Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash

The very prolific author, Julia Cameron, has a tip for aspiring writers.  She recommends that you put something on paper every day, preferably in the morning upon waking.

Cameron advises that this writing time be a stream of consciousness, meditative sort of time without concern for content.

I’ve been getting up at 6:00 every day for nine days now to keep up with my 30 day goal. I, however, have taken great pains to plan out several post ideas to deliver meaningful content.

Not today.  Today I’m tired.  It’s almost 7:00 am and I’m sitting in the dark, the only light is the glow of my computer screen…I’m really tired.

This has been an incredibly emotional week although not a single tear has been shed.  Whatever energy I would have spent in crying I’ve focused into being present.

I was told that when we get out of our thinking mind and focus our attention on our bodies, our breathing and our sensations our central nervous system automatically calms down.  It’s like our bodies are screaming for attention and we keep checking off our to-do list not noticing that we even exist in this skin suit.

The elixir for stress is presence.  So that has been my medicine all week.

Last night I was present late into the night with my youngest daughter.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about spending time with her.  It’s just that she’s 17 and I’m 53 and I need more than six hours of sleep.

So I’m a bit whiny and complainy at the moment.  Today I wanted to abandon this self-imposed 30 day challenge and sleep an extra half hour.  But then I remembered what Julia Cameron said.  It doesn’t have to be perfect or meaningful.  It just has to be a practice.

Thank you Julia Cameron for giving me permission to complain.  If you took the time to read this, thanks for holding space for me while I bitched about being tired.

Because I just realized it’s a joyful exhaustion…kind of like the morning after a great party.

It’s time for more coffee.

In gratitude,

Susan