I changed my mind...

and you can, too!

My dear friends, family, students, teachers, readers:

I changed my mind.

I thought I was ready to step away from writing more explicitly about yoga, that I was ready to dive deep into memoir and poetry land and never look back!

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to write about yoga; it was that I didn’t want to feel like I had to, or that I had to make it overt.

I wanted to be able to write about whatever I wanted to write about, and not worry if I was letting my students and yoga-loving readers down.

I wanted to write from the heart, grounded in the body, with a theme to keep me centered.

So, as many of you know, I gave myself an assignment: Write about a part of the body each week; post every Friday; make most of these posts available for paid subscribers only, because if people are paying you, you’ll feel more pressure to write and you’ll actually do it!

And the great news it, it worked! But not exactly in the ways I expected.

Through writing weekly-ish memoir pieces, I did indeed rediscover the joys of writing from my heart, while not giving a toot if my writing had to do directly with my day-job as a yoga teacher. By writing more consistently and creatively, I reignited a spark that had been suffocated by layers of rule-following and self-judgment. 

I also learned a few things:

1. I do not want to hide my writing behind a paywall. I want to make everything available, freely, and leave it up to you if you want to read it or not, and whether you want to pay or not (I’m going to keep creating anyway!).

2. Sometimes, I still want to write about yoga. Whether it’s philosophizing about a yogic concept, gettin’ down with a sutra, or getting jazzed about an upcoming workshop or retreat I’m hosting, I need to leave space to write about yoga - because I love it so very much, and think about it all the time.

3. I thrive with more structure, and fewer rules. If I give myself too many rules, I freeze and don’t create anything. But if I give myself consistent and reliable structure (like, say, 4 uninterrupted hours to write each week), I have the space to create, and to enjoy creating.

4. I will almost certainly change my mind about everything as time marches on; this fact does not negate what I believe now. Rather than toiling over the perfect plan and then following that plan forever!, I can plan, create, feel, adjust, rework, and evolve forever.

So I’ve removed all the paywalls from my previous posts. You can still be a paid subscriber, but instead of getting access to exclusive content you simply get to know that your monetary support is helping me create more art with more ease. (And trust me when I say that I appreciate it more than you know!)

I am also adjusting my writing pace to ~3 pieces per month. Some pieces will be directly related to yoga or teaching (living in the new Yoga section); others will be more memoir-ish/ poetic/ artsy-fartsy (housed under Memoir). Some months, I may even write a fourth piece; others, maybe I’ll only have the bandwidth for two. I’m trying not to plan out too many specifics, but I do promise to show up and write consistently.

As usual, I’ve written more words than I’d planned.

As usual, I pause, wondering if I’ve said too much.

But, as usual, I will say it anyway, as I remind myself that my intention is not to write a perfect letter, or to create a perfect website, or to present as someone who has figured it all out…

My intention is simply to stay connected.

And to remind you that you, too, are allowed to change your mind.

Okay, beautiful humans. Thank you for being here. I appreciate you. I’ll see you soon with the afore-promised creative piece about shoulders (unless I change my mind).

Love,
Abby

P.S. If you missed last week’s creative piece inspired by the prompt feet, and the above-referenced shoulder prompt, here it is. You can also check out the full and freshly un-hidden archives here.

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