39 Comments

Love your drawings and AI titles. Zen Head Scratcher is my fav. I hope you're taking an actual vacay to a fun location. Sending prayers, manifestations, juju to your pops. I have mystery health issues too.

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Prayers and magic warmly received! And I'm sorry to hear that. I'll send some your way too. I'm not taking an actual holiday at this time. Just a publishing break. But I'll keep you posted on that score!

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Enjoy the break!!

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Thank you! I will!

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My fav piece of art this week is for sure the path to magic - I think we all need this on a big poster board in front of us. I love the way you are honoring YOU. I'm heading off to Europe for 3 weeks so this works out perfectly for me! (hahaha)

My favs for the titles are 4, 7 or 10.

Big hugs to you!

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Oh that's fun! And it's extra fun that we both picked 3 weeks! Have a ball x

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I laughed out loud, (for real), on the titles generated by ChatGPT. What was funny to me in my warped sense of humor was number 4, i.e "Spiritually Confused: Sorting Through the Noise of Self-Help". Having had a few occasional episodes of delusional thinking, I have come out as a mental health advocate, as I can recognize my stinking thinking. I laughed when I thought I could use an altered version, that is, "Spiritually Confused: Sorting Through the Noise of Schizophrenia." :-) Sometimes I think I am the Great I Am. ( I AM NOT)!

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A couple of them made me chuckle too. And go you! The world could use more mental health advocates.

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I like Mystic Mayhem: Navigating the Chaos of the Spiritual Landscape - that sounds juicy!

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I liked that one too! Not sure about 'landscape' - but the rest, I like!

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There are so many personal development things that pisses me off. The idea that we can be whatever we want to be (really?), the idea of manifestation, that we should better schedule our lives, that we need to be more confident (especially women)...

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Thanks Luiza! I'd love to hear what exactly pisses you off about these things if you care to share? About the productivity one, it's one of mine too. Have you come across the 4000 weeks book? I found that suprisingly good, in that it turned the idea of worshipping productivity on its head in a cool way.

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This book from Oliver Burkeman is quite good, indeed.

And I guess I could write whole articles on each of those topics haha

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Oh boo! I was typing on my phone and it autocorrected your name without me noticing. Fixed it now!

Tag me if you write them!

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Oh, don't worry. The Belgians do it similar: Louiza or Louise. I'm used to it. ;)

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What a fun way to tell us that you're taking a break. It sounds like you're juggling a LOT.

I took a whole year off from writing Kindness Magnet. Yup. 1 year! I had planned to explore great kindness initiatives. But what I found what, kindness most often comes in small packages that create an ever expanding ripple effect. So now I'm back, refreshed, happy, and feeling kinder.

I love your artwork. It's so light and fresh....even if it does take you 10 hours to create! (Sorry about that....your pain is our gain!)

Any consideration for doing something about the Karma Kindness? 💜

Enjoy your time away.

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Thank you! And it's defintely not pain. I love doing it. I often do it while listening to music and drinking cocktails! Not drinking for the whole 10 hours... just a bit of deliciousness.

And that's awesome! It can be hard to listen to the urge to take a break sometimes. 12 months is impressive!

Talk to me more about 'doing something about the Karma Kindness? I'm not sure what you mean, but I like the sound of it...

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Thanks for asking about kindness and karma. Research shows that doing daily intentional kindnesses builds up a 'kindness bank account'. While the kind acts are altruistic, they create a relationship with others that makes them want to reciprocate as well as do kind things for other people. That's the ripple effect of kindness. It is the destiny of those who have a kindness identity, who practice kindness intentionally, to create a happy and fulfilled life. That is kindness karma.

....a bit challenging using my phone...I couldn't find this conversation on my laptop in Notes!

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Haha. Maybe that's because we're chatting in the post comments instead of notes? Unless you 'restacked' it to Notes?

Between comments, and chat and now Notes, there's a lot of options!

And Karma Kindess isn't really something I'd thought about in the terms you described, but by a process of trail and error, I feel like I've stumbled into living my life that way anyway. Because it feels way better than anything else I've tried! It's nice to have the potential for exponential awesomeness going out into the world though - so thank you!

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Oh, now that is funny! Aimless wandering!

I'm glad to know you are caught up in the ripples of kindness. I bet you're a good swimmer!

Thanks so much for being awesome!

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And likewise to you!

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I LOVE the Sisyphus poop 💩

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Haha. You had me googling! That's my 1 thing for today!

