Mindful Productivity & Thinking Tools for Highly-Sensitive Creatives
Welcome to my 2015-2021 archive of my blog on Mindful Productivity and Thinking Tools for highly-sensitive creatives. I’ve moved my current personal development work to TruthBeautyMeaning.com where I serve autodidacts, lucid dreamers, activists, and ex-gifted kids interested in creating a life of meaning through awe, wonder, and lifelong learning.
Please enjoy my past reflections here, or head on over to the new blog!
You’ll find the continuation of my mini-course Get Started, Get Going (where I introduced the Semi-Scientific Method of conducting daily Life Experiments) at the new address. Last time, I introduced how to use small experiments to face your fears, tune out the crowd and into your inner voice while building confidence by making mistakes. Curiosity > Fear © Heather (Ella) Birt, 2017
Think Like a Scientist: How to Develop an Experimental Mindset
Back up from your projects and interests. Take a look at life from the perspective of your higher goals. Isn’t your real goal related to taking in all life has to offer, to give and receive love, to connect with other energies, or with your deeper purpose?
We Don’t Have Just One Life’s Purpose
Life is short. We start off not knowing anything, and we continue on that way until we’re gone from this earth. As kids, we think we’ll suddenly know everything when we’re adults, but we never quite get there. Our entire life is an experiment – a learning laboratory. Embrace the uncertainty and enjoy the journey! Don’t be afraid to get messy.
Trust Yourself: Build Confidence by Taking Action
Thinking of life as an experiment where our only objective is to become more aware, or learn and grow will make our curiosity stronger than our fear. This is a really big perspective shift for some of us. We can let go of much of the pressure we put on ourselves if we look at things with the open eyes and heart of a child – eager to learn and excited to experience.
Our Unique Existence – The Power of Perception and Belief
“…convictions might be more dangerous enemies of the truth than lies.” ~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche What we see is rarely what we get. No two people have the same perception of the world. We're all inside our own little flesh capsule, using our...
How to Read a Book: The World of the Autodidact Series
Are you one of those people who not only enjoy studying but have crafted their entire existence around learning, research, and finding awe in nearly everything? Do you thrive when learning by discovery over learning by instruction? Me too. That's...
Is Ancestral Knowledge The Same As Intuition?
Beliefs and tradition can be a source of comfort and hope. We may adopt rituals and practices from ancient religions or ancestral knowledge to make sense of our current challenges, our environment, our relationships to all within and without. The...
12 Tips to Overcome Perfectionism for Writers
I’m embarrassed to share this, but I have 65K words in a Scrivener database and 80 unseen blog post drafts collecting dust in Wordpress. If I want to overcome perfection and finally hit "publish," then I've got some work to do. Hiding is painful,...
Heal Your Inner Critic with the Internal Family Systems Model
You’re sitting down to write and that darn critic inside your head starts with the same old attacks and insults. The inner critic knows exactly what’s needed to trigger your tender inner child’s worst fears of not being good enough, smart enough,...
Let Go of Control: A Brief Visual Meditation
Life is a practice in letting go. To immerse ourselves in the present moment, we must let go of control, and let go of stories that no longer hold true. When we practice letting go without resistance, we allow ourselves to flow with life. Letting...
Mindful Productivity for Highly Sensitive People and the Modern Mystic
To-do lists and schedules can be used as tools of control. That’s how it started for me. I had to wake myself up and get ready for school every day as a child. I started doing my own laundry at five years old and making my meals shortly thereafter....
How I Brainstorm – Quick Tour of My Business Grimoire
I love the glide of a fine tip, black gel ink pen on fresh textured paper. Writing this way feels like my heart and mind are pouring out through the ink in slow motion. When I need a blank canvas and no constraints, this is where I start. All of my...
Do You Self-Sabotage by Taking on Too Much at Once?
Do you self-sabotage by underestimating how much time you need to get things done? One of the biggest causes of overwhelm is underestimating how much time a task will actually take to complete, and taking on too much as a result. Before I paused my...
