Workout Your Creative Muscle

Hello everyone, I hope you are having a good day ❤

As you might already know through my previous posts that it’s been a while since I wrote or edited any fiction word. Only in the Writer’s Log series while I worked hard on my blog, my own mental health and working on decluttering our home to simplify our lives… Only then the fiction words started to flow again. As if something was clogging my creative mood or creative flow, and when it happened I suddenly stopped being creative. When we started to declutter and figure out what we really want, I knew that the creative flow will arrive and it did.

Doing that may help to bring back my creativity but it also didn’t do much good. I should have workout my creative muscle, even if I didn’t feel much like writing or didn’t trust my words.

However, in this Writer’s Log, I learned that writing is just like any other muscle we try to workout on, and I should treat it that way. So I started showing up for my work and try to workout that creative muscle I’ve neglected for far too long, every day.

I may not publish a book until I’m 50 (which isn’t that far away, hehe), but I am sure that if I will keep this up and keep working out this writing muscle I may publish soon enough.

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” ― Jane Yolen

So how to workout that creative muscle?

Show up for yourself

As I said in my previous post: How To Show Up For Yourself, just by showing up will do more wonder than thinking or beating yourself up for it. I started showing up for my work. I opened my laptop and stared at the words (which I hated to the bone) and then I stared some more and after half an hour of not feeling it and not writing a single word, I closed my laptop until the next day and the day after that. Sooner or later words came out (good and bad, but they came out) and soon enough I started to love what was coming out and my creative muscle grew a bit 😉

Have a realistic plan

I used to plan my writing day, even when I had a busy and extremely exhausting day with my mom and from doing things around the house, which only led me to feel more disappointed and more aggravated about the entire thing.

But I’m the real blame here, I should have never plan to write 10K, 5K or even 1K in days like yesterday or days like we used to have. In days like these, all I need to plan is how I will rest, eat and heal myself (body and soul) but not write. Now for some writing can be a great escape of life so they can write even when life is stressful but for me it’s just like any other muscle in your body, if you overstress the entire body nothing will work right and more so my writing will be just shit (sorry for the language, hehe).

So having a realistic view of your life and a realistic plan of your writing day/hour is very important and will help you a lot out on exercising that writing muscle.

Nourish your creativity

Like on any workout you need to nourish your body so you can actually do that workout. Creativity is the same. You need to nourish your mind in order to make your creativity flow. All you need to do is what makes you relax and fill up that creativity well.

For me, what works is Reading, blogging, decluttering and organizing my desk, drawing, planning, looking at some pictures, and just walking around.

Enjoy that workout, make it fun 😉

By doing all these little things that each helps a lot, your creative well will feel up again and you will be ready to do some creative writing.

What works great for me is doing some writing sprints by myself or with others, journaling, free writing, doing some cool challenges (like I’m about to do over on my Patreon, go check it out). Doing things that will bring the fun back to my writing process and fill that creative well for a long while.

All these little things help so much with exercising that writing/creative muscle so much but I think the most important and will keep saying it as that is my new lesson this year, lol and that is: Show up for yourself and for your work – never give up.

How do you workout your creative muscle?

As always, thank you so much for reading ❤

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Writer’s Log: How To Show Up For Yourself (+Happy Birthday To Me)

Hello everyone, and happy Saturday to you all ❤

I can’t believe we are at the end of this Writer’s Log series, wow… This was such a fun series to do (I hope you enjoyed it too) and this last post falls right on my birthday week 😉 is an amazing way of finishing the Writer’s Log ❤

My birthday was on Thursday 6.6 and it was a very normal day at home, we didn’t do anything special as I mostly like being at home, hehe. But turning this much was a huge change that started to ripple its effect on me. overall it was a good birthday, I’ve received a lot of birthday wishes that made me very happy and I got to rest a lot – which made this birthday just perfect, hehe 😀

For the last (almost) 5 years of blogging I’ve learned so much on how to be more consistent with what I choose to do and just by showing up to do it. But I’ve learned so much while doing this series of the writer’s Log (almost 2 months), more than all the 5 years of blogging, lol, wow.

