Month: July 2020

Break’s Over: Back To the Conquering of the Goals

jcladyluv

So I guess it is time to get back to the business of being productive. I wrote in last week’s post about knowing when to take a break and not feeling guilty for needing one. I said that I was probably going to take a couple of days to collect myself mentally and to refill the creative well so to speak. Well I took the whole week and I am so glad I did.

I didn’t even know how much I needed it until I was in the middle of the week and just decided that I was going to go the whole week. I read, I watched some TV, I read some more, I watched some YouTube as part of my research (okay I guess I snuck a tiny bit of work related research in there lol). I did not get out in nature like I could have but it was either really hot and humid here all last week, or there were flash flood thunderstorms. So yeah, I watched the outside from indoors.

I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t feel a pang of guilt when I realized all that I wanted to have out by the end of this year and what I needed to get done to get there. However, I stuck to the mental break that I had put myself on (okay most of the time, maybe not entirely, but I digress), and I truly feel a bit more refreshed mentally, and I feel more creative and I feel more aware of the things that I need to do going forward to make the rest of this year somewhat of a success (as successful as it can be during a global pandemic anyway) and there are some things that I need to reconfigure about my marketing and business plans and a few things in terms of re-publishing my first book that I also need to consider and I feel a bit more ready to handle the specific tasks that I need to do in order to proceed.

I highly advise taking breaks for the sake of your mental health if you start to feel yourself heading towards a burnout of some sort, or even a creative block. Perhaps even incorporate one weekend out of every month where you take a break from everything so that you won’t end up needing a whole entire week but however long you need one, breaks are necessary. Creative people can not function, non-stop without stepping away from your creative endeavors.

It has taken me forever to get this into my head that it is not wrong, it is not lazy, and it definitely is not selfish, to look after you! I wish I hadn’t had to learn this valuable lesson the many hard ways in which I did but hey, what is life without a lot of hard valuable lessons to learn along the way. So don’t stifle your creativity by putting constant pressure on yourself to always be on the go and feeling like you always have to produce something. Sometimes the most creative thing that we creative types can do is to just let the ideas marinate in our brains for a while until they are ready to be fully realized. Until next time… #BeMindful #BeAware #BeRestorative

 

Jimmetta Carpenter 

Writer/Editor 

https://write-2-be.com/

http://write2bemagazine.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJCCarpenter

https://twitter.com/jcladyluv 

https://twitter.com/write2bemag 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPU35EkFSbuxgekCp4LfI5g

 

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A Proper Mental Health Break Day Can Help Keep the Burnout Away

jcladyluv

So I’m not known for knowing when to take a break. I typically push and push and push until I completely am exhausted of all creative, mental, and physical energy. I do this because I have moments when I get in such a bad funk or depression where nothing happens because I simply can’t and then I get frustrated with myself because I feel like I’m wasting so much time (as if it’s that easy to keep depression at bay). Last week was a little off for me because since this Pandemic started I’ve been on the go and more productive than I have been in recent months prior to it.

I’ve been writing more and doing more for my magazine, and even started a YouTube channel. I’ve got books that I’ve set in motion to be released before the end of the year (at least 4 of them) and there’s so much to do in preparation for this and that’s what I’ve been working towards. Even my weekends have been filled with writing related tasks (I used to have a no weekends thing so that’s big for me) and I have actually loved just how creatively inspired I’ve been and just on a constant need to be doing something to further the goal. Last week, however, I just didn’t feel like doing any of that. It wasn’t like my mind wasn’t still brimming with ideas and the need to keep pushing but it seemed the harder I tried to push through the more I felt like I just couldn’t do any of it. It wasn’t a depressed feeling because I know what that feels like.

I wasn’t sure what this was but then I attended the virtual writing retreat this weekend, Evergreen Writing Oasis, via YouTube and the first day of the event they talked about burnout (which is not the same as depression however one can feed into the other). I was beginning to feel burnout and that is not something that I can afford to have right now. In the event they spoke about ways to combat burnout, but also ways to maybe try and head the burnout off when you begin to recognize that’s what’s coming. This made me think of my own advice in one of my videos about filling the creative well and I had decided to go ahead and take the entire weekend and just enjoy the virtual writing retreat and just attend the panels, read, and watch TV.

