Letters for Creatives #46: Perception, routine and change
Change your perception to change your life
Hello, I am Celeste. Thank you for being here. If you would like to receive Letters for Creatives, subscribe to receive weekly letters on creativity, mental wellness, mindset and more.
Take a look at August prompts if you are looking for writing inspiration. Previous prompts can be found here. If you become a free subscriber, you will have a chance to be featured. Tell your friends about the newsletter. If 3 of your friends become a free subscriber, it will double your chance ;)
Copy the link https://celestetsang.substack.com/p/routine-change and share it. Reply to this email and let me know if you and your friends sign up.
Looking out and looking in
Rob Walker reached out to McKinley Valentine and asked her about being conscious about our reactions to the external world.
You are observing things pretty much constantly, but most of it doesn’t register at the conscious level, your brain being excellent at tuning out ‘irrelevant’ data. I suppose that’s what noticing means, getting more of what you observe through to your conscious brain.
The process typically goes [from Observation to Emotional/Physical Reaction to Conscious Thought]. This is very, very obvious when you become suddenly scared at night, and then have to look around to figure out what freaked you out. But it also happens with small and delightful observations, which are accompanied by much more subtle reactions, a tiny spark of curiosity maybe.
You might miss the initial Observation, but you get a second chance to catch it if you can notice your micro-emotion and trace it back to the source.
Routine VS. Change
When we do the same thing over and over again, we have the same experience as the past with the same belief, behaviour and thoughts.
I seem to look for new things to try after tinkering for a year. This newsletter is one-year-old next month! But I am not going anywhere because I want to keep sharing what I find interesting in my creative journey and find on the internet.
I encourage you to start a new project for fun and do it for a year. You would be surprised where it takes you. Follow the voice that asked “What if I try this?”
Related: Inspiration Corner 3: Perception of self and the world (for paid subscribers)
Find brands to collaborate for your newsletter
Swapstack is a platform I stumbled upon by while I attempted to reach inbox zero. (It is currently at 700 and most of them are newsletter…) It is where brands find newsletter to place a classified ad for their company. Most of them requires your newsletter to have 1,000 subscribers to qualify.
Salt shining behind its glass cylinder.
Milk in a blue bowl. The yellow linoleum.
The cat stretching her black body from the pillow.
The way she makes her curvaceous response to the small, kind gesture.
Then laps the bowl clean.
Then wants to go out into the world
where she leaps lightly and for no apparent reason across the lawn,
then sits, perfectly still, in the grass.
I watch her a little while, thinking:
what more could I do with wild words?
I stand in the cold kitchen, bowing down to her.
I stand in the cold kitchen, everything wonderful around me.
— Mary Oliver
If you like reading this, share this newsletter on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Whatsapp or Email. Or you can copy the link https://celestetsang.substack.com/p/routine-change and share it wherever you want.
Become a paid subscriber to read exclusive Inspiration Corner, deep-dive essays on creativity and get early access to new poems from my upcoming poetry book.
Reply to this email and let me know what you think about the newsletter. I am always looking to make it better with your feedback. Thank you.
In case you miss it, catch up on these letters:
Monthly writing prompts are back
Seth Godin advice to aspiring authors and authors
See you next week,
Celeste