Hello, dear reader — what a week! But first, if you’re new and want to check out my previous issues, you can do so here.

For those who follow me on Twitter (or happen to share a certain Slack channel with me), you know that the past few days have been pretty terrible. I don’t want to continue to ruminate on all the very not great things that happened to pile up on me the past few days, but I did want to bring up the timely advice of my therapist, who I spoke to Friday morning right before everything started to go downhill:

Don’t only do what you think you should do, but do what you want to do.

After any sort of down period, I always tend to over compensate by doing everything I think I should do — from lemon water to meditating to working out. These things aren’t bad, but sometimes it’s not what you need, or maybe more accurately, not what you want.

So for the next two weeks, I’m focused on what I want to do, which can essentially be boiled down to create.

I have always felt like create/creativity was something so heavily associated with the fine arts that it didn’t feel relatable to me, someone with no artistic talent. Even for the years I played the violin, I didn’t identify as a creative person, just a person who played creative people’s music.

I want to try to rewrite this view of creativity — because friend, I think we’re all a little creative, and we certainly could all use more chances at being creative in our day to day. So check out my recipe below, see if any of it resonates, and let’s try to create.

Talk soon,

Emily

The Recipe Breakdown

Lemon: A need for creativity. It’s not always about what we should do, but what we want to do! And even if you don’t feel like you need to be more creative in your life, I hope you consider making some time for non-work fun time this week.

Ingredient #1: A creative guide. This is for those of us who don’t feel like they’re a creative type, for those who can’t just paint a sunset or bake a delicious cake on their own. Don’t be afraid — just use a guide! There is no shame in coloring books with thick lines, paint-by-numbers, or a step-by-step recipe guide. For my two weeks of creativity, I’m leaning into my desire to write by using a colorful bullet journal-styled book of prompts.

Ingredient #2: Guilty pleasure fiction. One of the best ways to get your creative juices running is to lean into the music, movies, and books that bring you unadulterated joy. Although I don’t love the term ‘guilty pleasure,’ it works to describe the type of material to consume to help support our creative juices. For me, this is going to be watching Riverdale (trash) and The Spanish Princess (less trash), listening to Taylor Swift, and reading some old school young adult fiction (yes, I just finished Midnight Sun).

Ingredient #3: Flexibility. I may sound like every musical theater teacher in a teen movie, but I take that risk: you can’t force creativity. So, if you’re joining me in trying to lean into your creative side these next two weeks, try not to schedule specific time to be creative (unless you totally know what you want to create, in which case, go for it!). Instead, keep your creative tools near, whether that’s paper and pen, paint, cooking ingredients, or an instrument, and pick it up when you feel the creative surge come your way. And allow yourself flexibility to practice as you see fit — even if that means stopping in the middle of a song or paragraph.

Want to talk about your own lemons, ingredients, or lemonade recipes? Feel free to reply to this email!

🍋 Lemon Zest 🍋

The Little Things that help make my days a bit brighter 💕

🎵 I get to see Colony House, one of my fav bands, with my partner in about a month from now and I couldn’t be more excited. If you like alt rock, I recommend one of their top songs I Cannot Do This Alone.

📝 The Purpose Planner is extreme in that it includes literally everything — and comes with multi-day email series to introduce you to all the content in this planner.

📺 Mentioned it earlier in the newsletter, but I started watching The Spanish Princess on my flight to Minneapolis earlier this month. It follows the early years of Catherine of Aragon, which fulfills my nerdy Tudor-loving self.

🌹 Friend, the rose water recipe from last issue did not work. I did not realize that it required fresh rose petals, so my dry, week-old petals disintegrated. C’est la vie.

💭 If you’re looking for a list of ways to get creative, try this article on expressing your “inner creative goddess” (their phrase, not mine).

💜 By now you probably know that I love abortion providers. This article completely opened my eyes on the underworld of unofficial providers and the amazing work they’re doing

☕ If you’d like to support my work and Making Lemonade, consider buying me a coffee or sending a few dollars my way via Venmo: @emmyfromminny! ☕