Motivation Mondays: Hitting the Reset Button

After you’re done here, may I recommend this excellent Radiolab episode: Desperately Seeking Symmetry.

When I first started thinking about what to write for today, I felt pretty bereft. This has been maybe the most prolific few months of my life, and all of the swirling emotions and the crush of prolificness had me feeling a little bit drained. Also, I have the blues about 30/30 being almost over—it’s my favorite part of the year and I really am gonna miss everyone so much.

Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed/blue like that, I try to remember to fill the well a little bit, to take  some time away from producing work and just have some new experiences, not in the sense of Finding Something to Write About, but just for the sake of feeling refreshed. Luckily, I was away with my in-laws in Dallas, so it was easy to jump into my beauty-queen cousin’s Zumba class, or see what it’s like to throw peanut shells on the floor in a chain “roadhouse,” and attend my first ever ice cream social. (Which, how could that be anything other than awesome?!)

Neurologists have shown that even the smallest learning experience physically changes your brain. I certainly felt that as I was sitting on the plane back to Philly, spilling out all kinds of stanzas and paragraphs. ( In between rounds of Falling Block Game, the open source Tetris game Amy found me.)

Even if you can’t go to Texas and pal around with the Huckabees, Lawsons, and Douthits, little changes to the (in my case, BELOVED) home routine can be just as restorative. I very much look forward to walking the Wissahickon without headphones today and then visiting a library other than the one I work at. Little things like that can make me feel so optimistic sometimes.

I guess maybe I’ll write more next week about the end of 30/30, but if you have some ideas about how to keep that feeling of playful-prolific community going during the regular year, please do email me with suggestions. serotoninfactory@gmail.com