Release Perfectionism and Reach Goals Through Self-Acceptance
Perfectionism is a stealthy beast. It puts a strain on bodily systems and cripples self-worth. It's a fractured lens through which to see the world. The perfectionism lens can make us think we, and others, need to live up to specific expectations...
3 Things Every HSP Can Do to Finally Complete Creative Projects
Don't you wish you could just wiggle your nose like Samantha from Bewitched and magic would complete your creative projects? I've been trying to master that skill since I was in grade school. No such luck! It can be hard enough trying to start, let...
Overcome Information Overload and Connect to Your Intuition
Are you suffering from information overload? Do you have so many ideas you feel paralyzed and can’t start your next project? At this point, you can’t feel the difference between healthy realism and crippling self-doubt? Many of us get stuck in the...
Is It Healthy Realism or Crippling Self-Doubt?
People are always saying “trust your intuition,” but how can you tell when it’s self-doubt talking and not your inner wisdom? How do you know if you have a realistic perspective or if fear is keeping you from taking risks? Starting anything is the...
Don’t Let Sour Grapes Keep You From Enjoying Life
Have you ever heard the term “sour grapes” from the fable The Fox and the Grapes by Aesop? The fox in the story attempts to reach a bunch of grapes on an out of reach vine. He fails in his attempt, and instead of accepting his failure, he says the...
Develop Productive Emotional Habits through Self-Awareness and Intentional Action
Have you ever felt so upset by an argument with your loved one or friend it made your work-day suffer? You felt distracted, exhausted, and totally preoccupied with what you said or wished you said. When you went to bed that night, thoughts of the...
I Finally Figured Out How to Bend Spoons With My Mind
I had an acquaintance-type friend once who joined a spiritual spoon-bending cult. He told me about it at a backyard party. I didn't know anyone other than magicians took the endeavor quite so literally. While I've never successfully tried to...
Healing Advice for When You Feel Lost
Sometimes the answers are the easy ones, the ones that have been echoing in your head since the beginning. Clear the way for that voice. Release the habits that confuse or muddle that voice. You have a gift for creating meaning and finding beauty....
How I Learned to Focus My Chaotic Brain
Focus might seem like an elusive luxury of unburdened minds, but there are secrets to building the superpower of prolonged attention.
Make The World A Better Place With These 14 Tips
Staying committed to speaking up against injustice is crucial for us conscious creatives. We feel deeply connected and called to serve, witness and heal in whatever capacity we’re able.
Self-Criticism is Hurting Your Business. Here’s What to Do About It.
Have you ever found an online entrepreneur you were really jazzed about only to be bombarded with negativity masked as inspiration? They tell you the only way to happiness is to run your own business. Maybe they believe if you're not happy every...
This Is Why People Don’t Listen to Your Expert Advice
You're left exclaiming, "Why don't people listen to advice?!" It can be painful watching someone you care for go through hard times, especially when the answers to their problems seem obvious to you. You want to make them take the next steps, or...
How to Stop Being So Critical of Yourself
I remember watching my adoptive mother look at herself in the mirror and say, “I look like 10 lbs. of crap in a 2 lb. bag,” with her Queens, NY accent and her hands grabbing at her belly. She regularly beat up on herself emotionally. Every time I heard her, it broke my heart. When I criticize myself now, I know it’s her voice I hear in my head.
5 Ways Fear is Messing With Your Groove
Hours after the sun has tucked itself in for the night, you're still up - working on your latest business idea. You've got 2 outlines for online courses, the first 5 pages of an e-book, over a dozen half-written blog posts. You're so full of great...
How to Become Fearless, Feel Confident and Take Risks Without Failing
You will never be fearless. You will often have to fake confidence, at least at first. Without failure - there is no success. My fears have been what's compelled me to take risks. The more risks I took, the more confident I became. At 17, I...
Why a Daily Schedule Will Make Life Easier (and not a monotonous drag)
January has been an amazing month for me. I never had a morning ritual, or any kind of daily schedule or personal habits. I never make New Years Resolutions (since I work on improving myself all year round). On one level, I think schedules are made...