Nervous system reset

My dear friend, I hope you're feeling well. 🖤

It's been a few weeks since we last spoke, and I'm sorry for that. There just hasn't been enough for me to share.

I've decided to makes these emails bi-weekly or monthly, depending on how much I've got going on. Because the weekly pace was just too fast for me. Not enough happens in my little world on a weekly basis for me to send value-packed letters that often. 😊

It's more or less summer here now, which is crazy. I'm not a summer person at all, and always have to mentally brace myself when the sun and the heat comes. I don't cope well with it.

Where I live, around this time, the sun doesn't set until late in the evening. Around the summer solstice, it barely gets dark at all. And when it's also really hot, that's a special kind of torture for me. We don't have AC here. I almost panic sometimes, when I can't escape the heat and can't sleep at night. 🙄

So far, May has been comfortably warm, with a lot of rain, which is a blessing. I hope it remains that way. I hope the 30+ degree (85+ degrees F) days can wait until well after midsummer…

So what have I been up to lately then?

Mostly the usual script writing, filming, editing and uploading process I go through every week. Keeping those videos coming. 🤗

I had to take my piano down because I needed to fit my studio easel in here instead. (I'm planning a new studio tour soon where I'll show you around. 😊) I'll use the studio easel for the occasional acrylic painting, but mostly I want to use it for my charcoal drawings. I prefer painting watercolors on a flat surface, but for my drawings, I prefer a more upright position. It helps me get the perspective and proportions right. And I wanted a more permanent drawing + filming setup for my charcoal that's aside from my watercolor workstation. And now I have that! You might have seen my charcoal portrait practice video from last week. And there will probably be more charcoal related videos on my channel from now on. 🖤

Other than that, I'm ashamed to admit how invested I have been in the Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard trial over the past month or so. I've never been the least bit interested in celebrity gossip or courtroom stuff. Quite the opposite. And yet, I've been glued to this trial for weeks. Even though it's been dramatic and fascinating - kind of like watching a real-time reality show - I'm relieved that it's finally coming to an end today so I can get my life back. 😅

I usually don't follow news at all, or social media. So my nervous system has really taken a toll by this. I'm mentally and emotionally exhausted, and I'm planning a "nervous system reset" over the next weeks. To sort of get back to baseline with my sleep cycle and attention span.

Here's what I'll do:

• Put my phone and iPad away after work. No feed checking and no ebook reading.

• Read only physical books for a while.

• Walk outside more, to help my body acclimatize to the warmer season.

• Exercise in some form every day. I do a lot of indoor treadmill walking right now, and I'm just getting back into strength training again after months without it. Building strength always does wonders for my sleep and eating habits and overall wellbeing.

• Start taking cold showers again. Cannot recommend this enough, it's pure bliss. (Not during perhaps, but after!)

• Do my 15-minute pranayama practice in the morning and evening. I use an app called Pranayama by Saagara for this. (The older version called "Health through breath", not the newer ones named "Universal breathing".)

I'm very much looking forward to this little reset, and if you too feel exhausted after following the trial, or depressed by news and social media, or just feel out of sorts, I invite you to do this alongside me. My list contains just some of the things we can do to de-stress and rest our nervous systems. You can find lots more online. I recommend a podcast I've discovered called Holistic Trauma Healing, with Lindsey Lockett. Listen to episode 67: 9 Free Ways To Support Your Nervous System.

This weekend, my plans are to draw as many charcoal portraits as humanly possible. And spending the remaining time binge reading books on the couch, or outside if the weather permits.

I also might start my next watercolor bird. Look, I finally finished the Jay I showed you in the previous letter:

If you want to see the painting process, I show that in my latest video. 😊

That's it for this letter. We'll talk again in a few weeks, and I wish you the best until then. I also want to say a special thank you to those of you who have chosen to become paid subscibers. I can't even express how that makes me feel. Thank you so so so much. 🖤

Love,

Louise

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My latest things

I guest-appeared in my first podcast a few weeks ago! It's my fellow art YouTubers Kelsey's and Al's podcast Make Art Don't Starve, and you can find the episode here. We had a great time chatting about social media, art as therapy, and more. Highly recommend their other episodes as well!

On my own channel, I've published 4 videos since my last letter to you:

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Some other great things

Reading:

I'm in a fiction phase right now. Just finishishing the first book in Sarah J. Maas's Court of Thorns & Roses series, which I'm enjoying a lot.

Next up, I'll read Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles, which I've been wanting to read for a long time. So excited for this one...

Watching:

My YouTube history is an embarrasing mess of Depp vs. Heard related stuff and lawyers live streaming the trial... 🙄

But I'm also re-watching a lot of Jeff Haines's videos right now, since I'm drawing a lot of charcoal portraits at the moment. I LOVE his style of portraiture, and always watch a few of his speedpaints before I start a drawing session.

Here's a good one:

Away from YouTube, we're watching Better Call Saul S06, which is just 👌🏻 as usual.

And we're just about to give the new Obi Wan Kenobi series a shot (Reeeeally want it to be good but I'm bracing myself...)

Listening:

Like I mentioned above, I've been enjoying Holistic Trauma Healing, with Lindsey Lockett lately.

And I found some great music to listen to while painting: Studio Ghibli jazz on YouTube.