I’ve made this series to build up my passion for blogging again while I’m in constant chaos around me and I am so happy I was able to bring that spark of joy and passion to this little corner of ours. But even more than that, I was able to bring back the conversation again, something that I’ve missed more than I thought I did. You showed me just how much I do miss writing, blogging and sharing my boring life with you all, hehe 😀

But you showed me that the conversations that made their way in the comments were something I truly missed here and I am looking forward to our conversations 😉

Now, let’s get back to our post…

Here my 3 tips on how to show up for yourself and do what you truly want to do:

Know what you want (your goal) and do it for a short time

This helped me a lot, to just have a true idea of how I see this happen. Saying that I wanted to try this but only for a small period of time. (It was 14.4-6.6, so 54 days) So I set my goal to try to blog mostly every day for 54 days. Now I was sure I won’t be able to blog every single day due to all the other things I need to do in my life, but I did try my hardest 😀 and this brings me to the other tip…

Set a realistic goal

As I said in my previous tip, set a realistic goal for yourself and a very realistic timeline. Just by knowing what you think you are capable you automatically can predict if the goal you set for yourself will really work. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to post every single day but in my head, I was aiming for about 3-4 times a week to meet my goal.

There were weeks that I was able to meet this goal but there were weeks that I couldn’t and this happens but I wasn’t bitting myself up for it because I knew that life could do that but I still tried every day. This leads to my final and most important tip which is…

Show up for yourself and for your work

Showing up for yourself, which means if you chose to blog every day, sit down next to your computer and write some posts, or going through your pics… every day. Even if you don’t post every day, you are still showing up for your passion/work and you are doing what you need and want to do. If it’s research, writing, editing. You are there, trying to make it and trying to work on that blog posts. Just by showing up you are already ahead of the game.

This is something very new that I’ve learned by actually doing. I always knew this rule but I let life push me where it went so in most cases I never did what I wanted to do. Now this series changed my pov (point of view) on the fact of just showing up ❤

Saying goodbye to this series feels weird but I enjoyed doing this and I’ve learned so much. I can’t wait for the next one 😉

*** Btw, before I go… I am starting a new series over on my patreon so if you go and be part and click on your choice 😉

As always, thank you so much for reading ❤

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Writer’s Log: June Goals

Hello everyone, and a wonderful Sunday to you all ❤

Wow, I’ve just noticed that we are closing in on the end of the Writer’s Log series, only 2-3 more posts… Wow 😀

So I think you may already know but I failed in 2 goals in May, but I am so happy that I had the chance to write, declutter a lot of things, edit and meditate… Overall, it was a good month. I still hope to do better this month 🙂

Waking up at 5:15 am

LOL, I can already hear your laughter in my mind. But I still want to try… Waking up at 4 am didn’t go so well, so I hope that waking up at 5:15 will be a bit easier 🙂

Write 15K

I am slowly getting back to my writing and to my editing which feels amazing. I am more determined and much more willing to give up on everything in order to just write, edit and finish these books. So as you’ve seen in my Building a Road Map (5-Year Plan), I didn’t plan on writing at all up until June, because I wanted to focus more on decluttering and organizing but now… Now I am ready to get back and write and my goal is to write 15K.

Finish Reading

I’ve still haven’t finished reading the books in my May TBR, so I want to focus on that as well and finish reading those books.

Keep Decluttering

I want to also focus on decluttering our home, as I am far from finished, hehe but I will do it slowly as I am more focused on my writing this month. I want to finish decluttering our big white closet this month.

Blogging

After my birthday and after we will be finished the Writer’s Log series, I will know better on how much to post in June. But if you want you can comment below if you liked me posting almost every day (and work more on every day) or 3 times a week or less.

Journaling

Summer is here already with days of 38 degrees Celsius and we are yet officially entered summer. I want to pick up journaling again because this summer I don’t know why but it’s becoming much harder for me to function in this heat, and I know that as we push further to the hotter days of 45-49 degrees Celsius, I know that my illness will act up and I am afraid I will lose my memory again, so I want to make sure that I am well organized and start journaling now my every day, so if something would happen, I will already have a good reference to look at and not get to stressed.

Well, that is it for my goals for this month, there are a few hard ones and a few easy goals, but I hope I will be able to achieve most of them 😀

What is your goal for June? Did you choose something to focus on this month?  let me know in the comments below

As always, thank you so much for reading ❤

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Writer’s Log: Building The Road Map For Your Life

Hello everyone and happy Wednesday to you all ❤

This will be a bit of longer post than my usual Writer’s Log so grab yourself a nice drink (I’ll wait) and keep reading 🙂

So I think that most of you get a sense of who I am, but I am sure that most of you don’t know my age… In June which is my birthday month, I land on a number that both excites me but also scares me to death, as the life I’m living right now may be good but it’s not the life that I want to live as I grow much older. I love my family and my husband so so much but as I said before I need these changes to happen as I enter the second phase of life.

