The Pursuit of Happiness
Before we get started: This post was originally shared with my email community in October 2019.
I’ve been reflecting a lot recently on the idea of intentional living. I shared some thoughts with my community of subscribers a few weeks ago and thought I’d share them here too. If you’d like to receive letters like this to your inbox every other Saturday, you can sign up below. You’ll also receive two free photography e-books: Simple Snaps & Looking for Light.
I’ve been learning how to use Pinterest lately to increase my reach. It’s not a case of wanting to hit anyone and everyone with my content but rather, to make it easier for the right people to be able find me. I enjoy the challenge of learning something new and as you’ve probably realised by now, my content is pretty niche.
Over the course of this year my purpose has slowly revealed itself to me and I now know that my passion lies in teaching photography to mums to help them embrace creative self-care. So my pins are a mix of creative inspiration, photography tips and thoughts on parenting after loss.
I reached out to admin support on a Pinterest course I took earlier in the year to ask her about the effectiveness of some of my pins. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for constructive criticism but I wasn’t prepared for what she said next. She said that although my pins were lovely in their design, I wasn’t solving people’s problems enough with my titles. She suggested that I might change one title in particular to “Three simple ways to cope with loss”. Hmm. I thanked her for her time and told her I’d work on that.
The quick fix promise of the “how to” pin is so alluring isn’t it? But the truth is, we can often know how to do something and yet be forever standing in the same place waiting for change.
For me, coping with loss requires daily practice. A series of small efforts that when added up amount to something worthwhile. It’s creative living, helping many of you fine folk learn photography, gratitude practice, meditation, exercise....
And it’s not always easy to achieve. I have days when making time and space for the things that make a difference in my life feels easier than others. The imperfect balance of work, motherhood and self-care takes constant tweaking. But through the mindfulness of task and the feeling of accomplishment, herein lies my happy place. Big or small, success or failure, met with a crowd of nodding heads or tumble weed silence it doesn’t matter, that’s not the point. The most important thing is that I’m trying. Putting my best foot forward for a life well lived.
I wish I’d spoken up and told my admin support what I really think. Which is that there’s no quick fix for the things that affect us deeply. In fact, there’s no quick fix for anything in life that’s really worth having.
Suzie x
P.S. I’ve been trying out the Habit Tracker app as a gentle way to prioritise my self-care. I’ve turned off the reminders because I don’t need the guilt that comes with missing a day and just use it to frame my days with intention. I thought I’d share it here in case you find it useful too. Here's how my week shaped up...
