#30: We Made It To Our Dirty Thirty Y'all
feat. tips on working through overthinking + also here's some flash fiction
Hey you!
The weather is warming up and I’m equal parts confused and excited. It feels like winter just started. But, the reality is that our good sis spring will be here very, very soon.
I’m a big fan of spring cleaning, but I usually declutter my physical surroundings a few times throughout the year. What needs more decluttering is my mind. Hella thoughts over here and most are in this big ol’ noggin causing trouble.
Lately, I’ve been trying to combat my natural tendency to overthink—and it’s been working. *gasp* In this issue’s writer’s log, I’ll be sharing my journey with y’all.
Also, happy 30th issue! Dirty thirty y’all! It’s giving consistency. Enjoy the issue!
Writer’s Log #17
I am a chronic overthinker, especially when it comes to my writing. I lose sleep over deciding inconsequential details like the name of my main character’s cousin’s mom’s girlfriend, or the love interest’s favorite breakfast cereal.
Overthinking puts my self-doubt into overdrive, slows down my creative process, and just isn’t cute—at all.
Recently, I’ve been trying different methods to minimize my overthinking.
My life changed when I found this first method, no cap
The first step is being aware of the problem and what triggers it. The main method I’ve used to gain internal awareness is meditation.
I cannot sing the praises of meditation loud enough. Even if I hit Jennifer Hudson levels, it still wouldn’t be loud enough.
I was first introduced to it through Sarah Wilson’s book First, We Make the Beast Beautiful as a way of dealing with anxiety. I think I read the book in early 2020. I started meditating using the free app Insight Timer and soon fell in love.
Meditation feels like I’m visiting my true self, the one that lives deep, deep, deep down in my soul. I’m trying to learn more about her through each passing day.
With each visit, I have an easier time understanding how my brain works and giving myself my grace when things don’t work out the way I hoped they would.
Understanding your own mind is hard as heck. It takes consistent practice. But I’ve learned that when I put in the work, my daily life gets better.
This is for all my easily distracted baddies
Along with being an overthinker, I’m easily distracted. All it takes is a glimpse of something else that’s vaguely interesting to take me away from whatever project I’m working on.
I’m the type of person that’ll hop on YouTube to research houses from a particular time period, to add some razzle-dazzle to my descriptions, and end up still on YouTube hours later watching compilations of home reveals from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
You can’t control every opportunity to get distracted, but you can control some—like your notifications.
If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and get easily distracted by notifications, I recommend that you use their Focus feature. I’ve had Apple products for years on years but only in the past few months have I used Focus.
Here’s a description of Focus from Apple’s official support page:
Focus lets you stay in the moment when you need to concentrate or step away from your device. You can customize Focus settings and choose when you want to receive alerts and notifications, while letting other people and apps know when you’re busy.
You can even customize different modes for different parts of your day, like when you’re working or going to sleep.
We pay too much money for these dang devices for them to be running us, dragging our attention a thousand different ways with notifications that are 99% of the time not important.
We got things to do, like tap into our beautiful creative minds.
If you’re trying to get over overthinking, don’t overthink it. Make a plan with yourself to learn more about why you be thinking so dang much, whether that’s through meditation, therapy, journaling, etc. Then, analyze your findings, be honest with yourself about what you need, and take action.
It’s obviously way harder than A + B = C. It takes time, effort, and a heck of a lot of tenacity. I still backtrack all the time. But, that just comes with being a human being.
Sometimes it’s hard to give myself grace, but I try my dang-est to treat myself with a certain softness. Give yourself grace during this process too. You deserve it.
My Brain is Basically 90% Music
As of writing this issue, I just finished listening to album #62 for my 100 New Albums in 2022 challenge—gasp. It was Vic Mensa’s new EP Vino Valentino. I’ve had such a crush on him since I heard his mixtape INNANETAPE back in 2014.
His previous project, 2021’s V Tape, was the best project I’ve heard from him in a while. Vino Valentino was dope too. It’s nice to hear him in his romance bag. My favorite song was “Can I Call U Baby”. I love how groovy the beat is.
Sometimes I Create, Sometimes I Don’t
Recently, I’ve been in more of a consuming mood. But, I have been putting in some minor book work, and I also finished a random little flash fiction story on Medium—here’s a free link to check it out!
A Question For You
Spring is a season of renewal—so it’s a perfect time to get your Marie Kondo on. What kinds of spring cleaning are you doing this year? Are you taking on your clothes? Your thoughts? Your relationships? Your collection of Seventeen magazines from the 2000s? Let me know!
Leave me a comment below OR send me an email at our fancy, schmancy new digital mailbox: ohwrite1@gmail.com.
Conclusion
Thank you so much for reading Oh, Write!
For more Oh, Write content, check out the Medium publication.
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Love,
Nia
Maybe a bit off-menu, but I'm helping my mom downsize. This seems to alternate between tedious to fraught, and back again, it also never ceases to amaze me how many things one can have (to be fair, there's also stuff from my late grandmother and stepdad there). Fr real, it's alike a possession onion, where just when i think a room's good, more stuff seems to fall out.