Jayne.press

When the going gets tough

When the going gets tough, admit it, find your peace, find the good, and keep going.

I wrote admit it because it’s important to talk about the hard times. That’s where connection lives. That’s where you find the will to face your demons. I placed it first because it takes priority to all the rest. We like to show the world that we got this. We like to pretend like we were born to carry the world on our shoulders. But that’s not how we grow. That’s not how we gain strong connections with others. That’s just getting started. The next step is finding your peace.

Once you realize what’s going on and discuss it with those you trust, it’s important to find your peace in the chaos. Your shelter in the storm. There’s too much that you can’t control. There’s too much that you’ve got to let go of. Finding your peace can be as challenging as admitting your struggles. People might even look at you like you’re not anxious enough. But if you can maintain peace in the storm, you’ll have the endurance to make it through to the other side. The peace you find is the best investment you can make for your present and your future.

The next step not necessarily in this order is finding the good. I’m not one for toxic positivity but I find that gratitude has it’s place in tough situations. Especially the complex ones.

And last but not least, keep going. Our lives go forward. Either we’re going to get dragged along or we’re going to stand up more forward with our own two feet. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about grief, anxiety, and depression. Sometimes you need to stop and let life go ahead for your own wellbeing. And I stand firmly by that. The point is, take the reigns of your life. Create the future you dream of. Do the healing you need to do to get there.

Sleep and Dreams

Last night was rough for me. I couldn’t sleep and had an annoying little stomach ache. It was not fun at all. Since I was up, I wrote a bit extra in hopes that it would help me sleep. I also drank some sleepy tea. I used to suffer from insomnia real bad. Like I didn’t even realize good sleep was thing. I wondered how people slept through all the sounds in their home without waking up once. Now I sleep through them.

I write about sleep a lot, even in my stories. It’s a natural part of life so I think our characters should do it in their own way. I do appreciate reading about dreams. I love the Red Book by Jung. I appreciate Revelation more so these days. For some reason, it scared me growing up. Now that I perceive it more as a dream it has less of a horror feel to it.

Dreams and nightmares are like a bonus full of symbolism, preperation for some future event that may or may not happen, answers to questions, or inspiration to creative pursuits. I love stories with a dreamy vision feel to them. I like art that way too. Which is why the Symbolist movement is one of my favorites.

I love hearing about people’s dreams and listening to them make sense of them in a deep way. I’ve read that we are the best ones to interpret our own dreams because they are ours. I do wonder though, are they an amalgam of our own subconscious and conscious? Are they a divine interventions? Are they something you should stake your life on?

What do you think?

And incase anyone else had a rough night,

8 Things Sleep Experts Do in the Morning After a Poor Night’s Sleep
By Jessica Migala July 17, 2021 on Livestrong.com

Share Your Writers Life with Me.

So 11am writing sessions are officially a thing in my life. It worked out wonderful. This whole mini adventure of amping up my daily writing habits reminds of writing. I maneuver people places and spaces around till they fit together nice and snug.

I didn’t expect this journey would take me to midday writing. I didn’t even plan sharing this experience at all. But I’m so glad I did because it’s really got me waking up in the morning feeling excited to write and be alive. This time of year is usually when I start crawling out of my hole but this year, I have no pregnancy, a toddler sleeping through the night, a new job in the works and the energy is just booming. So I’m not crawling out of the hole this year, I’m sprinting.

My physical energy has been held down for like 8 years yall! 8 years! I seriously leaned on writers heavily during that time. I hope I can provide something lean on for others who are in the dark.

Let’s get back to writing, don’t forget to make time for your writing. Allow writing to add to your life. Let it make you excited and frustrated and challenged. Let it pull you along. Float on it and pull it along. And then share all of it with me please. I wanna hear about all your writers life stories.

Writing and My Peak Hours

Aright last post about tweaking my morning routine.

I tried working on my novel right when I woke up in the morning but it was nothing special. Felt the same as working on it before bed. However, what was nice about working on it in the morning was that it’s one less thing to do before bed. So I think I’ll do morning pages and meditation and then work on my novel midday. I feel best when I start my day with my morning pages and I also feel better when I have less writing goals at night.

