Recapping a month of creative resilience
Day 31 (last day!) reflection on January's daily challenge
Today’s post is the final recap of 31 Days of Creative Resilience, a monthlong winter journey where we gently tended to our creativity ❄️
It’s the last day of January, and the last day of our monthlong challenge! WE MADE IT!
I’m so touched and delighted with all of the artwork you have shared with me this month. Your raw energy, honesty, and reflective sensibilities were so beautiful and really made me tear up a few times 🥲
Thank you especially to my paid subscribers for making this challenge possible. I loved witnessing you share, support, and inspire one another throughout the month. Take a look at some of the community’s creations below!
If you’ve been following along, whether through the free weekly prompts or the paid all-access version, please know that you can go at your own pace. Winter is a slow season that might not call for daily rigidity, so I invite you to take your time with the exercises and use it to cultivate spaciousness and reflection.
Below is a recap of the month’s prompts along with links for those continuing to work through the exercises. Access to the month’s prompts and community comments are exclusive to paid subscribers.
If you’d like to work through the prompts at your own pace during this contemplative season, the posts will remain available until March 30 (end of winter). You can join for $6/month or $50/year for full access.
31 Days of Creative Resilience prompts
Feedback & reflection
If you’ve participated in 31 Days of Creative Resilience (even for one day!) I would LOVE to get your feedback. Your insights will help me shape future iterations to better support the creative community 💛 Thank you so much in advance!
I’ve been reflecting on my own experiences with the challenge as I’ve been following it alongside you. Working through my own prompts has helped me confront the very challenges I’ve been offering guidance on. One takeaway that really emerged for me was my ultimate dissatisfaction with the daily pace of sharing online, even in a “quieter” medium such as a newsletter.
During a season of usually going inward and tending to my own artmaking, I chose to lean into a regimented outward-facing practice. In many ways this was a fruitful choice—less perfectionism! more community!—but I also feel its toll on the depth of my attention and quality of my spirit.
That being said, I’ll be taking a pause from this newsletter in February to prioritize analog creation and to prepare for spring’s zine challenge. As a last digital hurrah before going into hermit mode, I filmed a rambly catch-up video where I share more of my thoughts around this decision.
One last announcement before I leave! For any fellow Substack newsletter writers craving a distraction-free platform, I’ve created a Chrome extension that hides the overview stats table, subscriber/stats tab, and notifications from your publisher dashboard.
This was a small hack project I created for myself that tremendously helped me stay grounded and productive while I was in and out of Substack every day this month. I’m excited to share it with you and hope it helps you out! Please share with fellow Substack folks, message me any feedback/bugs, or leave a review :)
Wishing you a relaxed and love-filled February, and I’ll see you in March!
Thank you for creating this lovely monthly challenge! While I couldn't keep up with the daily challenges for personal reasons (traveling and then getting sick), I looked forward to completing the prompts at my own pace. You have given me a lot to reflect on so thank you again for all of your hard work!
Enjoy your break Carolyn! xxx