Days 17 & 18

Day 17

I tried yoga again today—it’s a practice I used to love until one day I abruptly started hating it. A switch flipped in my brain and suddenly the sound of what I call Vinyasa Voice made me want to tear my hair out. You know the voice—the semi-mystical, a little flat, very fake way of speaking that a lot of yoga instructors teach with. The voice you know is fake because the second everyone says namaste at the end, they use their real voice again. Nothing can make me go from listless to boiling with rage like hearing someone say, “On your next breath, come out of child’s pose” with those unnecessarily elongated vowels.

All this to say—I gave yoga a chance again today. I went to a 75-minute “level two” class, which I took to mean the instructor would be more focused on physical challenge and discipline and less on mystical self-love meditation that lends itself to Vinyasa Voice. And he was! Perhaps unsurprisingly, being able to focus on the actual physical practice allowed my mind space to actually meditate. I walked out feeling really good.

Day 18

I’ve been checking in with the random advice being sent into this tweet all day:

Akilah Green @akilahgreen

I need some advice, but I don’t want to tell you what my problem is. Go.

There’s a lot of excellent advice in the replies, including:

• “If you were reading a book and the protagonist is facing the same dilemma as you, what are you yelling at her to do?” -@esmeraldaqyo

• “If you feel like you hate everyone, eat something. If you feel like everyone hates you, go to bed. Best advice I’ve ever heard.” -@RadicalWelcome

  • And the reply to that: “And if you feel like you hate yourself, take a shower.” -@heatherpruess

• “Sometimes we are a bad friend to ourselves and we need to make up with ourselves to make things right.” -@alexanderchee (yes, THAT Alexander Chee)

• “Remember: When you bury a body, cover it with endangered plants so it’s illegal to dig up.” -@klr68

• “You don’t have to attend every argument you’re invited to.” -@jaekae305

• “One I heard recently that applied to something I was pondering… If you can’t solve a problem, maybe it isn’t a problem.” -@Dougwyman425

• “Imagine no matter which option you pick, you made the wrong choice. Whichever choice you’re the most happy being wrong with is the one you do.” -@jordan_harper

• And the grammatically vague winner:

Is it telling me to eat cheese and then commit a sin? Is it saying to somehow eat sins? I don’t know and the mystery is the fun. Shared by @TopofthePhil but I’ve seen it across the internet; unsure of the original source.

Whenever I need to write a character being wise, I usually find myself coming up short. So I’m storing these wise words for a rainy day. Take what you need. ✌️

I started the Writer’s Notebook as a 28-day challenge to find joy in writing again. Traditionally, a writer’s notebook is a collection of observations, reactions, ideas, questions, memories, quotes, sketches, lists, snippets of moving language, or some combination of the above. (Sometimes they’re also called Commonplace Books!) Want to join in? Leave a comment below and I’ll check out your work!