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I may have mentioned to some of you that I lost some posts (and pages) about a year ago, and I may have mentioned being worried about some spamming bots getting hold of the back pages of my site, which may have caused the disappearance of some of this data from thecreativehook.com. It may also have been…. The issue may have been (as a fellow uni student who was an IT major has aptly pointed out to me once, and I use this amply since) between the keyboard and the chair….

I mean, I use a blogging platform and website hosting options that I chose (12 years ago, mind you) because they are supported and user-friendly, and I can get on with what I know how to do: creativity and talking/ writing about my thought processes….

And things do change, with computers, as they do in life and generally with everything….

All things change, good and bad.

Taoism

I do worry about security, and so sometimes I read some guides and change some things with this website, like plugins that do whatever I need done. Still do not entirely understand what happens, and how, and what cache means and why I need stuff like PHP and debugging and link checkers… You see, I had a back-up option on, what I did not realise was that the backing up I was doing and trusting, did not have a restore option….

Do Not Even….

I get pulled into these mind traps where I feel I need to fix this error message, even though I have ZERO clue how to do it, and so I have been doing some (very little?) messing around and deleting what I felt were unnecessary versions of pages and posts…. To this day, I don’t know if there was an issue with spam trying to attack my website, or whether it was entirely user error…. No matter! Let us MOVE ON!

It is a long intro to the point of today’s post, people. My wondrous, wonderful, wandering worldlings.

Gather round.  I’m going to be bossy for a moment: because I love you.

Recently, I’ve found myself redirecting the language we use about ourselves.  Those tiny, throwaway, self‑diminishing lines:

What you do to feed your body and mind is self‑care, NOT self‑indulgence. Your brains are astonishingly clever. Your bodies are wise. They know what you need long before your conscious thought catches up. When they give you an uncomfortable or inconvenient feeling, there is usually a reason, a boundary, a need, a signal.

HONK!

I recently read a newsletter I would usually discard as spam.  The subject line, “we had the answer all along”, caught my eye. So, I opened the email from Growthstrategist.com and read the content (the second gate opened unusually).  The simplified point was that our bodies, brains, and psyches know what we need and want. No one needs to tell us.  We have the answer all along.

Yes, we need help for many varied reasons to find/ listen / accept the answer, or we may need help to find a way to action it…  Any good coach or therapist can guide you, very few (if any at all) would give you a list to follow.  And if/ when they do, how often do we follow their advice?  If it does not align/ sit/ go with what we wanted all along?

• So listen to it.
• Go with it.
• Trust that inner voice.
• You know.
• It knows.

I will get off my soapbox and get to the creativity now. HONK…

I could have easily stressed a lot more when I realised that the issue with my stuff being gone might have been my own doing. I didn’t. To be perfectly honest, I did not, because there was no time for that particular self-blaming at the time. And there was no time to really fix or rebuild any of it. I was in the middle of the final year of my recently passed degree (YEY me!), and I had zero space, neither actual physical, nor mental, to deal with any of it…. I safeguarded what I could, so I suppose I prioritised! That is very difficult for me, I tell ya! YEY, me again! And then, once I did finally feel some space and time, I looked into correcting and rebuilding what I could, and I am happy to share – most of the missing posts I was able to identify and they are back: YEY me, third time lucky!

Sometimes we get to the solution exactly when we stop trying to find it!

I suppose, on this occasion, and considering retrospectively, I took my own advice, and it worked out.

Suppose this is how it is for me with crochet, movement, singing, rave, and engaging in any of my personal, embodied, meaningful activities. These are the things that regulate my nervous system so I can hear myself think and feel. So I can understand and act on what my body/mind/psyche is whispering. And here is the part I have been thinking about lately: is language part of sensory integration/ regulation? Turns out, there is some RESEARCH suggesting that the way we speak to ourselves is not mere narration, the words impact our nervous system and can help regulate threat, safety and meaning… The words we use about ourselves are not just thoughts; they are inputs…  They land in the body.  They shape how our nervous system interprets the world.

Call something “self‑indulgent,” and your body tenses, prepares for guilt, shrinks.

Call it “self‑care,” and your shoulders drop. Your breath deepens. Your system says, Ah. This is allowed. This is safe.

I am acutely aware of the idiosyncrasy of a loud noise / Honk/ I am bringing here, while at the same time talking about softening our language towards ourselves. Maybe when we have a language habituated deeply, we need to shout/point/spot it before we realise what we are doing, and can heal what no longer serves us? When you soften your language, your body softens.  When you honour your needs in words, your nervous system recognises them as real.  When you speak to yourself with generosity, your whole sensory field reorganises around that generosity.

This is why I honk. This is why I ask/ redirect/ distract. To alert us to our self-talk, hoping to highlight patterns which no longer serve.

I am a crocheter! Even when sometimes months go by, and I cannot pick up a hook properly. I decided to share pictures of my current WIPs to show you some of the less polished parts of my work, which are also very important!

You do You!

Whatever you do to get meaning and purpose and joy from: creativity and order, nature and spirituality, connection, and solitude, for everything a reason, for everything a time, a space for everything. Your craft. Your movement. Your music. Your rest. Your rituals. They are not luxuries. They are lifelines.

So, if you allow me an indulgence of a tiny bit of advice:

BECAUSE (HONK?)

Thank You for reading!