Michele Venne's Blog, page 10

Finding Joy

My yoga teacher often said, “Nothing is revealed, except in contrast.” How do we know when it’s dark outside? The sun is absent. How do we know if we’ve healed from an illness or injury? The absence of discomfort or pain. In yoga terms, how do we know we’re in joy? The absence of all that blocks our recognition of our natural state. I’m usually a contented person. I don’t often get mad or…

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A Two-Day Streak

To begin a habit, or to break it, it starts with one. One day to walk around the block, or to read a chapter from a book, or to put the phone in the drawer during dinner, or to compliment someone instead of complain. For some people, that first time is the hardest. For others, the second time is where the struggle comes in. And that’s if everything inside and outside of us is going the way we want…

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Happy New Year!

Made it to the other side! Welcome 2024! It seems like I’ve been planning for the new year for a while. I ordered two dot journals, which arrived on Jan. 3, to try a different way to organize and keep track of the habits I want to create this year. No overhaul of my life or drastic changes. Just adding in a few things to reap some physical and mental health benefits. Would it surprise you to learn…

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Ready, Set… Breathe

I bought my 2024 calendar in September. Since May 2022, I’ve been grappling for balance in my work and writing life. For the last six months, I’ve read books and articles about mindset. I’ve journaled thousands of words. I’ve searched for a way to continue forward when I wasn’t sure what that meant. In November 2022, I was blessed with the best paid work I didn’t know I needed.

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Don’t Ask

Years ago, a friend told me, “Don’t ask if you don’t want to know the answer.” I’ve returned to this advice more than once, especially when I ask someone their opinion on a project or performance, or agree when someone asks if they can give me feedback. There are many reasons why I hold my breath and try not to cringe outwardly when I listen to or read their critique/feedback/opinion.

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Enough Time

Every day this week I thought about when would be the best time to send out the reminder email to my subscribers about the survey. I hinted that I might include a gift for them, but after ten days, I’m not any closer to delivering on that hint. The person who has designed the covers for two of the three projects I wanted to finish this year asked when I would give her the final page count on the…

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Pendulum

Maybe it’s the time of year, or maybe because I’ve been journaling a lot, but my thoughts represent a pendulum. I look forward to 2024 and think about what projects I want to publish, what goals I want to make, and how I might handle the uncertainty that looms ahead. Then I review 2023, consider why certain projects didn’t get published, what goals weren’t met, and how I handled situations.

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Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

It’s been a while since I’ve felt budding momentum ripped out from under me. If I was able to not let outside circumstances affect my inner landscape, my life would be very different. Though I understand this ability, I’ve yet to come anywhere close to practicing it on a regular basis. So my three days this week where I diligently applied effort to my projects was quickly derailed by the actions…

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Condensing for Clarity

I’m an analog girl. Information gets lost on my computer. When a file or a document sits for a while on my desktop, it’s like I no longer “see” it. Because I take handwritten notes from articles and newsletters that I read online (I know, a bit backward…), I end up with lots of pieces of paper. I sometimes file them or rewrite them into notebooks (with no title or table of contents…).

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A Shift Is Coming

Every industry changes. Sometimes that change is caused by a new school of thought or groundbreaking research. Other times, it’s an advance in technology. For the publishing industry, the last big shift was the introduction of the Kindle. Not only did it open the doors for ebook creation and distribution, but it allowed indie authors to take advantage of not having gatekeepers tell them what...

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