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Medha -- I am in a break right now! Nothing changes for me as Substack is now a priority for me so I try to keep up.

Choosing a favorite drawing is very hard as they are SO CLEVER and are "worth a 1000 words" as the saying goes so your posts are longer than almost anything I read by that standard :) The juggler was awesome. We all have a different journey with how much we write, how much we polish the apple, how much/do we write in advance. After LOTS OF TRIAL AND ERROR, my kindness goal for myself is to ALWAYS have next week's post "in the can and scheduled" when the current one releases. While it may not be perfect, it is ready to go and that feels nice.

As for the spiritual, i am amidst a class/program about our place in the world and how we can effect change. I am loving it -- the most freeing part of the first 8 week session was a different way to engage with thought -- while there is more to it, embracing that random thoughts we often take to be stress are just random things because that is what your brain does. If this is not too weird of a comment I will check in again late tonight as I am amidst a day of fun.

My betting money is little or no response to this random comment :)

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I looks like we have the same kindness goal! Impressive that you've managed it. I'm hoping to join you in the next 3 weeks!

I love hearing that you were in a day of fun!

And I guess you guessed wrong - coz here I am, commenting away 😁

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Funny thing... I’ve just organised a 3 week break too! Markets (where I sell my creations) are not profitable in cooler months, and I’ve been feeling a bit worn down by the weekly, market/sell then create all week for next market roundabout that I’ve been on for 6 months! So I decided to do some catchup too.

Here’s to us ‘getting ahead’!

As usual, loved everything about your post! 😘🙏💖

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Oooh - are you selling your craft things? That sounds rather fabulous! Which markets are you frequenting (when you're not on a break)?

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I do em all…. M’ton racecourse, Portsea, the Briars, Yarra Glen RC, Chelsea, Berwick and the winter Soul night markets in Mton & Moorabbin!

It’s taken off fabulously….. I was worried about not selling 🤦🏻‍♀️ never considered being run off my feet selling out each weekend! 😘

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Well that's bloody brilliant! Congratulations!! What sort of stuff are you making?

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Decorated drinkware & layered paper art. I’m Gifts by Annelouise on the socials 😁

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That is super cool. Go you!

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I too have been considering just 'stacking' a few posts to give myself breathing room and a chance at other inspiration, but I've let life get in the way. I think your hiatus makes perfect sense. My favorite picture is you literally pushing shit, brava. And either Mind Warp or Mystical Mayhem are good. Just don't worry too much about the subtitle.

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Oh, I just noticed that I have the option to 'restack' your comment - does that mean sharing it on Notes? I haven't activated it yet, but maybe it's automatic?

And thank you. I need the spaciousness of it. I enjoy your posts too. Do yours take way longer than you'd imagined too? Or is that just me hehe.

I'm liking Mystical Mayhem the most atm I think!

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Yes, if you 'restack', the comment or post or whatever automatically goes to 'Notes'. We're auto-enrolled :)

I take a long time to write, mainly because I agonize and get distracted. I want it to be the best it can be but then I'm afraid to finish it because I don't know if I can. Sound familiar?

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Good to know. Cheers!

And I don't tend to agonise over it. I think it's the drawing bit that takes the longest. My writing style has always been 'throw in heaps of clay' and then 'try to shape it into a thing'. I'm gonna play with structuring something before I try to write it while I'm on my publishing break1

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I just, for the first time in my life, created a buffer. Reason being: I want to be prepared for my crowdfunding campaign as best as I can and the most important thing is my email list. I like the feeling of being on top of that, but I also find myself unscheduling and editing the same posts more often than I would like. Not really a time saver that way 😏

Good luck on your posting break! Can’t wait to hear what that was like for you.

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Oh that's clever. And haha, I hadn't considered that potential time-wasting reediting activity. But know that you have prewarned me, I shall be on the lookout for it! And thank you! I imagine it will be fabulously relaxed and spacious. Let's see if the reality matches the expectation!

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I truly hope you're enjoying your publishing break, Medha.

Although AI continues to freak me out since the 80s, some of those titles weren't too bad. Whichever you end up choosing, i think the more positive the title, the better it will sit with your readers. Zen Head Scratcher is a good one, cause it sits rather neutrally, as well as being humorous.

Love d each and every one of your drawings, as always!

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Cheers to crafting some amazing shiny posts! I relate to how much time and energy it takes to finish a piece. Each word and each detail in the drawings are important to your unique storytelling style, though. Thanks for quality work!

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