February 4, 2015

No New Content

This wasn’t a subject line I could have ever crafted, because it’s a horrible thing to see as a blogger, but it’s one I received today.

You’ve published no new content this week. 

Right there in the inbox. It was an email from CoSchedule, a calendar plug-in I use to organize my blog posts. At first I thought wow, thanks CoSchedule, for reminding me that I’m the most slovenly human in the blogosphere.

But then I thought well, this might actually be a sign from the Universe, giving me a nudge, because I’ve been really sad about not having written anything this past week.

Strike that, I’ve been writing, just not posting.

The reason I haven’t been actually posting though is because the stuff I write in the morning isn’t ‘blog post-ready’ by nightfall. It grows stale in my mind. When I look at my post hours later, it becomes a chewy tortilla chip. It’s got no crunch. And I can’t publish a post that’s got no crunch.

So what do you do when you got no crunch?

You talk about how your blog posts are stale, and you get real honest about it. No one likes a dishonest human, and I’d rather talk about how my blog posts are feeling stale than publish one that’s got no crunch.

Cause at least it’s the truth.

And speaking of chewing, these past couple of weeks have been rough on my chompers. AKA my teeth. I had a bit of tooth rot.

Okay, it wasn’t really rot, but it was an infection that formed from some dental work I had done, which resulted in me eating mashed potatoes and soup for almost a week, then having a root canal, and having to be absolutely sober for the past 8 days straight because I was on antibiotics (and since we’re being honest, the last time I went 8 days without a drop of liquor was when I was 20).

I so badly wanted to write about all of this but I didn’t know how to swing it. How do I turn the misery of tooth pain into a cool blog post that makes people feel better?

Oh, I know! Remind them how wonderful it is  to chew without pain. Because if you’ve ever had any kind of tooth pain, and then had the tooth pain dissipate, there’s so much wonderful relief involved when you’re able to chew again.

It all comes down of course, to the things we take for granted on a daily basis, which don’t need re-hashing in my opinion.

We all know what we take for granted, so I don’t want to spend the post talking about how grateful we should be. I’m actually starting to dislike the word ‘should’ altogether, but that’s another post.

For this post I can say, that at the end of every night this week, I’ve listed in my mind 3 things that I appreciated about myself for that day. A lot of people write down things that they’re grateful for, and I do too, but I’m practicing self-love more and more lately, and it’s important to always remember the good in you.

But it’s actually really hard, because the first things that pop up when you’re trying to think of the good are always negative. It’s so habitual, it creeps in every chance it gets, and often we don’t even recognize it. Today for instance, one of the things I appreciated about myself was the way I was able to drive home with less anxiety than usual. Check out the negativity that crept in though, listen, here’s how it went:

I’m super proud of myself for driving home today so bravely, with less anxiety than usual. Although I did have a moment at that one red light where I was really scared and nervous, and the whole thing just gave me a really bad headache and I wish I would just get over this anxiety already, I don’t know why it’s taking me so long. 

Negativity alert! Sound the alarm. The easiest thing in the whole world is thinking badly of ourselves. It was literally the very next thought I had. It’s like, oh here’s a thought that makes me feel good about myself, but wait just in case, here’s a thought that makes me feel bad. What is with that?

I learned on Hay House radio that if anyone told us all of the negative things we tell ourselves, we’d probably never speak to those people again, or at least get mad enough to tell them they’re wrong. We don’t let other people treat us badly, so why do we treat ourselves badly?

I haven’t got all the answers, but I have got a lot of thoughts. Some negative, some positive. What are yours?

 

Keep Reading

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How to Start a Blog (For Beginners)

7 Ways to Pull Yourself Out of a Funk

Monique Muro

Monique is an exceedingly happy human from LA. She runs the blog A Novel Quest, and writes. A lot.

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  • Cruz Espinoza

    I too have anxiety and I tend to do the same thing. I give myself some positive reassurance and then the negative comes sweeping in. It sucks. I’m always like, “Cruz you did so good on your flight (flying makes me sweaty anxious), your anxiety was not in control and I’m so proud of you..but when will this anxiety be over? will you ever be able to fly without feeling anxious?” You are so right, why is it okay for us to be negative with ourselves? Is it because we only hear it in our head and not out loud? I’m super sensitive when it comes to being critiqued by others, even if it’s just constructive criticism, I get so overly obsessed with “why would they say that about me?” I’m always scared to ask, “so what do you really think about me?” because I’m too chicken to hear the truth from someone else besides me..weird..

    • http://anovelquest.com Monique Muro

      Absolutely, and I think a lot of people have fears about what other people think, even if it is constructive! I’m glad you were able to give yourself at least some positive feedback after your flight, it’s so important. I’m learning that it’s just about accepting what is, and being patient about the healing process. In the meantime it drives us nuts though, I agree! Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts again! :)