Hey, Cool Life!

This is about those days where you build little belief systems around every action. Where you think there’s a right and wrong answer to everything from what you eat to the order in which you do things. Those fearful, superstitious days where you’re convinced that just knowing the outcome will help you move forward despite knowing in your heart that it’s a recipe for total standstill.

Do you ever get confused when the work that is fluid and loose and maybe even a little easy isn’t the work that you intended to make? This is about how the work that comes most naturally may not be what you want to explore and how distracting and flummoxing the experience can be.

This episode is about competitive spirituality and cataclysmic thinking around recovery. And how “vague dressing” helps me get out the door on summer days when there’s too much pressure to be #Fashion.

This is about indecision, how you can feel dread around the right decision for you, and being superstitious about the “right” way to do creative work because of the seductive nature of the muse narrative.

Okay, so you might be a perfectionist even if you’re messy and slightly lazy. But you also might be emotionally immature as a person who was considered precocious since forever. This is about how to deal when you’re awkward and leery moving through the world because you’re conflict avoidant to the point of being people avoidant.

It’s dreary some mornings and you may be in your feelings and that’s okay. This is just a gentle reminder that feelings are not facts and that your version of a story can become more neutral and less painful with time. (As long as you don’t apply a thing to that feeling or try to “fix it” or seek revenge.)

This is about that negative headspace. Where you feel like you’re in the upside down or a sunken place of your own making because you regret a decision about work or where you elected to be. This is also about how to gently move through it, stay curious about what you can learn and channeling that data into gratitude.

How I prepare for overwhelmingly exciting, challenging and vulnerable events as an anxious introvert. (Aka: Book promo is a gift and a curse)

This is about bad days. Where you feel like you’re doing all the work and yet you still get walloped by large overwhelming feelings of shame and pain. Days where all you can do is find solace in impermanence and eventually find words to talk about it.

What do you allow yourself to want? And is it limited by the shame in admitting what you may not achieve? Or are your delusions of grandeur and magical thinking clouding the things you can truly work towards?

Addictions as parasitic organisms that have a strong biological imperative to survive. And how it’s surprising what materials they’ll use as fuel.

Is Instagram a necessary tool to keep abreast of your industry or is it a din by which you muddy your own voice and vision?

Are you a sleeper perfectionist? To where you’re not Type A but you get discouraged and abandon things if they’re not exactly what you’d hoped?

This one is about seeking help for abusing work as my eating disorder gets quieter.

Deadlines, taxes, skirmishes with reality. This is a small prayer for a tough week.

Phone calls chapter 2! Why we have to have them. Why you can’t fail at them. And how to get out of the obsession that the other person is judging you.

Phone calls! Chapter 1: How to endure the performance anxiety and the dread of that pop quiz feeling. And what to do!

Are you waiting for permission to do something? Is your answer no but your actions and beliefs say otherwise?

What if there’s no getting “better” at anything? Will you be free or will you bug out?

Warmer, warmer, colder, colder. A tiny, extremely useful exercise to locate your intuition in all situations.

More on deadlines. And how there isn’t one when it comes to wellness. Even if you’re impatient and it feels like your calendar/press/everyone else says, “optimize now or die.”

How calendar alerts don’t work for me except to cause panic about impending deadlines. But how blocking out appointments to do the work in my calendar makes me feel safe. More SUPER obvious stuff that I am just finding out. And how recovery is eye opening in new collaborations when you’ve never been able to hold down a job before.

More on money. Pay freelancers $200 every time you “pick their brain.” It inspires everyone to prepare for the meeting in an appropriate way and invites clarity and zero resentment around expectations and value. Plus, this is business! Pay your friends if they have to wear business hats.

Hey, Cool Life! is a #minipod about mental health and creativity from author Mary H.K. Choi. Episode 66 is about emerging from addiction and realizing you’ve been living in administrative squalor your whole career as it relates to scheduling, invoicing and where a random retirement fund is living. And forgiving yourself while being patient as you learn stuff other humans know.

Hey, Cool Life! Is a #micopod about mental health and creativity by New York Times bestselling author Mary H.K. Choi. Episode 65 is about why anyone in their right mind would be sober if they’re not an alcoholic.