reclaiming your attention

weekly story work exercise

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 forthcoming from Broadleaf Books in November 2025. 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 Defying Scarcity. All subscribers can read the free preview below.

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Before we get into today’s exercise, below I am reminding you about some upcoming writing sessions and workshops. I am also finalizing the details for the first Story Work Healing Intensive cohort and will be sharing the details soon. If you would like to be the first to be notified, please sign up here.

April 26. The Practice: Group Journaling Session #21 w/ writer and advocate Karen Wesley // 12 -1:30 pm et
— discussion and journaling prompts, open to paid subscribers

May 2. Free Writing the Layers Monthly Workshop // 7 - 8 pm et
— freewriting, sharing, listening, and connecting, open to all subscribers

May 4. Memoir and Motherhood Writing Workshop // 12 - 3 pm et
— discussion and writing about the complicated topic of motherhood
— Paid subscribers get 15% off using the code in the header, $50 for drop-ins

May 18 - 25. Writing About Mental Illness Workshop // 2 - 4 pm et
— two-day workshop through The Writer’s Center

Photo by Jon Eric Marababol on Unsplash

Last week, I participated in a panel called “Check In, Don't Check Out: Guarding Your Mental Health with Intention” at the Black Health Matters Summit in DC.

We talked about the political climate in the U.S. right now, the impact on our mental and emotional wellness, and how we can protect our time, energy, and state of mind.

This generation has access to more information than we’ve ever had before, and it’s overwhelming to say the least.

When we wake up and reach for our phones first thing, we immediately give our attention away, allowing it to be hijacked by whatever notifications come bursting through. Immediately depleting us before we can fill ourselves up.

Why do we allow this takeover? Habit, I suppose. I used to start my day with The Today Show every morning, listening to what’s going on in the world while getting ready for work, just like my parents and grandparents did. It was such a familiar and comfortable habit that I didn’t realize how much it fueled my anxiety.

Since I’ve been on my wellness journey, that habit has changed. I don’t get on social media until I’ve had a chance to wake up and see how I’m feeling without that external influence.

Most days I start off with some type of spiritual nourishment, whether it’s listening to a short video or podcast with an inspirational message (such as Good Mornings w/ Curly Nikki or Take Back Your Mind w/ Michael Beckwith or Deeply Well w/ Devi Brown) and then there’s either journaling, a yoga flow, a morning walk—it depends. There’s a grab bag of practices that I reach into depending on my mood.

And then, once I feel centered, I expand my attention to see what’s going on in the outside world. I rarely watch the news unless it’s a link that I intentionally choose to click on at a time when I am mentally and emotionally prepared to take it in.

When I give my attention away first thing in the morning, it’s too easy to become consumed by outside chaos before I find a baseline for myself, and it’s harder to stop that momentum of reactivity throughout the day.

I can tell the difference when there’s a hectic morning where I don’t follow this flow, and I immediately jump on social or take a phone call or something urgent comes up as soon as I wake. I go through the day reacting instead of pausing and responding mindfully. I drain myself putting out fires—internally and externally—instead of watering seeds.

Choosing to nourish ourselves before we give our attention to anything else is an act of abundance.

Our attention is precious. I’m not saying to ignore the outside world. But we have to be intentional about what we consume and how we consume it. We have to be intentional about seeking out space to give our attention to the things that matter to us, that nourish and uplift us. We need that sustenance. Our resilience depends on it. Our creativity depends on it. We need a grab bag of practices that counter the external influences and distractions we face each day.

What you give your attention to shapes your reality.

If you are spiraling into bad news all the time, you are programming your subconscious to believe that bad news is all there is. If you are always tuned into what other people think is important, you lose touch with what’s important to you. If you have no volume control over the noise of the world, you are reinforcing a reality where your voice and needs are drowned out.

Your values and gifts want your attention. Your ideas, callings, and creative urges. Too often, we say we don’t have time or we feel creatively blocked, because we’re not giving ourselves permission to disconnect from the matrix and make sure our souls are getting what they need to fully express themselves.

reclaiming our attention

Life is full of creative inspiration all around us every day if we would only slow down and be present enough to notice it.

I’ve been observing the vigilant, anxious part of me, on high alert, braced for what’s about to happen next, eager for the next four years to speed by. But wishing the years away to avoid the turmoil in the world means that I am also wishing away precious years of life and love and learning and friendship and community and art and experience.

There is still so much beauty that I don’t want to miss. So much beauty that I refuse to let be overshadowed by hate, fear-mongering, and panic.

Despite the worldwide instability, every day something warms my heart, makes me laugh, makes me mad, makes me cry, makes me curious.

When we gently bring our attention back to the present moment—that is when our creativity most naturally flows.

Bringing mindfulness into your creative practice is a way to reclaim your attention.

When we engage in habits that nourish our creative energy, we have more capacity to go beyond the contagious all-or-nothing-worst-case-scenario thinking that runs rampant in society. We have more capacity to imagine possibilities and solutions.

We experience benefits like less reactivity and more openness to beauty, gratitude, compassion, and clarity.

Reclaiming your attention is an act of abundance. To do this, we need space, and the world is not going to give it to us unless we take it. We need space to think and behave differently, to choose and believe differently.

We take it by being mindful of who and what has access to us and when. By observing ourselves and noticing where our time and attention are going (just like you might take stock of your money habits to see where your funds are going). We can notice when we are giving too much attention to things that aren’t serving us.

the creative power of observation

When we take back our attention, we also take back our power.

We can do this in small, simple ways: