What's in the emptiness?
Photo by Vienna Reyes on Unsplash
Welcome to Hella Immaculate, I love you.
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Things Making Me Feel a Part of Life, For Better or Worse
“Tuning into myself.” This is the goal I chose when I started that RESET course (“a cosmic tune-up for your workday”), which I linked a few weeks back. Basically, through some journaling and taking these classes, I’m figuring out when the fuck during the day I’m on, and when I’m off. And it’s starting to work! I have yet to align my work with my flows of energy (i.e. still watching a lot of Survivor during my hours of peak mental performance, yikes!). But it feels like the start of something big to be tuning in this deliberately.
Getting on vaccine email lists. I feel guilty saying this, but a big part of me doesn’t wanna go back to the world. Maybe it’s vestigial depression, but there are just so many obligations, and so much travel. I’m exhausted thinking about it.
Breathwork. Have you heard of this shit? I heard it floating around wellness circles and never fully grasped what it could be. It felt vague. But I did it last week, and it’s basically just breathing kinda weird for like 45 minutes while a kind woman coaches you and plays uplifting music and you utter weird sounds and then feel more connected to your body than you have in months. Recommend!
THIS WEEK ON MY PODCAST, THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE
There is no new episode this week.
I crashed after months of an unsustainable workflow (staying up Monday night ‘til 3am to publish Tuesday mornings), capped by my Zoom-heaviest week in quarantine.
Regular programming will resume next week. I’m using this week to rest, think bigger about what I want the podcast to be, and use my growing knowledge of my own resources to creating a more sustainable pace for myself.
[Just know how proud I am that I typed that last paragraph instead of this script my head is also running: I’m using this week to wallow in shame, beat the fuck out of myself, and tell myself missing this one week means I am destined never to have the career I want. So that’s a win!]
If, in the meantime, you want to check out back episodes…
Wamp Wamp (What to Do)
Take my favorite class to teach! Unblock the Artist Within is a course I designed to help kickstart your creative practice, no matter the medium. It starts Saturday, and anything else about it I say more succinctly in the tweet below.
Money an issue? I can help, let’s talk.
Know folks with marginalized identities who’d enjoy this sort of encouraging, intimate space? Let’s definitely talk.
Donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds, as part of their Annual Abortion Access Fund-a-Thon. NNAF works for racial, economic, and reproductive justice by removing barriers to abortion access for people who need abortions.
I donated $10. Reply with what you donate here, and I’ll report our total next week.
Celebrate! Last week, we donated $35 to the #StopGeneralIron hunger strikers in Chicago.
LET’S CHOP IT UP
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May I Play You a Sound?
I love SZA as a vibe and idea, and I fall in love with her every time I watch her videos. But there’s something about her hooks that eludes my brain. I just don’t compulsively replay SZA songs the way I do with similar artists.
So far, “Good Days” (which I know I’m late to) is the same, but I’m playing it a bunch to crack it. The world of the music (and video) is lovely, and you know I love the line “I’ve been on my empty mind shit.”
I know near-zero music theory, so apologies if I’m fucking up terms, but the minor-key-sounding intervals in the melodies give me Frank Ocean vibes. Yeah, definitely coulda just said “Frank Ocean vibes” instead of pretending to be a musicologist.
Two short breaths in, one long breath out,
DM