How I spent my blog hiatus

If you remember, my intention for taking a blog hiatus this past month was to get out of my head and back into my body. I’d been neglecting basic self-care essentials like sleep and exercise simply because I didn’t have time.

(No time to sleep, you wonder? Well, I have the bad habit of staying up late to get work done . . . and then zoning out in front of the TV instead. Maybe you can relate?)

But I had an ulterior motive for taking a break from my blog. By spending the month getting out of my head, I was hoping I’d somehow make more room in there for creativity.

The past couple of months I’ve felt increasing uninspired and, truthfully, a bit lost in the blogosphere. There are sooooooo many blogs out there, and I wasn’t sure how to make mine stand out from the masses.

Hell, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to continue blogging. More and more frequently, I found myself wondering, “What’s the point?”

No, really. What’s the point?

So my underlying goal was to somehow set the stage for a lightbulb moment about what I should be doing with my life — by not thinking what I should be doing with my life.

What did I learned on my blogging break?

Unfortunately, inspiration doesn’t necessarily work that way. Turns out you can’t simply schedule creativity on the calendar or plan an epiphany within a specific time frame.

I might not have had any major insights about my professional ambitions, but I did learn two important things:

1. Working (and, at this point in time, blogging) gives me sense of fulfillment.
2. Writing is one of those use-it-or-lose-it skills.

I’ll admit that it’s been a struggle to articulate my thoughts into words and to organize those words into sentences for this post. My brain feels mushy returning to my computer after a month away. I was hoping the process of reentering the blog world would be similar to riding a bike, but I can’t lie — this time around the block has been pretty painful!

As for the blog, I’m still playing around with the idea of creating a totally new website or maybe a newsletter. At the very least, I’ll be tweaking the content here on A Girl Named PJ, introducing new topics that interest me and phasing out ones that aren’t as exciting anymore.

Psst… Stay tuned for a reader survey. I’d love your input as I plan for the future.

How I spent my blog hiatus

So what was I doing when I wasn’t working on a post?

• I saw a dermatologist and a gynecologist for the first time in a year and a half.
• I started taking Asa to a weekly music class and met an amazing group of supportive moms.
• I had four acupuncture appointments and attended three Pure Barre classes.
• I played several evening games of  Mah Jongg with friends after the kids went to sleep.
• I watched the entire season of Jessica Jones with my husband.
• I went through the private school admissions process for Levi.
• I picked up a new freelance copywriting gig.
• I set up a home office in the basement. (Come back Wednesday for photos!)

What didn’t I do? Besides figure out how to become rich and famous (or if I even want to become rich and famous), I didn’t go to sleep much earlier than midnight. I didn’t commit to a meditation practice. I didn’t clean the top of my bedroom dresser nor underneath the bench at the foot of our bed.

But I was busy. Really, really busy. The trick moving forward will be determining how to fit the blog back into my busier-than-before schedule. The goal is to post three times a week — possibly Monday, Wednesday and Thursday — while still making self-care a priority. Obviously, something is going to have to give, but I don’t know what yet.

To everybody who reached out during my break to send a note of encouragement: thank you. Having readers who appreciate what I have to say is really what makes this job so rewarding.

I may not know where I’m heading, but I’m certainly glad to be back. Let’s see what happens next!

(Photos from my Instagram feed. I’d love for you to follow me there, too!)