). Then! The pandemic!! Swiping my income for a 2nd time in as many years. Then! I moved. And another lockdown and another. I started to learn. I really listened. I got going again.I moved again. That side of my business and healing treatments are exactly where they are meant to be. (Not enough to cover outgoings). Now I’m meant to write - though I don’t yet get paid for this. But I have to trust. Trust that I will be taken care of, trust that money is coming. Now I align my energy with the seasons. It peaks (yey!), it slows down (like this week). I listen, I adjust, I realign. We are so worth this. We are worth so much more than what we do (or don’t do). We are worthy just because.
Sending healing vibes Louise. It's taken me 3 year of chronic illness to learn to even vaguely listen to my body and I still find it hard to work out what it's trying to say to me. Go gently. And while it might feel like a hard bullet to bite I suggest (when you can manage and stomach it) you listen to recovery stories - at least 2 a week. I thought I would get angry that others have recovered while I wasn't...but actually it gave me quite the opposite, hope and kindness on the journey.
Same here. Just over three years and the lessons are finally sinking in. It’s taken quite a bit of therapy to realize that surrendering in this moment does not mean giving up. It means allowing our bodies to deeply rest and heal. Not everyone can afford to do this, which is pretty awful. Capitalism is much to blame, as Louise says.
Louise, wishing you all the best. Your subscribers will still be here when you are ready to return 🧡
Sending you good thoughts. Yes, this is what pacing looks like. It’s difficult when so much advice for craft out there is about being “consistent” - when you know what, life is not consistent.
Speaking from personal experience, being your own boss comes with its own challenges. The thinking and planning is a lot, and often the hard parts are unseen.
Oh Lou(ise)... thank you for your honest and vulnerable words here as always. There’s a great ‘kids’ book called “Slow Down World” that I think you might like ☺️.
I’ve also been listening to “Stolen Focus” via Audible lately...and so if you haven’t already read/listened to it - I also think it might be timely for you as it covers lots of themes that we can all learn from in terms of ‘unplugging’ from the digital (and capitalist) machine etc.
Well, I wish you all the best with your ongoing healing process. And yes - of course we will all still be here when you return 😌. Sending you love x