HOW TO WORK THROUGH HARD THINGS
EPISODE 8 | JESSICA SWIFT
Are there things in your life that just feel hard, and you are having trouble moving past them? Are you holding onto expectations and things in your life that aren’t serving you anymore? Artist, Jessica Swift’s world completely changed when her husband Ryan died in August 2018 – leaving Jessica pregnant and with a toddler. As Jessica was grieving, art projects began to emerge. Today Jessica is going to share her story with us, including her grieving process, and how art has been helping her through this difficult time – helping her reframe her expectations and realize that she CAN do unimaginably hard things.
Jessica Swift is a 100% self-taught, full-time artist, surface pattern designer, painter and business owner, who has never had a “real grown-up job”. She hails from sunny Boulder, Colorado and currently lives in the Pacific Northwest in Portland, Oregon. In 2008, she discovered how to create patterns, and fell in love with the process. Soon after, she began licensing her artwork and created the popular online class & community called “Pattern Camp”. She also created “Campfire” which is an online community that talks openly about the real struggles members have in their creative process. Jessica’s transparent and authentic style resonates with her many followers, and I’m honored she’s sharing her story with us today.
TODAY WE WILL LEARN HOW TO
Follow our intuition
Do hard things
Let go of things that are not serving us anymore
Be open and vulnerable in order to work through things
Be gentler on ourselves
Let art guide us through our pain
TOP 10 HIGHLIGHTS
When you don’t have community physically around you, build it online.
Follow the next right move that presents itself.
Let yourself feel tough things because when you do, you will move through it and feel something else on the other side of it.
It’s ok to talk about hard stuff. You will likely feel better when you talk about it because you won’t have it locked inside of you anymore.
Be ruthless in your letting go of things that are not serving you anymore…and let them go as quickly as you can.
Go with the flow – let things be the way they are and stop trying to wish things were another way or trying to make them some other way. Accept them as they are and let go of your expectations and judgements.
Don’t worry about how things are going to work out, just trust that they will because they always do.
We get to decide what the next, right, authentic move for ourselves is.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help, even when you don’t want to.
Life is really about…love, taking care of your people, letting other people in, being in a community, trusting yourself and listening to your intuition, doing what feels right for yourself because why not? Isn’t that what we are here to do?
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, here’s some resources where you can begin to get some help. This stuff is real, please get help and don’t do it alone!
Al-anon – Al-Anon members are people, just like you, who are worried about someone with a drinking problem.
Narcotics Anonymous – offers recovery to addicts around the world. They focus on the disease of addiction rather than any particular drug.
SAMHSA – SAMHSA’s mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America’s communities.
FIND OUR GUEST HERE
GET REAL: PONDERINGS TO PROPEL YOU FORWARD
What will serve you the best right now – instead of forcing yourself to do the things on your “list of expectations”?
Do it, friend.
