Last night I slept about 2.5 hours. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and couldn’t fall back asleep and today my hands hurt so much that I can barely make a fist. As someone who makes a living with her hands and spends most days creating, those moments can feel discouraging. The days my body can’t keep up with my mind can cause lots of frustration. A few years ago, I probably would have looked at a day like this and decided that art was off the table. Living with chronic illness has slo

I want to share something with you that has genuinely helped me on the days when my body feels like it’s made of lead and my brain is running on 2% battery, and when the idea of “being creative” feels a little insulting because I can barely get through the basics. It’s a journal technique I developed called Expressive Doodles. And it started as a very simple idea: what if I stopped trying to make journaling look neat, or put pressure on myself to journal for long periods of t

Before chronic illness became part of my story, I was a doer who could push through anything to get things done and be productive. I liked checking things off my to-do list. I like having the energy to create whenever inspiration struck, even if that was 3 a.m. These days, things look a little different. Living with chronic illness has taught me that energy isn’t something I can always count on. Some mornings I wake up feeling ready to tackle projects and spend hours in the s