I thought that would allow me to start this week off right and vibrant and refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. Yeah that’s not what happened because I’m still feeling a little blah and I still feel like I need to refill the well so to speak. So my initial thought was okay so this is going to be a week long thing and I’m just going to make this a mental health week and that may still be what it ends up being but for now I’m just going to play this by ear. So I did not make a schedule for this week (not yet anyway) and I have not yet written a to-do list (I plan on it though—I think) for the things that would need to be done this week. I have a novel outline to finish (for Camp NaNoWriMo) plus a novel and a motivational book to get prepped for release along with two poetry books but I don’t feel like I can produce my best work feeling like this.

All of this is to say that Mental Health breaks are very necessary and we (and by we I mean people in general) should not feel bad, or frustrated with ourselves for needing one. If we are not at our best mentally than how can we be the best version of ourselves that we need to be? I hope you guys don’t mind me working this out with you all and that I’m not rambling too much but I just felt like someone else out there needs to hear that it’s okay to take a break. It does not mean that you are lazy and it does not mean that you are unaware of the need to complete the task and accomplish the goal. It simply means that you are putting your mental health first for a few days, or however long you decide you need that mental break for. Don’t forget to take care of yourself. Until next time #BeMindful #BeAware #BeGoodtoYourself

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

https://write-2-be.com/

http://write2bemagazine.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJCCarpenter

https://twitter.com/jcladyluv 

https://twitter.com/write2bemag 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPU35EkFSbuxgekCp4LfI5g

Reflection In Isolation

jcladyluv

I know this quarantine has been hard on a lot of people and now that things are seemingly getting back to business as usual (which I don’t feel that it should be by the way) people are beginning to go back to how they did things before the global pandemic. I find it difficult to believe that anyone can go through all of this, the experiences that it has put us through as a country, the emotions that we have felt watching some many people’s lives senselessly lost, without being changed in the way you do things and the way that you react to situations and just the way you treat people in general but I know that so many people will go back to just being however they were beforehand, unchanged and seemingly un-phased.

For me this quarantine has been a time to reflect and get things in order, or at least in better order than they were when we went into lockdown. I have been on a spiritual growth journey for a while now and I realize I still have so much more to learn and discover on this journey, not just about myself, but also about my love for God and more importantly about God’s love for me, his child. This time of isolated reflection has allowed me to really truly focus on the important things and to do things that I was letting fear stop me from doing before.

I was made more aware during this quarantine of all of the gifts and talents that God gave me that I wasn’t using for the purpose that He wanted me to use them for, or even to the best of my own abilities at the very least. I had been wasting so much time and all because of being afraid of the possibility of not having enough time to begin with. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? The old me, who I was before going on this spiritual journey and experience of discovery, would have been crippled by this global pandemic. I would have been overly paranoid, even more cautious, and honestly, given the financial situation that I was in before we went into quarantine, I would have sunken into yet another bout of deep depression and holed up in the bed barely taking care of myself.

However, the person that I have blossomed into has allowed the knowledge that I have gained spiritually through reading my Bible, my devotionals, and my every day conversations with God, to provide me with the peace that I need to know what I need to do in any given situation. And for the times that I still don’t know what to do, the peace of knowing that God does and that he will guide me and would never let any harm come to me that he didn’t think that I can handle. I know that it sounds crazy given the times that we’re in right now but I really do feel more at peace now than I have ever felt in my life.

It’s not that I don’t worry deeply for those who have suffered loss or for the safety of all of our children and family members because I do. It’s not that I don’t have any deep feelings about the social unrest that is taking place and the state of the black community in the midst of this pandemic because I do. I feel so deeply that I can’t even watch the news anymore on a constant loop the way that I used to because I like feeling at peace and I like not being in a reoccurring state of depression and what’s best more me mentally is to not see it every single day. I know that some people see that as turning a blind eye but I have my ways of doing my part, ways that God has led me to and guided me towards, but I have to maintain my peace and sanity to do it.