When do you write?

Morning? Weekends? Midday?

I know everyone is different when it comes to writing times and rituals. One thing I learned from writing over the years is that you should figure out when you are at your peak alertness throughout the day and block that time out to focus on your creative pursuits. I haven’t done that in a long time (mostly because of momming). 11am is my peak time it’s also when my little needs to eat, and it’s the time of day I’m finally ready to bang out a lot of my work work. But I think I can set an alarm to make sure I’m getting that time to focus on my novel.

So for tomorrow I’m going to try

8am Morning pages and Water
9am Meditation and visualization.
930am Tea and Work-work
11am the novel
12 then lunch
1pm work work.

Little Adventures

Ok I played a game first thing when I woke up. No distractions. And it was pleasant. I think I’m gunna try and work on my story first thing in the morning. Right now I’m editing. Not too in depth but checking for continuity and for places that should be removed completely, burn and never seen again. Just kidding. I save numerous versions of my work so the ideas are retrievable at this point.

I did look around to find if there was any benefits to writing first thing in the morning. Here’s what I found:

According to www.craftyourcontent.com,

To begin with, writing immediately after waking up, especially about things that you’re grateful for, can put you at a higher energy level. You’ll feel more positive toward life, and less likely to give way to negative thoughts. You’ll also become more generous to other people, which brings you even more happiness in return.
Writing also helps you to reduce stress. Research suggests spending 20 minutes per day writing about positive things can lead to a decrease in anxiety. So if you’re currently in deep stress, start your day with a positive writing session. You’ll find yourself in a much calmer state for the rest of the day.
www.craftyourcontent.com,

I could use a little decrease in anxiety. Having a mourning routine has made me significantly calmer inside and out. I hope I can maintain it.

I also found this from writersinthestormblog.com

There is one major reason to wake up early and it is this: you set the tone for your day with purpose and intention.
When you start the day on your terms, not only do you have more control over your day, you’re also more likely to have positive emotions at the beginning of the day and by extension, the rest of the day. Both of these benefits will have an extremely positive influence on your writing.

I have something new to try: Working on my novel in the morning. These little adventures are fun.

I Accepted the Challenge

Yesterday, I wrote about doing puzzles as part of a morning routine. I never thought of using my brain so early in the morning. I usually drink water, journal, then make my tea afterwards. Every writer has their own routine. Hemmingway said,

I write every morning as soon after first light as possible.
https://prowritingaid.com/writing-routines-famous-authors

I have journaled right when I woke up but I don’t work on my stories right when I wake up because unconsciously and now consciously I know that that writing is eerily close to puzzles and the thought of doing any kind of puzzle upon waking sounds like a bad time to me.

But after reading through a bunch of morning routine lists and finding that many of them spoke of doing a puzzle to wake your brain up, I decided to give it try. I challenged myself to do a puzzle before I even got out of bed. And hey, it could be playful.

On that note, have you ever realized how important game play is for us adult human beings? According to NBC News, “The most obvious benefit comes from play that involves physical activity. When done frequently, it strengthens your heart, boosts your lung function and lowers your risk of developing coronary heart disease. Not only that, physical play like sports and exercise, also reduce your stress hormones (e.g cortisol and adrenaline) and trigger the release of endorphins — your feel-good hormones — which elevates your mood and helps you relax after a stressful day.

Laughter, which is present in many kinds of playful activities, releases those same feel-good hormones. The act of simply laughing with others will also foster a sense of camaraderie and strengthen your relationships, too.

At work, play increases your productivity levels and makes you more creative.”

So when I tried out the puzzle. I was laying around for a bit moaning and groaning about the terrible sleep I had. (I had the strangest nightmares) I leaned over and grabbed my phone to play a game. Of course I got distracted by all my notifications (which I feel defeats the whole purpose but I kept going anyways). I eventually made it to the games folder and decided to play a Zen matching game. It was actually really nice. I think I’ll try it again tomorrow and try my best to focus at the task at hand.

