On Becoming Energetically Fluent

+ an energetic study guide to lead you to creative joy & greatness

Hello dear friend! I am writing to you from the sun-dappled, moss-covered forest of Woodstock, New York. It feels very special to be in a place of such rich artistic & cultural history, and I am holding the contrast of being here while many of my beloved writer friends are at AWP in Los Angeles (which, for those who don’t know, is an annual literary conference that’s akin to Coachella for writers).

I’ve never had an ounce of desire to attend AWP, nor to participate in the literary institution in the ways it demands: endless pitching, networking, and selling creative ideas for measly bylines or honorariums. The literary hustle has been recommended to me by every single mentor, literary teacher, and writerly friend I’ve gotten advice from—and while I know they’ve only intended to help (and I’m certainly grateful for it), none of it has resonated with me, or felt even mildly good in my body. I didn’t quit the corporate grind to replicate the grind as an artist. In fact, grinding as an artist actively takes away from the kind of art I am meant to create.

In a capitalistic world that demands art—and artists themselves—to become products, what might it look like for us to reclaim our birthright power of divine creation that is so much grander than the confines of these systems of oppression? Lately, I have been reading energy to find my answers.