In June I am turning old, hehe, and growing old is something that happens every second and in most birthdays until now, the number made no impact on me, but this time it hit me hard. This time, I want my future to be easier and better for my family and for myself.

I want to have a better vision of my life in 2020 or 2025, I want to know that my life is leading in the direction I want and not let life push me to where it wants. I may be old than a lot of blogger and YouTubers out there but I still want and need to see my life as it should be and not as a circumstance of life that happened to me, is that makes any sense? (I hope so).

I pulled out my eraser board and started planning. At first, I just brainstormed all the things that are on my mind… What I’m worried about, my thoughts, my wishes and my plans for our future.

After that, I wrote down the entire 2019 month after month in my bullet journal. I started with a look ahead, how will be Galit in the next year, 3 years, and 5 years… what I see that truly important to me and what I really to see happen. This process was an eye-opening moment, to say the least. It made me realize what I truly needed and wanted. These are some of the things I need to start taking more seriously and find what I need in my life not just objects that I declutter or keep, but what I need to make out of my life.

Most of us don’t like to think that far in advance, but I have to and that is why after I’ve visioned and brainstormed my plans, I started to do them immediately, and things started to shift to the right direction. For example, my journey to live my life in a lower waste living (not zero) and being more mindful of what I surround myself with. I just wrote them as a goal but soon after that, it became my reality and the start of my journey towards a somewhat minimal lifestyle.

So after tons of rambling hehe, I decided to share these steps with you in hopes that it might help you as much (or even a little) as it helps me 🙂

1. Years ahead: Write a small yearly plan for the next 5 years. Yes, lol, that sounds a bit too much but I promise you this is the game changer. Trying to think that ahead. Think of how your life will be in 2025 (Wow that’s a big number) and also to try and plan in a bit of detail each year so you will know what to really plan for every month since now.

2. Months ahead: Write down the 12 months from this month (from now till May 2020), don’t wait for the next year to start and don’t even wait for the month to end. Think of what your life could be like the next year after you worked on the things you really want and need.

3. Details: Under each month write things you want to work your butt off in order to accomplish those bigger goals you wrote under the years. Sometimes life will change things for you but you can always adjust to your new situation in life and try to achieve the things that you can with what you have and where you are right now.

4. Weeks/Days ahead: Put inside your planner or google calendar the goals you want to work on each week, this way when you do your daily planning you already know what to do and all that is left is for you to just do it.

Here is my plan for the next 5 years 🙂

I started planning this in mid-February 🙂

I wrote in the middle of the page, 2025 because this is how far I wanted to plan ahead. and also wrote the year up until 2025 and under them wrote some goals or big projects I want to finish until the end of that year. From there I planned the months of this year accordingly as I already had thoughts of how I want my year to progress. From here I opened my google calendar and started planning my weeks in advance, and if something will interrupt my planning (as it usually happens to me, hehe) I just plan with that interruption in mind.

Even though I planned to start my writing/editing in June, I’ve already started to do some editing 😀 I think that by decluttering and planning ahead helps a lot with clearing my mind which helps me feel more creative and work on my book ❤

Oh btw, I saw a video over at Kalyn Nicholson second channel Koze about planning your next 3 years and we did the same layout, how cool is that lol. Anyways check it out, I am sure you will enjoy the video and learn even more about planning ahead 😀

Where do you want to see your life in 5 years from now?

As always, thank you so much for reading ❤

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Writer’s Log: What My Clutter Say About Me?

Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a good weekend ❤

Today’s post is a reply of some sort to a video I saw about minimalism and clutter. What would my clutter say about me? OMG. The thought of it alone is too much sometimes.

As Ronald said in his video, people in our life that love us… Mostly if not totally will say kind and wonderful things about us, but clutter will never lie and clutter will tell the honest truth even if it’s the last thing I want to hear, hehe. Btw, you should really watch his videos they are so informative and fun to watch 🙂

As I go through our belongings and sort our things of what to keep, donate or throw away, I see how it slowly changes my thoughts about our ‘Stuff’ but I never gave a thought of what the clutter could say about me, but I think that in my heart I knew.

