Creative work takes days of immersing myself in it. Right now I am trying to buy my freedom so that I can make art. If you understand me through this lens, then you will see why I have been less active in Steemit as I grow a coaching and counseling business locally. I am SUPER motivated about this, and working on it 7 days a week! However, this got me thinking about a few things I miss out on when I am here less.
Blogging went by the wayside ... but so did connection!
I was thinking about how when steem is low, that also makes me put blogging on a much lower priority than when it is high. And then I start missing something even more important to me than money! The cool connections that we make here. The friendships. The creative growth. So here is a blog post about my own thought process regarding art, friendship, connection, and Steemit...
Chasing dollars puts my art on hold..
Art is a process. Sometimes I spend a day creating something that I end up not liking at all. I learn a LOT in the process, and I thoroughly enjoy the process, but the "product" of those hours is financially worthless. Creative people struggle with this problem a lot. If the product ends up being worthless too many times, and you are dependent on that income, then it can be very daunting to set forth to do creative exploration. The exploration is so incredibly important. The process is so important but there is no dollar value on process. Hence less art is made when someone is struggling to pay their bills.
So I am caught in this catch-22 right now. I am trying to increase my hourly "value" with my other skills, so that I can buy time, so that I can have freedom to explore creativity in the natural, organic way that I need.
However! I sink into a depression if I cant make art for too long. So I am paying attention to this, and want to keep balancing it out when I can. I am not complaining about the lack of making art but just trying to illustrate how it is affected by my other priorities.
(If you like my art, then please consider supporting my other endeavors to raise money and thrive financially, because then you will see more of my art, music, and so on.)
Introducing Dflo DLive streaming !
Monday coach Dflo show....
I was going to just do language coaching on DLive, but I was feeling constrained by that. So what I am really going to do is create basically a radio show / podcast hour. I will show up each week, and talk about life advice, psychology, speaking english.. being an english coach... creativity, the brain, music... really everything that I am interested in. Please join me, or listen when you can!
Upcoming
I will also be streaming other times to experiment with other ideas. @clayboyn keeps asking me to read the phone book because he likes my voice haha --- while I might not read the phone book, I do want to play with some reading ideas. I might read from books to help you sleep, for example. So keep an eye on my blog to catch those. I will take requests!
When crypto is low, lets raise the connection!
I also had a great conversation with @vincentnijman the other day where we came up with some nice ideas for connecting over Steemit and Dlive. We are working on an idea to create some more ways to connect and hang out across the globe. Its one thing to skim a post like this, its another thing to hear each others voices, and its another thing entirely to actually get to hang out together. So we are brainstorming comfortable, easy ways to foster more connection here. Because that is what many of us really get out of Steemit, is these beautiful friendships and connections. So stay tuned for that too!
Thank you MSP and PAL for giving me a delegation!!!!!
This week I won a 1000sp delegation from the Minnow Support Project! I have to say, again here it is not even the SP as much as it is the fact that my friends have faith in me, and wanted to vote for me, and are just so encouraging and supportive. This means so much to me to be "seen and understood" here, even though I am a big weirdo, and even though being a single mom entrepreneur is taking all my bandwidth. Because of this Delegation, I will amp up my efforts to be more active daily again, and I will be looking for great stuff to upvote and comment on too! So please do engage with me in the comments. Don't ask me for upvotes but like, really just ... lets make friends. I love that aspect of Steeemit, and I do want to upvote my friends and use this delegation to pay the support forward. But in a real way!
Thanks to everyone who keeps supporting and encouraging me even though I am so absent lately. It really does matter, and I appreciate all the great influence you have all had on my life!!!
xo,
@dflo ASMR videos...
I think @clayboyn might be on to something!
When you say ASMR, what kind do you mean? Whispering? Talking in a low voice?.... Crinkling bags? I have explored ASMR but some of it is like nails on chalkboard for me because i am so sensitive myself to audio / visual sensory stuff. What kind is your favorite?
I was referring to ASMR videos of you just talking or reading.
Ironically, I don't see the value in ASMR videos. But what do I know? They're popular and you'd have at least one rabid fan in @clayboyn. That's gotta be worth something, right?
What is ASMR videos? I've not heard of that before.
Some people get sensory pleasure out of listening to certain sounds. The kinds of sounds that tend to give me goosebumps but in a bad way! But other ASMR is about just kind of hypnotic monotone talking, or product descriptions, or I dont know... its like a kind of kink but its not sexual usually. Its just something that makes peoples brains feel a little zing or something.
I think there is a kinky world of ASMR too. I have not really explored.
The kind I have liked is just someone droning on about something monotonous, talking. I cannot stand crinkling, lipsmacking, or other weird high end of the spectrum sounds, i get ragey! haha
I want to write all day every day and cultivate my fond steemit relationships but I too get stuck in the work to live/ live to work rut. I keep buying penny stocks and lottery tickets to speed up the process but it keeps setting me back. Also, there's vodka, and wine, and cigarettes, and self-doubt, depression, laziness, and my co-dependent girlfriend who wants all my time.
There are some great people to meet here on Steemit, but you're right -- what's sometimes missing is face-to-face interaction and meeting in person.
Yes people do meetups in the more populous areas but I live in a remote location and don't have that luxury. However this is one reason I want to try using web conferencing tools or live podcasting on DLive to see if that helps. It's worth experimenting....
Congrats on the 1000 SP win.! I dont necessarily think art and steemit do not hand in hand, I think it is more a matter of balancing it out equally to ech other mostly timewise.
But then again, I am not artistic myself so I cant really say anything about the creative process ;)))
Oh, its not art and STeemit. Its art and the fact I am working 7 days a week right now in real life. I am changing this but yeah my issue is I don't have free time to relax and get creative. I can't have free time unless I earn enough money each month to make sure I can keep my house and eat. I am freelancing essentially, a gig economy worker, as a coach, and so every day is a hustle. Its cutting into the energy I have left for art. Steemit is actually a super place for my creativity personally. I find it really beneficial and inspiring, and a great outlet, too! Thanks for the congrats! Trying so hard to make the rounds and make it rain :)
You're doing great and I really enjoyed chatting and brainstorming with you. Let's see if we can catch up again - if you still got a spare hour left - one of these days or somewhere next week.
We/ I might not be creating art right now, but that doesn't stop us to at least talk about future creation and collaboration. It's the juice that keeps us alive, so we don't dry out completely ;>)
xx
It's funny how the things we do to support us in what we care about grow to crowd out the reasons we are doing them in the first place. So important to keep checking priorities and rebalancing our lives!
Thanks to @ecoinstant, this post was resteemed and highlighted in today's edition of The Daily Sneak.
Thank you for your efforts to create quality content!
YES. This is so true. And thank you for the resteem! awesome!
Hi Dflo! Congratulations on your delegation! Don't forget to upvote your own posts while you have the opportunity, it'll help your account grow.
I would have voted for you but I missed the first vote post so I wasn't allowed to vote in the second round.
I have found that interaction on steemit, and on discord has become somewhat important in my life lately. The interaction improves my general mood.
I'm looking forward to hearing more of your music art, when you have time to work on it.
What time of day do you do your Dlive shows?
I do the DLive shows on Mondays at 11am MST. I forgot to put that in the post! I will edit. Thanks for the tip, I upvoted my post. I need all the help I can get right now, so I think I will do that from now on. Also yes thanks for the encouragement. My mood is actually really not so great today. I think just thinking about how long its been since I last made art is making me cranky!
Yeah, I understand about the art. I finally started working on some of my music again.
Wow nicely compiled..well done