💌 Letters from the Rebuild #24

Treating Yourself Back Into the Work

There’s a thing no one warns you about when you’re rebuilding your creative life after trauma:

Sometimes the only way back into your work…
is to treat yourself into it.

Not in the cute “self-care Sunday” way.
Not with scented candles and a $6 latte.
Not with a new planner or a fancy productivity app.

I mean something deeper.
Heavier.
More sacred.

Sometimes the work becomes a place you associate with fear.
With survival mode.
With silence.
With blame.
With someone else’s storms.
With the version of yourself who had to shrink to stay safe.

And when that happens?

You don’t “fall behind.”
You don’t “get lazy.”
You don’t “lose discipline.”

You shut down.

Because your nervous system learned the lesson too well:

“If I focus on my work, something bad will happen.”

And in my case?

That lesson wasn’t metaphorical.
It was lived.

🕯️ This post is part of the Letters from the Rebuild series—my open love letter series to those of us rebuilding something sacred from the ashes. Career. Identity. Voice. Hope. These letters are the embers I send out into the dark, just in case you need to hear: You’re not alone. 🐦‍🔥