Although I expected it, taking a break from writing daily here last month did not leave me with so much to say that I couldn’t wait to get back to tell you about it.

Sure, I jotted some ideas here and there, but not the volume you’d think someone on a break would have. Once I ended my break by creating my first Instagram post last week, I started getting ideas on what’s next and how to build on what I shared. It was amazing to feel the creative juice flowing in my veins again. You know the one?

Do I regret taking a break? Not at all. I needed some slack in my life to adjust to the renewed and hyperactive semi-post-pandemic social life with summer visitors whom we deeply missed.

Here is what I learned in this break:

• Changing my routine took a negative toll on me, it left me with so much time to chew on negative and toxic thoughts.
• What kept me sane was journaling for pages at a time when I felt my thoughts got too dark.
• Also, calls with my friends felt like journaling and helped me express some anguish I felt.
• The longer I stopped creating, the harder it seemed for me to start again. This mainly applies to Instagram Reels. The longer time it’s been since I last did one, the colder feet I got to do a new one.
• I spent a good time marketing my content in Facebook groups, and it helped me move up the needle a bit on the number of followers, so that’s a thing I need to count for moving forward.

What I am currently trying is writing daily, but not necessarily posting on the same day. That was a lot of pressure. So, I still need to write every day, but maybe let the day’s writing sit and polish and publish a post I wrote a few days before. I started building a queue of posts and I hope this works.

–Note: The title is basically what Maya Angelou famously said: “You never run out of creativity. The more you create, the more you have”