13 Comments
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Derek Lakin's avatar

I very much resonate with, "Whatever brings you back to being."

May we have the self-compassion to pause, breathe, turn inward, and remember ourselves.

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Allie Canton's avatar

May it be so!

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Nneya Richards's avatar

What a great read Allie! Exactly that. Especially being the child of immigrants that work ethic was drilled into you and it's a hard cycle to break. Even now, we're a generation of hobbies by default becoming side hustles. There is such strong millennial burn out because of this.

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Allie Canton's avatar

Oh man… the hobby -> side hustle pipeline is strong!! I’m struggling with this now with my Substack TBH.

Part of me wants to write for the joy of it and another part of me (who sounds suspiciously like my father) is saying “So where’s this going????”

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NEIL CARPENTER's avatar

Often times we don’t remind ourselves to chill out and have fun throughout the process. Allow the journey to be enjoyable. The end accomplishment isn’t as fulfilling as our minds make it out to be. This is a great piece AC!

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Allie Canton's avatar

Yes, exactly!! The joy of the accomplishment fades so quickly, that we might as well take our time to enjoy the process. And at least when it comes to creative pursuits, it seems that the output is much better when we take a lighter and more joyful touch.

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We Are Already Here's avatar

I feel this piece! It’s so hard to break out of an accomplishment-as- validation mindset and simply enjoy the process or joy of just being in the moment.

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Allie Canton's avatar

It's SO hard!! I'm seeing it here with Substack too. I *want* to just take a light touch and enjoy the creative act, but then my mind already jumps to "OK, but to what end?" or starts obsessing over how many likes I got. And then that obsessing kind of kills the joy I'd been feeling at just writing.

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We Are Already Here's avatar

I totally hear you! It’s hard because I don’t want to spend a lot of time promoting myself/building a readership, and yet I also want more people to read me, which means building a readership! But then I also don't want to get caught up in an external validation trap either! I'm just going to ALLOW and ACCEPT it all lol.

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Allie Canton's avatar

Yes!! Sounds like we should collaborate on a post — what Tara Brach taught me about Substacking. Kidding / not kidding 😉

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We Are Already Here's avatar

I listened to Tara’s Say Yes to Life meditation this morning and am currently listening to Radical Compassion on Audiobook. She is so, so wise. I’m gonna DM you so we can chat more!

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Amanda Jawad's avatar

I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so seen by a piece of writing. Thank you ♥️

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Allie Canton's avatar

Thank YOU my dear. So grateful to be on this journey with you.

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