BRB: A Season to Cocoon
Finally doing something I've never been able to do before, in the spirit of Mental Health Awareness Month.
For the last five or so years that Mental Health Awareness month (this month, May) has been a notable conversation on social media, I’ve shared not only about my personal journey with mental health, but also my nuggets of wisdom, gleaned from those years of working with my mental health.
The thing is, while I’ve gotten more comfortable and adept at my tools to navigate my everyday mental health, I’ve never crested the seemingly insurmountable mountain of letting my mental health needs eclipse any career-related commitments I’ve made. Or if I’m being honest with my phrasing of how I’ve seen it for most of my life, I’ve never let my mental health needs “win” over anything work-related. The only training sessions I missed with my clients were when I was physically too ill to show up, and the only deadlines I’ve pushed were for extenuating circumstances that were beyond my control (including my lovely Endo). What I used to chalk up to discipline, is actually a crippling need to not let anyone down.
Walking the walk.
The last year of my life has felt a lot like a constant leapfrogging between lily pads, and only now am I realizing that I still feel like I haven’t been able to digest all that change and there are several other shifts occurring now. True to my nature, I’ve felt the need to keep running on the hamster wheel to avoid interruptions (and disappointing anyone), but the truth is ringing loud and clear— in order for me to meet the demands of these evolutions and to allow my mental health to do some catchup, some cocooning is required for this expansion. I need to walk the walk, instead of just talking the talk, as we so often get caught up doing on social media and public platforms like these.
That being said: I’ll be taking a small break from Sitting in a Tree this month, returning in June. I have so many ideas of where I want to take this newsletter, but haven’t been able to churn out those changes with my current work structure, so we’re re-working some things over here to move forward in a way that feels more aligned.
What will happen to my paid subscription?
I’m pausing all paid subscriptions (meaning, you won’t be charged for your monthly payments until the newsletter resumes in June! For annual subscriptions, this will push your renewal date by a month.), so you don’t have to take any action.
Before I take this breather:
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate those of you who have been supporting my work and writing here— during a time that is extremely weird in media consumption, it can be disconcerting as a creator or writer, because there are two truths: one, I believe people should be paid for their work, and two, it’s not feasible that the majority of us can afford to pay every single person whose work we want to support. So every single paid subscription, and especially the beautiful notes that come with some of them, mean THE WORLD to me that you choose to be here— I hope that these newsletters have brought you feelings of being seen, critical thought, all the goodness of the Weekly REPORTs I love so much…I can’t wait to return, with more to give.
Until then, here’s the most precious photo of my sweet boy, who just loves to sniff every single flower he meets:
Take care Minna 💕
Thanks for your openness and honesty! Sometimes knowing you need to step away and actually stepping away are the hardest things to do. I hope you get what you need to out of this time. Looking forward to what you bring back in June!