So I’d say, you should give it a shot if you haven’t tried a puzzle right when you wake up yet.

Morning Challenge

I woke up this morning kinda tired but ready to start my day off on the right foot. I wanted to start off trying to think. It was tough hahaha. I don’t usually think about much when I first wake up. I just wanna not think and let my brain just do its own thing.

I’ve been thinking, on the list yesterday, one of the healthy morning habits was doing a puzzle. I don’t know that I could do that before I got out of bed. I do my morning pages right in bed. But to reach over and grab a puzzle right when I wake up doesn’t sound like much fun at all.

And so you know what, I’m going to try it out. Tomorrow morning I’m going to try and do a crossword before my morning pages. Mostly because it sounds challenging for me. Life’s too short to turn down a good challenge.

I wonder how this will go.

Healthy Morning Habits

Tomorrow I wanna wake up rested and ready for my healthy morning habits. I’ve started working through Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way.” workbook book again. I also have been trying to meditate and visualize before I start my day. It has really helped me prioritize the things that are important to me. I also drink water then make myself a cup of Green and decaf black tea with sugar free vanilla syrup.

How do you start your day?

I had to google some other healthy morning habits. Here’s a list.

Make your bed
Stretch
Write/Review you daily To Do list
Focus on your positive energy
Healthy Breakfast
Yoga
Take a walk
Listen to music
Create a routine
Brain Exercise
Meal plan
Read

These are all really great ideas. I think I might add yoga to my morning routine.

Sources

https://www.self.com/story/morning-routine-habits

https://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living-photos/10-ways-to-improve-your-morning-routine.aspx

https://bostondirecthealth.com/primary-care-blog/7-ways-to-start-your-day-with-a-healthy-morning-routine

Innovation

Innovation
a new method, idea, product, etc. dictionary.com

I define the innovation process as a great idea, executed brilliantly, and communicated in a way that is both intuitive and fully celebrates the magic of the initial concept. -Pete Foley
https://www.ideatovalue.com/

I like innovation. It reminds me of Disney. It also makes me feel alive, progressive, and adventurous. Even if I don’t yet or have not yet experienced it. Makes me feel part of the world that got to experience something new first hand. Life can fall into so much monotony that when something fun and new is introduced to me it lights up my life.

Escape Room and Writing

I shared my inspiration yesterday but I forgot to mention what led up these thoughts.

So I haven’t written about it here yet, but I started a non profit called Inspiring Youth and Mentors. We support youth and mentors with adventurous programs and services. One thing I’m pretty excited to be planning is a city wide escape room. Since we are the escape room now, I started watching YouTube videos on escape room creation and development. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to connect game development to writing my novel.

So the first two videos that lit up my brain was a talk from Laura E. Hall

and Adam Clare

They both share their passions about escape room games. Both of these videos made me think about my novels in a different way. First, that creating aha moments were possible as creators. I thought aha moments were some magical divine inner shift that couldn’t be intentionally created in novels. Second thing that they both said was that the escape rooms should be fun for the puzzlers. This wasn’t as much a revelation but more of a reminder to have fun and in a way, this idea gave me permission to create something fun and solvable. But what they both said was that puzzles should be solvable. Impossible puzzles are not fun. They’re mean. So of course James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake comes to mind. And how it’s said that he was so angry that his closest writing friends couldn’t solve his puzzle. Maybe Joyce was the ass creating a possibly unsolvable puzzle but at the same I do enjoy reading both Finnigan’s Wake and Ulysses. I enjoyed downloading the key researching youtube, listening to the books read in the Dublin accent. I also had to get all his books to try and see what led to Finnigan’s Wake. The point is I have fun with it even though I know I’ll never solve it all.

I don’t know if I can cross over everything from these videos into writing but I did take away a lot from what they had to say. Way more than I initially thought which was zero expectations when it came to writing my novel. What can I say,

Inspiration is out there!!

(in my best Disney’s “Up” voice)

Thanks for reading.