Glad I found your Substack through your Elite Capture piece. I just wrote about returning to internet writing after about a 3 year break, so there's definitely something worthwhile in taking time off, even if it's just for a short while. Elite capture is one thing, but audience capture is another, and sometimes you do need to go underground to figure out what you want to write and how. Looking forward to reading more of your stuff hopefully soon, though.
Thank you, Chris <3 and I’m not going anywhere! Just need to stare at walls for a few days/a week and not force myself to write things that aren’t working lol. A microhibernation. But inspiration always returns sooner or later. Sorry if this doesn’t make sense lol my brain is simply fried
gorgeous and full, I appreciate the way you ran through the year, the breakthroughs, the fruits, and everything that carried you through. Congrats on your engagement! I also have to mention that I love the final little poem a lot
just came across your Substack and this is so beautifully written: slow, meditative, but not toothless! (which for me means unopinionated, with unresolved stances or convictions)
loved the reflection on blankness as a necessary prerequisite to writing interesting things and takes again
Congratulations on your engagement and the lack of stone fruits! It’s nice to know there is a fellow Substacker in Northern CA. I also saw Asteroid City in a foreign country but with Czech subtitles, it made the story-within-a-story even more interesting. May your new year be full of inspiration and zest!
I was just having a discussion with a friend on how the days between Christmas and New Years feel almost like the world is holding its breath for... something and how I suddenly feel the need to do the same, even when my lungs are tired and have begun to ache. Instead, I’ve been using this period to rest and, a lot like you I assume, it’s more that my body and mind has forced me to as opposed to me choosing to take things a little slower. This year has been a wild one to say the least.
Merry (late) Christmas and Happy (early) New Year!
I’ve also allowed myself to do nothing in the past few days. It’s been such a bliss. I feel so exhausted and burnt out from the year, and I needed this. But of course, I already started thinking about how I can live more balanced so that I don’t get to the point of exhaustion; I guess all our lives, we contemplate and try and act on this question.
Wow, Cydney I just discovered Discussion Candy and I love it! You got me with the title 'Staring at Walls'. Because I call this 'Screen Saver Mode' — which is when my brain just needs to idle and I stare off into the distance until people start asking questions.
I later found out that this 'zoning out' is actually really important for our brains and our creativity. I wrote about it last year if you wanna check it out too - Your Brain Has A Screen Saver Mode (sorry not sorry for shameless plug). But your post talks about it so well here too. We actually NEED to stare at walls every now and then. No reading. No media. No more input. Only ..... space.... ahhh. I love it!
I also loved getting a little peep into your life. It sounds rather similar to mine in a few funny ways. Weddings, great food, strange bus rides, great conversations, gatherings and celebrations. As a fellow copywriter I'm very curious to hear more on your journalism take. It was something I considered studying myself but ended up taking a different route. I'm very glad you started this newsletter and looking forward to reading more!
When I lived across the street from Golden Gate Park I used to bike across the GG Bridge about once a week, often to the top of Hawk Hill. Once I went further, bike camping to Pt Reyes and back. As I was waiting to cross through part of the Presidio, a guy asked to use my phone. When he handed my phone back and saw my bike loaded down, he asked what I was doing, so I told him, and he gave me a $2 bill and said, “you’re going to need this more than me!”
I travelled for several weeks in Morocco years ago, and it’s still a very memorable destination. I was only in Tangier briefly, taking the boat from Algeciras in Spain—it immediately struck me as very seedy and aggressive, and probably part of its appeal to various western writers and intellectuals over the past century, combined with proximity to Europe, cheapness, and in the case of Foucault, sex with children.
I spent a very strange night in a dumpy hotel that was crowded full of African refugees preparing to try and sneak into Europe. If you ever go back, I personally think other places like Fez, Chefchaouen, Essouria, and even Marrakech are more enriching.
I have done some version of that recounting my day exercise, but it’s still just another kind of distraction. When we can’t sleep or be still, it’s because we’re distracted or not present, so distracting from a distraction with more distractions doesn’t cut to the root, IMO, speaking as someone who had insomnia for 6 months due to trauma in the past. A deeper exercise to ground you in the present, and away from self-neuroticism you can try is to look at the interconnection of things to be grateful and see how we’re not just our problems and activities—for instance, scan your body, be thankful your heart is working properly, visualize blood moving properly nourishing your entire body, then realize it is only due to innumerable pieces or air, water, nutrients, other organisms that makes this possible. But it can be mundane too, like: this is great I am sleeping on this bed, and someone made it, the wood came from a forest, that forest grew trees..etc.