So here are a few things Clutter would say about me if he could, lol:

• I am trying to please people and not myself.
• I try to live someone’s else’s life.
• I buy too many things I don’t really love or need when I’m too stressed and overwhelmed.
• I use clutter as some sort of protection (now this was a huge wow moment for me as I wrote it down in my journal… HUGE).

After realizing these things and understanding that I don’t want these things to be said about me, even if they are the truth of some sort, I still need this to change. I now have a better understanding of how clutter represents me and how I want my life to be.

This clutter that surrounds us all in some form is just another coping mechanism to the stuff that happens to us if its stress or sadness or any negative feeling we might feel. Even by just understanding this little bit already helps to put things in a better perspective and that leads to a better understanding of what I want to accomplish by decluttering this or that room. It makes things much easier to remove the items I kept holding onto “just in case” and move forward to the life I want for myself and for my family.

Anyways, just some random thoughts I wanted to share with you in this short post.

What your clutter would say about you?

As always, thank you so much for reading ❤

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Writer’s Log: Finally Writing

Hello everyone and happy Tuesday to you all. I hope you are having a good day ❤

If you been following these posts series of Writer’s Log so far then you know that I am working hard on decluttering our home as much as I can and try to more mindful of what I keep or throw and how much plastic I use, or even trying to figure out how to reduce our waste.

Since this Sunday I’ve decluttered over 2000 things from papers I organized to items we held onto for far too long and books. For my husband this process is a hard one, he really doesn’t like to throw out things (just in case he will need something, someday). I truly know how he feels because I was the same just a few months back, so happy that I am o longer in that place 😀

From time to time, our home is in complete chaos with all the decluttering that is going on, but I still feel lighter than before. I gave so many clothing items away, books and blankets that we already starting to having more space for the things that were left in our home. Finally, I can breathe, but I know that there’s much more to do. When we finally have every item in its own “home” he’s the right place then I will know that I get closer to what I want.

On the low waste department, I am doing better but not as much as I want. We got Brita the water filter to help reduce the plastic water bottle we buy each week, and today is just our true first day of using it.

Today I even wrote for a bit, and just jotted down ideas of some problematic scenes and it felt amazing. It’s been a while since I sat down and wrote or edited and I missed it a lot. It feels like a muscle just after a workout after a while that you didn’t work out, hehe. It was hard getting into it but after a few minutes, I was started to get into it and felt better after editing a few lines. With all the holidays, doctors and decluttering our home, I barely go sit and write or edit so having the opportunity to do that felt just right 🙂

Btw, almost finished reading Again but Better and so far I have mixed emotion about this book but I will let you know in this weekend in my review.

As always, thank you so much for reading ❤

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Writer’s Log: Failing But Keep Trying

Hello everyone, happy Wednesday to you all ❤

Hope your day is going well, and if not… It’s almost tomorrow 😉 A new day.

Recently I’ve been trying to wake up at 4 am and absolutely failing at it, lol. No matter what I do, I just get more frustrated with my bedtime routine and not getting up at 4 am at all. However, I did learn that most of my problem beyond stress is that my nighttime routine is a real shit (sorry of the language). I watch TV or youtube until 1 am at best and I barely have any relax time away from a screen.

Even though I consider this challenge a failure, I still think I would love to wake up a bit earlier than normal which is 6 am in most days. I would love to wake up at about 5:30 am and see if this way I will have a bit of time to eat something light and get ready slower without the stress of getting ready in the morning.

I do believe in a good night routine and I think that I need to work harder on creating a routine that will work… And this is what I came up so far:

1. Clean and organize for 15 the living room and kitchen.
2. Drink a glass of water.
3. Decide the clothes you want to wear the next day.
4. Make a chia pudding for breakfast (we love this).
5. Take a shower (don’t own a bath).
6. Creative time 10 minutes: Read/Journal
7. Set alarm to 5:30 am
8. Go to bed no longer than 23:00 without phone/TV/tablet.
9. Go to bed at the same hour, every day.

So this is my new and improved bedtime/winddown routine, what do you think? any suggestions?

I would love to read some of your tips for waking up early or good night sleep.

As always, thank you so much for reading ❤

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Writer’s Log: The more you have the happier you are

Hello everyone and happy Sunday to you all ❤
Hope you are having a great day 🙂

While reading this post’s title, what was your initial thought? Bullshit? So true? IDK? Maybe? Not for me? Hell yeah, more means success…

Which one of these is more related to you? For me, as an adult, I realize that as kids most of our parents, teachers, society and social media did us wrong. It doesn’t matter if you’re living in a 1 bedroom Apartment or have a 26 bedrooms house. If your basic needs are met that’s all you need.

