Full disclosure that this is the fat and gluttonous part of my brain talking right now, but there’s definitely a point to it.

Even fuller disclosure – you’re also getting me on day four of a very strange period cycle, on a rainy Saturday afternoon, in a hoodie and sweatpants, where I would gladly eat any bit of food that comes my way. Best believe I will also not feel even one ounce of judgment doing this, because what do they call this again? Ah yes, self care. 

Back to one of everyone’s favorite topics – food. We love it, we smell it, we see it, there’s even certain emotions when we think of different meals. For hot foods specifically, you’ve often heard the phrase, “Get ‘em while they’re hot!” It makes sense right? French fries, croissants, cookies, etc. You can think of a boat load of foods that just taste better when they’re fresh, rightfully so. There truly is no need to fixate or psychoanalyze why this is true, it just is. Some foods just taste better when they’re hot. 

Right before sitting down to write this blog, I went for a loooong overdue coffee date with my prima, Jenni. She’s my prima, who’s not really a prima, but hey, that’s what us Latinos do. 

IFKYK.

Anyway, while we were catching up on life: what’s new and what’s not, we landed on the topic of writing and blogging. Specifically how we’ve both lost steam over time when we think of topics we feel called to speak on or write about. 

I shared a few experiences with her on how I’d be in my car or out shopping, and I’d get this hit of inspiration to write. It’d be so strong as if I feel that there is so much creative energy flowing throughout my entire body that I don’t know what to do with it. It’s not a feeling that comes very often, but when it does I truly cannot contain it. Then what happens after that? I continue going through the motions of whatever I was doing at that moment. I’ll say things to myself, “I’ll just write that when I get home” or “I know I’ll remember that idea tomorrow” (which hello almost 30 year old brain, you’re not going to remember anything unless you write it down so stop lying to yourself.)

The worst one has been, “I’ll just jot this down to write on another day when I have more time.” 

When I tell you all that zero blogs have come from that one thought, I’m not kidding. 

It’s not that another day never came or that I didn’t have the willingness or motivation to write. However, what would happen is that time would go by and that day to write finally came. I would sit at my desk, open my Notes app on my phone, open my laptop, find my Blogs folder in my Google drive, start a new doc and then…nothing. I would try so hard to connect back to that  topic I was previously so passionate to write about, to then be met with frustration. I would be so critical towards myself for not being able to churn out this blog like I wanted to and blame myself for not being creative enough or inspired enough or any of the random nonsense my thoughts can spit out. 

I know for a fact that all of those limiting beliefs aren’t true, and eventually I was able to get that blog out, but it still wasn’t hitting the way I wanted it to. And why is that? It’s because I didn’t get it while it was hot. When that anger, happiness, or whatever emotion was still fresh with all of that momentum behind it. 

That idea that I felt so passionately about in one moment, was quickly fleeting and gone in the next. It was bogged down by the constant go,go,go mentality of life. While you’re standing there thinking of a blog, there’s work to get done, dishes to clean, laundry to fold, food to cook. Oh and you best not forget to get those 7-8 hours of sleep you need to get. While I can only speak for myself, I can’t even begin to count the number of times I got hit with that strong urge to write or create or cook a new meal or go to this great workout class, but then quickly bogged it down for a myriad of reasons. 

In today’s society, you’ll hear people preaching about not listening to your feelings too much or too often, because they’re coming from an emotional state where you’re not thinking clearly. While I do agree with this logic in certain scenarios, I’d like to challenge that to say – since when are our emotions a bad thing? Aren’t emotions part of the human experience? Aren’t they part of what has contributed to some of the most amazing things we’ve seen in our lifetime? Movies, dance, music, it’s all coming from one thing: our emotions. Some of the most beautiful creators of our world have made something from their emotions. That feeling they got one day after a really bad breakup or when they were finally starting to see the fruits of their labor or when they just wanted to have a really good freaking time. That all got channeled into a movie or song or poem, that you have probably turned to when you needed something to validate that same feeling you were experiencing. I don’t know about you, but I probably wouldn’t have survived many breakups without belting out Mariah Carey’s good ol “We Belong Together.” (that’s not my go to breakup song, but you get the idea). 

All this to say that while we do need to focus on doing what we need to do to be functioning adults in society, we also need to tend to the things that connect us back to who we are. Those things that bring us that feeling of being alive, no matter how big or small they may be. We don’t need to shut down every idea that comes up, otherwise that just becomes the habit we create in our lives, rather than creating the habit of supporting curiosity, fun, and wonder. We don’t know what we’ll create or inspire in someone else if we keep bogging down that urge or feeling to try something new or revisit something old. 

So while I may not make the healthiest food decisions when Aunt Flo decides to visit, and I may not be the best person to go to for a break-up playlist, I can definitely be the best person to encourage you to lean into whatever creativity or curiosity you’ve got. When that feeling sparks and you get that little burst of energy to go after that thing, do me a favor and get it while it’s hot.