Glad I found your Substack through your Elite Capture piece. I just wrote about returning to internet writing after about a 3 year break, so there's definitely something worthwhile in taking time off, even if it's just for a short while. Elite capture is one thing, but audience capture is another, and sometimes you do need to go underground to figure out what you want to write and how. Looking forward to reading more of your stuff hopefully soon, though.
Thank you, Chris <3 and I’m not going anywhere! Just need to stare at walls for a few days/a week and not force myself to write things that aren’t working lol. A microhibernation. But inspiration always returns sooner or later. Sorry if this doesn’t make sense lol my brain is simply fried
I also found Cydney through the elite capture piece, and I'm so glad I did
gorgeous and full, I appreciate the way you ran through the year, the breakthroughs, the fruits, and everything that carried you through. Congrats on your engagement! I also have to mention that I love the final little poem a lot
thank you!! 🥹 and very glad you noticed the fruits, my favorite marker of the passage of time
just came across your Substack and this is so beautifully written: slow, meditative, but not toothless! (which for me means unopinionated, with unresolved stances or convictions)
loved the reflection on blankness as a necessary prerequisite to writing interesting things and takes again
wow thank you! 🥰
Congratulations on your engagement and the lack of stone fruits! It’s nice to know there is a fellow Substacker in Northern CA. I also saw Asteroid City in a foreign country but with Czech subtitles, it made the story-within-a-story even more interesting. May your new year be full of inspiration and zest!
I was just having a discussion with a friend on how the days between Christmas and New Years feel almost like the world is holding its breath for... something and how I suddenly feel the need to do the same, even when my lungs are tired and have begun to ache. Instead, I’ve been using this period to rest and, a lot like you I assume, it’s more that my body and mind has forced me to as opposed to me choosing to take things a little slower. This year has been a wild one to say the least.
Merry (late) Christmas and Happy (early) New Year!
exactly haha I had creative plans for this week and yet that is simply not in the cards it seems. Oh well!
I’ve also allowed myself to do nothing in the past few days. It’s been such a bliss. I feel so exhausted and burnt out from the year, and I needed this. But of course, I already started thinking about how I can live more balanced so that I don’t get to the point of exhaustion; I guess all our lives, we contemplate and try and act on this question.
Wow, Cydney I just discovered Discussion Candy and I love it! You got me with the title 'Staring at Walls'. Because I call this 'Screen Saver Mode' — which is when my brain just needs to idle and I stare off into the distance until people start asking questions.
I later found out that this 'zoning out' is actually really important for our brains and our creativity. I wrote about it last year if you wanna check it out too - Your Brain Has A Screen Saver Mode (sorry not sorry for shameless plug). But your post talks about it so well here too. We actually NEED to stare at walls every now and then. No reading. No media. No more input. Only ..... space.... ahhh. I love it!
I also loved getting a little peep into your life. It sounds rather similar to mine in a few funny ways. Weddings, great food, strange bus rides, great conversations, gatherings and celebrations. As a fellow copywriter I'm very curious to hear more on your journalism take. It was something I considered studying myself but ended up taking a different route. I'm very glad you started this newsletter and looking forward to reading more!
I love seeing your year from the rear view mirror.
When I lived across the street from Golden Gate Park I used to bike across the GG Bridge about once a week, often to the top of Hawk Hill. Once I went further, bike camping to Pt Reyes and back. As I was waiting to cross through part of the Presidio, a guy asked to use my phone. When he handed my phone back and saw my bike loaded down, he asked what I was doing, so I told him, and he gave me a $2 bill and said, “you’re going to need this more than me!”
I travelled for several weeks in Morocco years ago, and it’s still a very memorable destination. I was only in Tangier briefly, taking the boat from Algeciras in Spain—it immediately struck me as very seedy and aggressive, and probably part of its appeal to various western writers and intellectuals over the past century, combined with proximity to Europe, cheapness, and in the case of Foucault, sex with children.
I spent a very strange night in a dumpy hotel that was crowded full of African refugees preparing to try and sneak into Europe. If you ever go back, I personally think other places like Fez, Chefchaouen, Essouria, and even Marrakech are more enriching.
I have done some version of that recounting my day exercise, but it’s still just another kind of distraction. When we can’t sleep or be still, it’s because we’re distracted or not present, so distracting from a distraction with more distractions doesn’t cut to the root, IMO, speaking as someone who had insomnia for 6 months due to trauma in the past. A deeper exercise to ground you in the present, and away from self-neuroticism you can try is to look at the interconnection of things to be grateful and see how we’re not just our problems and activities—for instance, scan your body, be thankful your heart is working properly, visualize blood moving properly nourishing your entire body, then realize it is only due to innumerable pieces or air, water, nutrients, other organisms that makes this possible. But it can be mundane too, like: this is great I am sleeping on this bed, and someone made it, the wood came from a forest, that forest grew trees..etc.
Cheers.