life in transition
“Maybe you are being called to give up the life you’ve known, for the life that is calling you.” — Valarie Kaur
If you’re new here, paid subscribers receive Story Work exercises every Sunday night at 8 pm et. Story Work: Field Notes on Self-Discovery and Reclaiming Your Narrative is the name of my new book (which is currently available for preorder!) The term describes my signature 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. For the next few weeks, our story work theme is Life in Transition. This first post in the series is open to all subscribers.
Hi community,
How are you? Are you finding some balance between resting and resisting? We are living in difficult, uncertain times, and many of us are navigating personal change and transition at the same time. I’ll get into more of that in a minute.
Before we get into the new story work theme, I have some reminders and updates about upcoming sessions and offerings.
In celebration of us reaching the mid-year milestone and the beginning of my book launch journey, I am offering a summer sale on Substack subscriptions, Inner Story memberships, and 1:1 coaching through June 21. You can find all the details in this post.
I will be facilitating a one-hour version of my Writing about Mental Illness workshop for The HerStories Project this Friday, June 20 at 11 am et.
Due to a death in my extended family, I have rescheduled the sessions that were planned for next weekend. Our author visit with Rowana Abbensetts- Dobson has been moved from Saturday, June 21 to Saturday, August 16 from 11 am - 12 pm et.
My upcoming workshop at The Writer’s Center, Vulnerability in Personal Storytelling, will now take place on Sunday, June 29 and Sunday, July 6 from 11 am - 1:30 pm et.
Also, Creative Courage Writing Intensive Early Bird Enrollment ends June 21
Last week, I opened up about some of the messy realities of my creative courage journey. Moments when I was torn between playing it safe and continuing to honor my creative callings. Maybe you’ve had these inner conflicts, too. The pull toward something bigger, something that is more authentically you, even when the risks are great.
I’ve learned that we need a strong foundation to go against the grain and commit to the creative visions we have for our lives.
I created the Creative Courage Writing Intensive framework for heart-centered creatives and professionals who are ready to grow in a supportive, hands-on space where they can bring their creative callings and identities out of hiding.
When you join me for this intensive, we're going to go deep.
We’re breathing life into the part of you that sees the world differently, that has something to reveal, something urgent to say, the part of you that feels most alive when creating.
We'll be uncovering the stories you've been telling yourself about your creativity, the fears that show up when you sit down to create, and those sneaky beliefs that whisper: Who do you think you are?
My goal is to help you understand the deeper layers of your creative work, build habits that actually support your creativity, and shift the way you see yourself and your story.
You’ll learn self-discovery tools that help you connect with your why, work through resistance, embrace creative risk, and take inspired action steps.
We’ll look at the patterns and beliefs that are causing inner conflicts and resistance, and introduce mindset shifts that turn creative blocks into creative material.
This experience is designed to help you show up more fully in both your creative work and your everyday life. Early bird enrollment ends on Saturday, June 21. You can learn more here and read what past participants have said about the experience, too.
Feel free to respond to this email with any questions. Or, you can contact me here.
Okay. Let’s get into this week’s exercise.
weekly story work exercise
This is the first post of our new theme, Life in Transition. You can find other recent themes here. You can find all the archives here.
I’ve felt it coming, just like I always do.
Change has been whispering in certain parts of my life, and I’ve heard it, but I’m not exactly running towards it. I’ve been taking small steps, waiting for more clarity.
Change is a constant presence, isn’t it? Change is life. Change is growth. We know this, and in many ways, we crave it. But change is also scary.
Because change requires surrender, and that’s hard for us. We want to know what’s going to happen. We want to plan and control our outcomes.
So we resist, often keeping ourselves stuck in patterns and situations that we’ve outgrown. Dreaming but not acting on our visions. Expanding but keeping ourselves small.
Sometimes change is a rumbling in the distance, like an approaching storm. Tension building, a knowing you can’t explain. Sometimes change gets impatient, furiously knocking until it can no longer be ignored.
Transition is happening within us and around us—and right now, we’re all feeling it deeply. The world is shifting, illusions are crumbling, and with that comes grief and fear.
Here is what I’ve learned:
When I don’t respond to its clues, change often brings about some kind of rock bottom experience that forces me to pay attention.
Have you ever noticed this pattern in your life? Have you noticed this pattern in the world around you?
Change wants to make room for what’s next, always preparing us for a new chapter in our personal and collective stories. When we refuse to let go, we prevent that next chapter from beginning.
This series is about change and transition through a creative lens.
No matter your personal situation, we need creative courage more than ever for these uncertain times.
What if—instead of worrying ourselves crazy when change pushes us into an uncomfortable place—we sit still in that space long enough to see what it might offer?
What if we didn’t rush to numb it? What if we didn’t square up to fight it? What if we let ourselves feel it, hear it, see it, know it?
What if we approach our current (or recent) transitions not as problems to fix but as stories that are unfolding?
This series will explore how life’s transitions—both chosen and unexpected—ask us to soften into uncertainty, release old stories, and listen more deeply to ourselves. It will invite you to see transition not as a disruption but as a creative opening.
Exercise:
Self-Discovery
What signals has change been sending you lately—whispers, nudges, alarms? Have you been listening? What has been affecting your capacity to listen?
What does creative courage look like for you right now? Where in your life are you being invited to step into it?
In what ways is the state of the world affecting the personal transitions you’re going through?
How do you determine when it’s time to lean into change and when it’s time to resist?
Storytelling
Tell the story of a moment when life surprised you with an unexpected transition. How did you respond? What did it teach you?
Describe a rock bottom moment that ended up becoming a breakthrough. What did it strip away, and what did it make room for?
Write about a time when creativity helped you move through a period of uncertainty, grief, or personal transformation.