Is it weird that I write better and easier under pressure? I am not sure what it is or why, but I can hammer out a blog post an hour before I had planned on posting it easier than I can attempt to write posts in advance. I think I have kind of always been like that though, I work best when I don’t have a lot of time to overthink about it and let my mind wander. I find it especially tough to pre-write my blogs when I have my kids - if you have kids you know that there are always a million other things to be doing or that need to be done. At this very moment my 4 year old is crying because he of course needs to sit on my lap RIGHT NOW, the minute I open my computer.

This week and last I have been heavy into preparing for my two upcoming Christmas markets. Markets and selling mental health goodies is basically where I started with this whole thing. I wanted to spread positive and uplifting messages and I also love creating. My favourite item that I make are my ornaments. This year I am making 800 ornaments for two shows and some online sales. It is very time consuming but it fills my cup right up, I love the process of creating something. Christmas season is my absolute favourite time to do markets with Jess Creating Purpose. I am a Christmas fanatic so it really just brings everything I am passionate about all together at the same time.

Another reason markets are good for me is that it puts me in an environment where I get to interact with lots of people. I get to share my message. Coming from a history of having a hard time interacting with strangers, this is quite amazing when I really think about it. I never would have guessed this is where I would be. It’s so important to acknowledge and give yourself credit for those wins, small progress or big progress - it all matters SO much. Doing markets has never been about making money for me, I can confidently say that is the least important part of it. It is about community, and spreading mental health awareness. That is the motivation for me.

Aside from Christmas time with my ornaments, I find it really tough to be constantly trying to sell people stuff. Might be a confidence thing, might be that I am just not naturally a good salesperson haha. But for some reason at Christmas time that all melts away and I thrive!! It’s really quite interesting. I give so much credit to those out there doing the thing and excelling at the social media selling and all of that. It takes so much hard work and dedication, anyone who commits themselves to growing something should be so crazy proud of themselves. I have kind of realized lately that I am a much happier and calmer person when I am not focusing on social media. I feel like it turns into a little bit of a race against time, how fast can you grow type of thing. For someone like myself that mindset is not great for my mental health. I do have so much to say and so much to share but as soon as it turns into a chore or it feels forced to post in order to “keep up” I lose my mojo. So while I do get joy from sharing on Threads and Instagram I am taking a bit of a step back right now to just post when it feels authentic and assess what social media will look like for me. I have started to notice on Threads too that it is becoming a place where ‘click bait’ or ‘engagement bait’ is becoming more and more common to see on your feed. It bums me out because it is so inauthentic and drowns out the real meaningful posts. I get it, it is my job to know the buzz words and phrases - but it is exhausting! My blog is where I get to dive into the big topics and what is the most important to me right now. Whether I end up with 1000 subscribers/readers or 200 it is always important to remind myself that I do this for me. Anyone feeling impacted by my words is such a meaningful bonus.

So for now I am going to soak in every moment of creating my collection for the 2024 Christmas market season and really focus on what I want to talk about in this space - my blog - in 2025. I feel amazing things coming for 2025. So lets manifest the sh*t out of that shall we?

Christmas markets, social media, and manifesting for 2025

When parenting feels like an emotional shit kicking, but there’s nothing else you’d rather be doing. (part1)

Two things can be true at once.