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It feels good to get another post out of my system, and I think I have a pretty good sense of what's going to be in Part 2 – I'll talk more about the constraints of medium, and I might reference/revisit some older posts I wrote years ago involving constraints of psyche. I'm still finding my footing and voice with these essays, and while I'm not satisfied with what I've published so far, I'm starting to feel a bit more confident that it's going to start coming together over the next few pieces.

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Dec 13, 2022Liked by visakan veerasamy

I needed this.

I’ve got the same thing going on, a bunch of drafts that lost their spirit and I don’t want to go back to them. Seeing the approach you’re taking made me feel like, yes, ok, I can do that too.

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I so know this feel. I've been wanting to do a thing where me & a friend meet up for like 2-3h and at the start each of us gives the other a topic to write on (possibly chosen from a list presented by the writer) and then we each have 2-3h to publish SOMETHING on that topic. Lmk if you wanna try it sometime!

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Dec 14, 2022Liked by visakan veerasamy

"I grieve and mourn all of the times I started an essay and didn’t finish it. I do still have the drafts lying around, and I do revisit them from time to time, but I very rarely am able to reinhabit the state of mind that I was in when I started it, so finishing them always feels disjointed. Not to be too grim, but they honestly feel like inert, hacked-up corpses that have lost their animating spirit."

I am so glad to see someone else describing the same phenomenon I deal with, one I've been bumping up against a lot in the last few months. I can sometimes re-animate the drafts, but it requires waiting for the energy to be right again, and that can take time. Which means that while I'm waiting, I need to start writing something else and try not to let it take too long. Thanks for the reminder to push out some imperfect work before I lose the energy behind it.

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Oh I felt this so much. From the drafts and not being able to get back to the same flow and mind and want of the previous day to being frustrated at biological constraints. I often get annoyed at my period cycle and the hormonal + physical shifts. It’s like learning to work with my body is a journey of its own and yet no one for the bigger chunk of my life taught me how to. So the learning and unlearning and all of it -- I do it, but gosh do I get annoyed sometimes. When I saw your email in my inbox I was so delighted, and had saved this for when I could properly read it (and that’s the effort on my part so I love how you did note that there is effort required from the reader). 💝

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Dec 13, 2022Liked by visakan veerasamy

Could relate to everything you said here and more. Love the title which tackles the problem with playful courage.

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These words are the crystallisation of my own recent thoughts.

As are all the words in your book Introspect. Every word in your book seems like it was pulled out of the lair of the baby tyrant in my mind and slid to me from under the door of the prison I have locked myself into. I feel a great sense of resistance to reading your book because I know that it will force me to tackle all of my copes and get on with improving my [[personal psychology management]]. My copes are giving me powerful resistance to read your book. That just shows how urgently I need to read it.

We are all products of our constraints. I have reams of digital notes and essay fragments lying around in my journals and notes apps, but my human condition keeps throwing constraints at me that keep me from developing my ideas into coherent finished products. Constraints of time, bodily limitations, emotional baggage, family responsibilities, career aspirations, business dreams, artistic ambitions, and so many more.

It's heartening to see a creator as prolific as you also acknowledge the immensity and variety of constraints we all face. Looking forward to part 2 of this essay thread.

On a side note, I totally think you should do an essay on [[personal psychology management]]. It could be a short trailer for Introspect.

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