I have gotten so much out of this time of isolation and reflection and I want to take the nuggets of wisdom that I have been gathering along with the peace that has been residing within me and I want to encourage anyone who is not okay and who is heavily burdened with worry and fear and struggling to feel some sense of peace to seek that peace in the knowledge that God already knows how everything is going to turn out. In essence whatever is going to happen was always going to happen and as troubling as that may seem there is nothing that you can do to stop what was already predestined. What you can do is figure out what part you are going to play in the solution and in the aftermath. We all have our roles to play but we shouldn’t waste time on anything that doesn’t aide our purpose and that role. Until next time #BeInFaith #BeatPeace #BeEmpowered

 

Jimmetta Carpenter 

Writer/Editor 

https://write-2-be.com/

http://write2bemagazine.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJCCarpenter

https://twitter.com/jcladyluv 

https://twitter.com/write2bemag 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPU35EkFSbuxgekCp4LfI5g

 

There Is Reward in the Waiting

jcladyluv

I know that this quarantine has been especially difficult for quite a number of people. It’s been stressful and uncertain and I’ve heard a lot of people saying that they have had a hard time focusing, on anything. I truly sympathize with them and I can understand those feelings of insecurity in these times. However, if I’m being honest, this time has been not only a wake up call for me in regard to my entrepreneurship, but a time of reset and of shifting.

In truth if not for this quarantine I would have been homeless by now and it wouldn’t have been anyone’s fault but my own. I wouldn’t have had the time that I needed to refocus and to essentially hit the reset button. God has truly been blessing me throughout this time of isolation and reflection. The more time I have put into my spiritual growth and my devotional and prayer time with Him the more he has started to guide me towards my purpose and show me that He will always provide me with what I need when it is time for me to have it.

I have been more driven and focused in terms of my own business endeavors and getting my books ready to be published soon. I have started my own YouTube channel, which I can honestly say I might not have put aside my fear long enough to do but for this quarantine experience. In fact a lot of my fears (which are still present by the way) have been courageously overcome because I had no choice but to get past them. It was almost like my hand was forced and God put some extra courage inside of me to help me fight the anxiety and panic that I would normally feel when trying things I don’t feel comfortable doing. I have begun to feel some degree of comfort in things that I thought I would never bring myself to do. I have also caught up on some past debts that I had before going into quarantine and I am restructuring things, with some spiritual guidance of course, so that things can remain in a good place and continue to get better.

The message this past Sunday by my Pastor on the live stream reminded me that it is usually when things are becoming settled and seemingly in a good position when the temptation comes in to either get complacent or even to get too content and not push further towards my goals. There’s also the possibility that a wrench could get thrown into things and I could become tempted to quit or give up. Those moments will be the moments that I will need to hold onto my faith and trust in God even more.

I have held onto my faith and trust all of this time and I’m not going to lie and say that the desire to throw in the towel wasn’t strong at times but I am just starting to see the benefits to waiting on God and being patient in knowing that my timing isn’t always what is best and to rely on the timing that he has already preset for me. And because I know that God only wants the best for me and he would never allow me to go through anything that I can’t handle or push through then I know that even if today I were to suddenly be on unstable footing again then there must be a purpose for it and God must have a designed plan and that everything will be okay because HE said it would.

If you are feeling tempted to quit right now, to just give up on all of the dreams and plans that you have, or that you feel God has called you to, don’t. He would never give you a purpose and a gift for it to never be used. He doesn’t give you a destiny that He doesn’t intend for you to fulfill. You just have to remember that it’s not in your time, it is in His time and you can’t be tempted to give in just because your dreams require you to have a little bit more patience. Are you willing to “Wait For It? (and yes that was most certainly a Hamilton reference lol)… Until next time…#BeinFaith #BeDiligent #BePatient

 

Jimmetta Carpenter 

Writer/Editor 

https://write-2-be.com/

http://write2bemagazine.com/

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJCCarpenter

https://twitter.com/jcladyluv 

https://twitter.com/write2bemag 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPU35EkFSbuxgekCp4LfI5g