001 The Sunday Supplement
Creative recovery, Six of cups, self-care journaling, Substack recommendations and love letters.
Hey babes, welcome to The Sunday Supplement, a weekly post about creativity, recovery and healing. A place for reflection, creation and affirmation. A place for curious souls to explore and ponder the big and little things in life.
Does everyone else feel like they don’t know what they’re doing online? I’m still working out what I want to put out into the world, partly because nothing feels original and partly because nothing feels good enough to be putting out there. These types of thoughts plague my mind more than I want to admit. I mean how original, another person talking about what they’re doing on Substack, on Substack. But I suppose that’s the problem right there, we are letting our minds get in the way of our creativity.
I deleted all other socials and moved over to Substack for a number of reasons, I was particularly fed up of being sold stuff and particularly fed up with the lack of originality (I know the Charlie XCX Apple dance without ever doing the dance) or depth. Furthermore, I had fallen into the trap of filtering all of my images and creating content that I knew got likes. It was harder to move away from my nearly (combined) 100k following than it should have been but it felt like I was giving more than I was taking. And for most things I do believe we should give more than we take but online I think that sentiment needs to be switched. I want to go online and be inspired and come away feeling like I have gained something, be that a thought, a new outlook, a recipe or a book recommendation. I don’t want to go online and scroll past 10 people selling me some shite from China that is contributing to the death of our planet and come away feeling nothing.
I wrote in my most recent ‘Lesson’s Learned’ post that the hardest part of leaving TikTok is having to sit with my feelings. Before, if I was feeling anything that I didn’t want to feel, I would lie on my sofa and scroll until I felt nothing and could go to bed. I am certainly not alone in this, in a group chat that I am part of someone wrote;
creativity is deeply feeling and intuitive, and for a while, I was doing anything in my power not to feel
I couldn’t have felt this any deeper if I had tried which got me thinking, why would I believe that I can simply start being creative? I have spent years numbing my feelings, and in turn my creativity, and that cannot just be turned on like a tap. With that in mind, I hereby declare that this stage of my life is my ‘creative recovery’ stage and as such I ask my readers not to expect my best writing but the writing I need to do to get to my best writing.
If you are feeling this too, I hope my musings help you to get over your perfectionism and to create, not to create your best work, but to create to get to creating your best work.
Six of Cups
The tarot pull for the week ahead is the Six of Cups which represents innocence, nostalgia and childhood. This card is calling you to find more time to reunite with your inner child. This might mean creating more time to play, spending time with loved ones or living more simply.
For me, I am going to be more mindful of finding joy in my creative expression and remove the idea that outside validation is needed. Furthermore, I am definitely in need of simplifying my life and this card has inspired me to create a simple meal plan for the week ahead to remove the need to make decisions or spend too much time cooking after work.
I would love if you share in the comments what this card is going to encourage you to take forward this coming week.
Journal Prompts
Journaling is something that could not appeal less to me before I started doing it. However, it is one of the most transformational self-care habits I have started so if you only take one thing from Sunday Sentiments let it be giving yourself 10 minutes (or longer) to sit with your journal and work through the below prompts. A hot drink, candles and blankets are optional but advised for optimal results.
How can I embrace the energy of the Six of Cups in my daily life this week?
Where do I feel called to take action this week?
What challenges might arise this week and how can I navigate them with grace?
Sunday Selection
I love everything
writes, she also has a publication that comes out on Sundays which I look forward to each week.’s series ‘Making my Pinterest board a reality’ is a favourite read of mine, I always come away with lots of inspiration.Last, but by no means least, I enjoyed reading
’s thoughts on self-care and aestheticsMy Creative Journey
Finally, I have been very into scrapbooking/junk journaling and I am still exploring the idea of healing through love letters to myself.
Thank you for this piece Laura! I love the idea of writing what you need in order to get to your best writing (I won’t be surprised if that is your best writing). I have the same struggles with social media and I never stay away from them for too long but whenever I slip back into it I get away from my creativity so I might take this advice. And thanks for the shoutout 🫶🏻have a great Sunday 🫶🏻
Oooof, I can totally relate to that part about using socials to numb out emotions and the stark reality of actually sitting with them instead of constant distractions. It's hard work to rewrite those pathways, but with that new space so much creativity can come in! Thanks so much for sharing my words and being so REAL! Much love!! <3