emotional labor
If you’re new here, Story Work is the name of my current book-in-progress. It describes a process of reflecting, reclaiming, and reimagining the stories of our lives. It involves looking at your life experiences as creative material that you have the power to shape.
The weekly story work topics cover universal life themes with references from literature, philosophy, science, and spirituality; offering perspectives that spark ideas for personal growth and creative expression.
Paid subscribers receive Story Work exercises every Sunday night at 8 pm et.
Read on for a preview of the weekly exercise.
Hi everyone,
Before I get into this week’s story work exercise, I have a testimony. I went on a little trip by myself this weekend, and I’m so proud of myself for not letting my fears get the best of me. I struggle with anxiety, and since the pandemic ended it has been hard for me to get out of the house and away from my familiar bubbles. I have to dig deep to go new places and face unfamiliar situations.
I’ve been preparing for this wedding for months and still I faced an onslaught of intrusive thoughts and irrational fears about going—what could go wrong on the road, how my family will be lost without me, what will fall through the cracks with work—my imagination betraying me and distracting me from enjoying the joyful anticipation of seeing my family.
None of this is new, I just talk about it more now because it helps. I refuse to shrink my life because of these fears and all the energy it takes to hide them, you know? Instead of being ashamed or embarrassed by it, I think about all the things that people have to overcome each day just to get out of bed and start their days, face their fears, live their lives, chase their dreams. I’m not afraid of people knowing that when they see me showing up that I am facing my own invisible storms to do so. I think we should all give each other that grace.
I’m determined to make decisions from love not fear, as much as possible. I have more to say about this, but it’s going into the book. For now, I just wanted to share this win.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been revisiting story work exercises that bring up insights and lessons learned from our creative journeys. Last week’s exercise, the duty to create, asked you to think about whether or not you feel a duty to answer your creative callings. This week, we are continuing this series by thinking about the emotional labor of bringing our creative callings to life.