shakti energy and knowing when to embrace the rhythm of reading

This post is a special peek into the Rebel Diaries course content. I wrote this for the week of White Space, and it's one of my favorite pieces. Want to figure out how to write what you really want? Registration is open now for the course, and we would love for you to join us.

I am not an achiever. 

At least, not like Brandy.

Where Brandy will run her body into the ground working on her ideas. I exhaust myself by chasing the ideas in my brain and trying to create something out of nothing. 

It's my need for shakti-rhythm I think. Whenever I'm in that creative energy, I will go until I realize I can't go anymore. 

This makes Brandy and I really, really good team. Her Achievement coupled with both our needs for Innovation and Originality and topped with my uncanny ability to connect the dots with Intuitive Research? 

Golden. 

But I can't always be creating. Eventually, if I'm not careful, I'll reach within and come up dry. 

.::.

So there's reading. 

Reading has always been huge for me — when I was younger my uncle would call me Belle from Beauty and the Beast because I would walk around with a book constantly in my hands. I fell asleep reading, I woke up reading, and often in middle school, I would finish about ten novels a week. 

Part of this was my need for escape. My life was deceptively boring, and there was an internal storm I didn't know how to navigate. Reading helped. 

Since dealing with those demons, reading has turned into a way for me to unplug—to dive into another story and remind myself why narrative is so important to me. 

I build other worlds through reading. 
I understand my characters better through reading. 
I create a better business through reading. 

If I'm not reading, it's a sign. I'm diving into that shakti energy, but I'm not remembering the rhythm. And this? It's never good for anyone.

.::.

I'm not sure exactly when it started. I just know one day I was keeled over in exhaustion from the Story Sessions' retreat, and the next I was creating things left and right. 

It was the most exhilarated I'd felt since finished Somewhere Between Water & Sky. 

I developed a rhythm: wake up around 9:00, put on coffee, walk my dog, make some breakfast, and hit the desk at 10. I'd work and create and build until Russ got home, take a break, and then return to work when he went to bed. 

And then I'd work some more. 

This past Saturday I felt my body slowing down. 

I noted a few things: it was the first day off of my steroid regimen for an all-over allergic reaction; it was the moment of exhaustion I often feel the day after my cycle ends; it was the new moon and it was my birthday. 

I have to let go of some things. I kept thinking throughout the day. 

I have to let go. I have to make room for new. 

I went to sleep that night thinking of ways to start fresh. 

.::.

It's 5:40pm and I didn't crack open my laptop until about 40 minutes ago. 

All day long, I've been reading. I'm inhaling these words. Enjoying the quiet and already considering how tomorrow will be a day that I set aside to finish this book that's captured me so completely.

(In fact, when this post goes live I'll probably still be sleeping and I won't even check into the Facebook page until after a massage). 

I need to edit book two. I need to keep organizing my thoughts surrounding the shifts associated with Story Unfolding. I need to schedule emails for courses coming up within the next few months.

But more than those things, I need to breathe. I need to not create just for a moment. I need to not learn. 

By taking a beat and reading, it's going to remind me of the words still inside. And when I reach within to create whatever it is that's calling me next? 

I'll pull out my hand to find words waiting for me.

What are your rhythms? Do you have any?