Genuine Encouragement For A Better World

I’m publishing a couple days early this week…I hope you don’t mind the change up.

But I had a weird day last week, and tomorrow is election day, and I think it’s possible you might need some of the same things I’m feeling in need of today.

So let’s see if we can get through this better together.

Late last week, I woke up to an email from a friend that offered some criticism.

It wasn’t harshly meant, but it simply happened to land in a moment where there were other hard things happening in my life and I was feeling particularly raw and vulnerable and sensitive.

I’m willing to bet you’ve had a few of those moments in the last few months, too, so I know you know what I mean.

I knew it was well meant and I knew I was taking it harder than she’d intended, but the truth was that I was just not in a space where I had much extra cushion to take the hit, even this relatively small one.

But here’s where things get better and what I really want to share.

I’d taken my crazy dog for a good walk around the block in the rain, jumped in the shower, resolved to get myself re-centered and re-grounded, and finally sat down at my desk ready to take a deep breath and get to work.

I opened my email to another note from a different friend, containing a meditation she’d just put out into the world and thought to share with me.

A few minutes later, yet another friend just happened to give me a call simply to say hi and see how I was doing.

And suddenly, the hurt feelings and armor I’d been wrapping myself up in all morning fell away and I was reminded that there are beautiful, supportive, kind, and wonderful acts of love surrounding us ALL. THE. TIME.

They can just be hard to see and feel and stay receptive to when we’re feeling a little beaten down by the world.

But there’s something that always, always, always works without fail to lift me up out of the dark moments:

Genuinely and enthusiastically encouraging others.

In the past, I’ve done this by shouting out folks on social media or leaving encouraging comments, but I’m taking a 3-month hiatus from social media right now (more on that next week) and that’s unavailable to me right now.

So I want to share a few awesome or fun or uplifting things that I know about or that people I know are doing right now in case they can bring some light to your days right now and because their hard work deserves a shout out!!

Before I go forward and share my list of awesomeness with you, I want to ask something of you: can you please try this today?

Can you try reaching out to a friend via text and letting them know that you see them, that you care about them, that you’re grateful to have them in your life?

Can you send an email or leave a comment for someone who inspires you either in real life or on the interwebs?

Can you share someone’s work that inspires you or brings joy to your life or has impacted you in some way?

It doesn’t have to be complicated.

It just has to be kind. And genuine.

Okay, so…in no particular order, here’s some awesomeness I want to share with you:

• This is the meditation that helped turn my day around. Rachel is doing incredible mindful self-compassion work both privately and systemically in schools in NC and her newsletter is something I always look forward to.

• My friend, Katie, gives the most incredible tarot readings and also teaches an awesome tarot class a few times a year. She’s funny, grounded, and insanely intuitive and uncanny. Treat yourself to a reading or follow her on IG for her weekly readings and rituals.

• Here are a list of novels I’ve loved this year (this is SO not exhaustive): The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Circe by Madeline Miller, Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Ember In The Ashes YA series by Sabaa Tahir (so excited for the series finale to come out in December!), A Court of Thorns and Roses series (very steamy YA fantasy) by Sarah J. Maas…yikes, I could go on and on here! I purposely did not link these in Amazon— order from your local Indy bookstore if you can!)

• One of my favorite blogs and social media accounts to follow (I’ve mentioned him before) is Brendan Leonard of Semi-rad.com — if you like humor, the outdoors, and a bit of lighthearted perspective, I highly recommend everything he’s involved with. (he was involved with this film I’ve mentioned before and I loved this one about How to Run A 100 Miles…short watches that will fill you with a bit of inspiration)

• The Instagram accounts I’ve been missing most during my hiatus: Humans of New York (if you missed the Stephanie/Tanqueray story that began Sept 20, go back and read all 33 posts…and the comments…it might be the only time I ever tell anyone to read the comments), Noel Russ (she wins the internet for best captions), Luvvie Ajayi Jones (she’s funny and then she wallops you in the best way), Glennon Doyle (her book belongs on the list above), Brianna Madia (for the love of dog!), Tabitha Brown (I dare you to get off her page without a grin on your face)…okay, I could keep going, but again…follow people who inspire you!!! It really is possible to leave social media without a comparison hangover.

• My friend, Jenn, is a grounded, fun, no-messing-around fitness guru and is insanely talented at finding a way to get anyone inspired to move. She has something for everyone and I regularly turn to her Blueprint when I need to get some movement in without leaving the house.

• My two favorite artists: Rhiannon Klee (that’s her piece behind me in the photos on my website…such stunning mountains mountains mountains) and Shelley Snodgrass (her art is tactile and rich and quieting…a calming gift in the same way Shelley is).

• Another friend, Maggie, offers beautiful yoga practices and tea ceremonies and meditation training…seriously, beautiful. Don’t miss her— she’s taken all her offerings online, so you can enjoy her from anywhere.

• I’ve been a part of the insanely welcoming Ninja Writers community since January and it’s been a place that I’ve turned to again and again as I’ve worked on my novel this year (I’m in the home stretch! SOOOO close to that finished manuscript!— this month!!). It’s the least pretentious and most helpful writing community I’ve ever been a part of and I’m deeply grateful to have found a place to learn and grow that doesn’t ever make me feel like I need to have an MFA to be allowed to ask a question. (Have I mentioned here how very little I’m impressed by pretentiousness? So. not. impressed.)

There are so many more people I'd like to tell you about.

So many people I’ve learned from or felt inspired by or am simply grateful are on the planet bringing their THEMNESS to the world.

And that applies to you, too. I’m so very grateful to you— truly.

This community has been incredibly generous to me as I've shifted from photography to simply storytelling my experiences living on the road to now including more focused messages from my perspective as a coach.

Thank you for being here, for sticking with me and rolling with the unexpected twists and turns.

I don’t know what tomorrow’s election will bring and I feel nervous and uncertain and so very cautious in my hopefulness.

But today and tomorrow and the day after that, we can be kind to one another.

We can support one another.

We can offer genuine encouragement to one another and hope that if we catch someone in the midst of a rough day or a rough week or a rough life, we uplifted them for just a moment and let them know that they were seen.

So I hope you’ll do it— I hope you’ll make an effort to reach out to someone today and offer them that genuine encouragement.

Let’s see if— together— we can raise the bar a little and bring a bit of joy to our own worlds and someone else’s.