In a world where everything needs to be better and bigger than what your friends have, know what truly brings you joy, happiness, and more importantly, fulfillment.

More is not equal to success, less is not equal to success… being fulfilled and happy is being a success.

I’ve learned that for me, more doesn’t bring me happiness, and even worse… It brings me sadness, disconnection and more stress to the already stressful life. Having bookshelves filled with over 500 gorgeous Books always been my dream, (to have a library in my own home) but now I’m there and I’m still not happy with my books.

Don’t get me wrong I love reading and the book smell should be a perfume for me, but having these many books, means having to clean them a few times a month (living in the dusty countryside) and doing that, just brings stress, anger and feeling annoyed to clean books, especially the ones I’ve read once and never want to read again, hehe. And this goes with other things like clothes, makeup, and even furniture.

I’ve learned that having more only keeps me away from my true passion, as I’m always stressing about cleaning, decluttering and reorganizing, again and again, every few weeks or months. What started as just a thought become a need and a journey towards a new lifestyle. I’ve realized this weekend that my writing always been connected to how stressful I feel and how I feel about my environment… No wonder I can’t write when I feel so cluttered.

However, I will end this with a great progress 😀 I started to rewrite some scenes that I was so stuck with them and now that my environment feels a bit better, my creative juices are already started to flow and I finally got out of the rut 😉 I wrote in two days about 4+K which felt amazing and the pages that I had major issues with finally looks amazing and the story finally feels like it’s going in the right direction.

Well, that is all for my ramblings in this post, I hope it wasn’t too much, hehe.

How is your week/month going?

As always, thank you so much for reading ❤

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Writer’s Log: Holidays Are Over

Hey everyone, happy weekend to you all ❤

I am so happy that the holidays are finally over. Yesterday was the last major holiday here and we can finally get back to some sort of normal life. I can’t believe it’s over (YAY!).

I was so busy with family, doctor appointments and friends during these holidays that I need a break, just be… So this first weekend feels even sweeter. All I want to do this weekend is rest and not move, hehe 😀

This week is a busy week but I am still so happy that the holidays are over and I can fall back into some sort of a routine and start pushing my writing/editing to the highest priority this month.

Btw, has any of you seen Lucifer (season 4) yet? It’s the best season ever, so happy they made this season, it’s amazing. I will not spoil you the show, but I will say again…

IT’S AMAZING

Also, started reading Again but Better by Christine Riccio the amazing youtuber, and so far it’s going great and I love her writing style ❤

Blurb:

Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents…sounds ideal—but Shane’s made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance…what’s that?

Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time’s a ticking, and she needs a change—there’s nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She’s going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure!

Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart.

Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic—the possibilities are endless.

Well, that is all for this short post, just a quick update 😉

As always, thank you so much for reading ❤

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Writer’s Log: Universe

Hello everyone, hope you are having a good day ❤

As you probably know already I’ve started my journey towards Low Waste and Minimalism, this journey will take a long time and from to time I’m confronted with the opportunity to buy more cute things and just let things be as they are (as some people tell me I should do), but just at that moment when I am debating on what to do the universe sends me a line, a picture or a “sign” that I am actually on the right road for me. It may not be for others but for me this where I need to go.

I used to be minimalist before I met my husband, my apartment was almost empty but always very clean and my room itself was small with just the bare necessities and always in good order and clean and I still have amazing dreams of that small room and even about the small closet I had with just a few clothing items in it.

I remember it so fondly because I was very productive, creative in that small room. There were some bliss moments like that in the old apartment (that my husband and I lived in) and I still remember the small piece of land I took in the smallest room, with only a table and a simple chair and every night I lit a candle and started writing.

Just yesterday, I’ve seen a YouTuber that I like to watch that has nothing to do with minimalism or low waste and I was struggling with some items (to keep or not to keep…), she started talking about the overwhelming of things and how she wants to start and change that, and I know it sounds cheesy but I literally started to tear up and I looked at that item and it was clear as daylight that I need to give it away, as it no longer serves a purpose in my life.

I love these little pockets of time that just hit you out of nowhere and send a message just for you. If you believe in these things or not, it really doesn’t matter… What matters is only the fact that the universe sometimes truly has your back and slowly steers you in the right direction 😉

That is all for today,

As always, thank you so much for reading ❤

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