6 Helpful Thoughts Getting Me Through Right Now
Because sometimes we all need a little boost
How to Build a Life is a newsletter for people bang in the thick of life’s mess and mayhem, who are still trying to find the magic. It’s written by me, Laura Jane Williams, author of 12 (!) books. I’m almost 40, a solo parent by choice, decorate my house like a tart’s boudoir, and lift very heavy weights. Those four things are my entire personality.
My latest rom-com is Enemies to Lovers, and I am the author of teen series Taylor Blake is a Legend too.
I’m feeling a vibe shift right now.
On a bigger macro-level it’s undoubtedly the change in seasons, the shedding of leaves from tress, darker mornings and a background awareness of just how many days of the year we have left (90.) (Why should that matter? I don’t know, but it does.)
On a more micro/self level, there’s unsteady ground beneath my feet because of some pretty big ~personal growth~. Growth means new roots fighting their way through the mud of dirty ground. It isn’t easy work. It is not neat, or especially tidy.
I’ve been taking care of my body, continuing to lose significant weight, deciding to come back to the internet after five years away, launching this newsletter, buying a house, exploring my sexuality, changing the direction of my career (more to come on that…) - basically entering my “shine a light” era, like I’ve mentioned, instead of hiding my light under a bushel à la Laura of 2019-now. And it’s kind of terrifying as much as it is exciting.
I think that’s why they invented the word exhilarating? To incorporate both feelings?
Does Glennon Doyle cal it sc-ited?
If I was to go full “The Colour Monster” I’d say all my colours are hella mixed up, but in a good way. Like how the caterpillar has to turn to mush before it emerges as a butterfly, or you need a crappy first draft to get it all out before you polish your words into a workable novel.
I’m in the emotionally messy part of rewriting my story, where I’m all about what my pal Lucy calls the essentials, A.N.E.
And.
Nothing.
Else.
Sleep. Healthy foods. Working out. Solo dates. Snuggles on the couch with my kid. I don’t have the bandwidth for anything else. Like I say, maybe that’s autumn. But I also feel like it’s…not.
Last week I found myself sat in my car, on my drive, idly scrolling Pinterest, which aside from the app we use to share our workouts at the gym is the only social media I still use. My Pinterest is the truest reflection of me: exclusively English Country homespo, street style, and motivational quotes. So sue me! I am, how do you say, le basic bitch:
I’m normally an equal-opportunist pinterest-er but last week, sat in the car very much not going into my house, it was the inspirational quotes, pinned to a board I call, quite simply, helpful, that I lingered on.