Be soft on yourself, be tender with your spirit. This isn’t easy, it’s work. It is absolutely work for me to look at myself, to look at my patterns and my habits and my ways of being. The work is the process; they are interchangeable. On the other side of this work, though, is freedom, lightness. After all, it’s lighter than you think.

A daily task for me is drawing one of those cards. Before I read the booklet that explains each card, I ask myself what I see—what story is coming up for me and what messages are in it. You can have a notebook where you write down your findings each day.

am filled with fear, but the point is, I still show up and I still make things. It isn’t that the fear goes away.

There is no messing up; there is only shifting and rearranging.

I also limit the time I spend on administrative work. It shouldn’t take all day. What’s more frustrating than spending the whole day dreading and avoiding, when the task takes only ten minutes? There are a billion other things I would rather do than avoid the work.

let our body be our anchor.

I am grateful for . . . The freedom to make my own schedule The people who have come into my life through running a shop The skills I have learned by teaching them to myself The skills I have learned from others, especially through barter or trade The internet—although I have problems with self-control (see chapter 5). I am grateful for all the web

negative self-talk, I step away and connect with my actual inner thoughts.

and I love when my friends are deeply dedicated to their art making practices and small businesses.