Instagram Reality Check
Trembling Aspen | Series 04_My Life Here | Issue_16
I spend, on average, 3 hours a day here.
In order to show up, now and again and in any kind of meaningful way, to these kinds of places, where seemingly ridiculous futures take shape.
In those three hours I meditate and journal. I hold space for whatever needs holding, finished off with a bit of yoga. I also walk at least an hour a day. It sounds all Power Morning™ like, but it's not nearly that structured. It's just a chunk of time I need to engage in practices that help free me from my addiction to Unhelpful-Ways-Of-Thinking. I do so in an effort to show up as my Unwounded Self, who trusts in generosity and abundance, rather than as my wounded-self, who is limited by scarcity and fear and therefore addicted to Unhelpful-Ways-Of-Thinking.
It feels like too much prep and recovery time. Also, I feel like I’m exposing some shameful secret by sharing this, which, in the end is why I’m sharing it. To call out the shame. If I’m feeling that way someone else is.
A friend shared her mantra with me: “Six to nine is my time.” First off, that’s AM, so yeah, she’s hard core. Second, that’s three hours! Someone else sets aside three hours of time for themselves, everyday! I’m not alone!
Maybe you’re not an introvert, or as f*ed up as me. Maybe that much time is just not possible. I’m not trying to add to the All Too Human and Universal Storage Room of Unhelpful-Ways-Of-Thinking. What I’m saying is, in whatever small ways you can, go gentle with yourself.
These are epic and wildly uncertain times. So let’s not let silence and shame about what it takes to get through a day in these epic and wildly uncertain times determine the outcome of these times.
Tend as faithfully to the places that allow you to show up for instagram-able photos as you do to experiencing your instagram-able photos.
Hey, I’m Steve, an artist-in-residence in Yokohama, Japan. I make collaborative art, participatory art, interactive new media installations, and abstract visual art. I explore themes of home, identity, belonging and how to live your life like a work of art. I write about it all in this very newsletter, Trembling Aspen.
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