PS. I like you is a newsletter for creative humans with self-doubt. Subscribe and read along to get answers to all the questions you didn’t know you had about self-doubt and making a creative life 🌿
The other day my client completed a piece of work that had been weighing on her mind a long time.
We talked about how she could honour the completion of that process.
Because what sometimes happens is that we mark something off our to-do list…
…but our bodies don’t always get the memo.
We need to complete the cycle. We need to give ourselves a more embodied experience of completion.
Celebration is one way of doing this. Ritual is another.
Or, you can simply take a quiet moment to not just reflect in a thoughtful manner, but to really feel the completion or significance of the event taken place.
After our call I took a few minutes to sit with the fact that this call we’d just had, marked the first of our ‘official six months working together’.
I wanted to honour (and ‘celebrate’) that.
Not with a cake, or even a dance, but to simply recognise that this was happening.
Sometimes we forget what is happening. We forget what we’ve created — or are in the middle of creating.
This is understandable; there’s a lot asking for our attention.
But if we don’t direct our attention, at times, to the things we’ve created, the things we have learned…
We forget all too easily. And discount them as if they never happened.
(And then we wonder what we’ve forgotten!)
So, if this is you — and you can’t remember the last time you ‘celebrated,’ I would invite you firstly to consider reframing, or expanding, your definition of celebration.
Celebration doesn’t need to be a whole big thing.
It can be small. And private. But no less significant.
I also tend to think of celebration (in private) more as an honouring. As a quiet time to connect with the experience of what has happened — and how that has impacted me.
The reason I do this is because I know how important it is to recognise your own growth. Both the disappointments and the ‘successes.’
When we recognise how much we’ve grown, we feel like we can grow again. We have something to build on. We’re not starting from scratch. Because we never are.
And knowing this, deeply embodied, is what is going to keep us going.
So, I invite you to celebrate. In your own way.
If you cannot celebrate/integrate your wins now, there is no reason why you’ll be able to do so in future.
Do not wait for your achievement to be ‘worthy.’
Don’t wait for permission or a gold star.
You get to celebrate now.
Do not wait 🌱
Love,
Kathryn
PS. I like you
You’re a deep-thinking, deep-feeling human being. And I know you have creative gifts to share.
But, I also suspect you maybe have doubts — about yourself, and your work.
And, if they are stopping you, if they are getting in the way and hurting you, please know there is something that can be done. You don’t need to live wondering if you’re worthy of creating. You don’t need to battle against yourself to earn permission to create this work.
You can move from doubting yourself, shame, and self-criticism, to a place where you truly enjoy your work. To a place where you truly enjoy yourself — your whole person. To a place where you and your work feels deeply delicious. And you don’t need to worry about calling yourself a failure ever again 💛
If you want to find out more, look at coaching with me. Or book a call to discuss.