Letters for Creatives #12: Go on airplane mode to help you relax
Time to put down your phone and turn off your laptop when you finish reading this
Hello, I am Celeste. Each week I write about marketing, creativity and writing. The first interview with a writer for Interview with an artist series can be foundĀ here.
Thank you Samantha and Steve for chatting with me about this newsletter in Instagram DM. It is priceless to have someone to bounce ideas around.
The archive of past issues can be foundĀ here.
My time on social media has increased probably tenfold since I started this newsletter. That is understandable. You need to put yourself out there, so more people can find you and your creative work. It became necessary for me to find a way to completely get off social media for a day or two to keep ideas and poetry coming.
Virtual airplane mode
Austin Kleon wrote about airplane mode and how we can be on virtual airplane mode. I went to a park that is facing Victoria Harbour. Since it is huge, I walked around, sat in different spots, stared at the sea for a while and immersed myself in Small is the new big by Seth Godin.
Godin writes really well since he has been writing every day around 2005. The craft can only get better when you do it every day. He teaches you a lesson about business or marketing through storytelling. Sometimes he would add some humour in there just to spice things up.
You can create airplane mode ritual to take a break from work intentionally. It can include going to a park, reading for fun, yoga or any hobby that is not related to work.
To make the experience of reading email seem less like work, I intentionally read newsletters on the browser, instead of Gmail.
Nostalgia
This beautiful film by Nathaniel Drew reflects on his relationship with social media. I certainly resonate with it as I started to feel that my self-worth is relative to the number of likes I get on Instagram.
He also managed to explain why I am obsessed with film cameras. It has a way to surface a bittersweet feeling of nostalgia, a fond memory that is in the past. The experience of taking a photo with a film camera and developing it is opposite to social media ā instant feedback loop and abundance of information.
Seth Godin reflected that something scarce has more value. With all of that, I started looking at my old photos and I never realized that I took some of them.
Noticing the quirks of everyday objects
It is time to practice your art of noticing when you feel that you are on the verge of burn out. Everyday objects become interesting as you put them together. Each object has its own quirk.
New ideas will start to surface. A new idea surfaced as I was looking at different packaging of pasta in the supermarket. Nothing is too boring when you have the intention to find something interesting in it.
Related:
Life lessons that Mary Oliver taught me
What to do when you are in a creative rut
I value your feedback, suggestions, constructive critiques, compliments, etc. If you have anything creative that you want to send me, send it to celestetsang@gmail.com
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