Lordy, friend -

When it comes to this whole email marketing thing, I've taken up temporary residence in the land of "Do what I say, not what I do." Apparently.

It's been *consults calendar* eight weeks since my last pep talk, which is deeply uncool of me and will likely land me in more than one SPAM folder. (The Email Gods do not vibe with inconsistency. There's your marketing tip for today.)

It's not that I didn't want to pep talk you. I did.

But remember my season of Biweekly Bullsh*t? When Objectively Bad Things happened every other week for way too many weeks? Turns out that did a number on my nervous system, and I needed a wee reset.

I say "wee" reset because a "big" reset—like a three-month-long, me-only vacation to a mountain cabin—isn't available to me. So instead of shutting everything down, I had to create opportunities to simply... exhale.

Here's the thing about exhaling: It gets overlooked a LOT in our culture. Most folks I know are scheduled wall-to-wall and feel guilty if they aren't DOING constantly. We hold our breath and bounce our legs and grit our teeth and try to POWER THROUGH ALL THE THINGS.

I propose we just... knock it off.

I mean, I know we can't just run away. I know we can't just shirk our responsibilities. What we CAN do, though, is...

Pep Talk #038: Create exhales.

Given how life works, it's unlikely we'll just stumble upon exhales. We have to actively look for them—and even make them happen.

Here's what that looks like for me right now:
> I found a new therapist who doesn't blanche at an f-bomb. Turns out this is a super important element of the therapeutic process for me.
> I resumed cello lessons again after a 15-year hiatus. You should hear my "Dreidel."
> I let the Down Dog app tell me how to move my body for an hour, 5 days/week.
> I write Morning Pages every day.
> I stopped wearing makeup.
> I take a book to bed, instead of my phone.
> I mostly make my own food. NOTE: Take-out is not "bad," sugar is not "wrong," and "eating clean" isn't even a thing. I've been making my own food because when I don't, I feel like garbage.
> I've stopped eating meat. This is a moral exhale for me. I've been living against my conscience, and clearing this up has helped. (I sure do miss bacon, though.)

To you, these may sound less like exhales and more like to-dos. I get that. Honestly, sometimes they feel like that to me in the moment, too—like the exhale doesn't come until after the thing. But it always comes.

So I wonder: What exhales will you go after this week?

Shove over, Yo-Yo -

Kelley