Tag: writing

Yelly Writes

Confessions of a serial rewatcher

Yelly
photo by @yellywelly

Okay, I’ve been indulging in comfort TV binge-watching. I have several favourite series(eseseses – yes yes, I know that series in plural form is still series!) that I watch on repeat: The Good Witch, Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias, Sullivan’s Crossing and Chesapeake Shores.

I’m currently binge-re-watching Chesapeake Shores and I’ve just realised that my series favourites have a lot of actors in common! And because I like Virgin River, and they’re apparently filming Season 8 (yaaaaa!), the characters are fresh in my mind. Every time a familiar face appears on TV I just shout out their TV character name.

  • Muriel (played by Teryl Rothery) has appeared on Chesapeake Shores as Robin O’Brien, The Good Witch as Meredith Mitchell.
  • Lydie (played by Christina Jastrzembska) appeared on Chesapeake Shores episodes. Interestingly enough, she appeared as Bella’s grandmother in New Moon!
  • Lilly (played by Lynda Boyd) appeared on Sullivan’s Crossing as Phoebe, Maggie’s mother.
    Charmaine (played by Lauren Hammersley) appeared on Sullivan’s Crossing as Connie Boyd.
  • Abby (played by Meghan Ory) appeared on Sullivan’s Crossing as Sedona.

All this to say that yes, I do watch the same shows over and over again. I’ve read that it’s a well-known fact that people who watch the same shows just want to avoid making decisions, and that rewatching the familiar is comfort-seeking, trying to regulate their emotions. The decision avoidance is a sign of decision fatigue, which is often a warning sign of burnout. It can also be a subconscious desire to reconnect with a past self to experience a version of yourself that you actually liked (I think this is true for me!).

I do love rewatching the TV shows because sometimes there are details you missed and you go “ooooooh so that’s why!

Do you know of any actor crossovers? What are your favourite TV binges?

Okay. I know this post is random. Go back to your regular programming!

Yelly Writes

The blurred lines of grief

Yelly

Healing is not linear — and neither are boundaries. — Unknown

A few weeks after my return from my mother’s memorial service, I met up with a few friends. I thought it would be a good experience to be around people. But one person kept asking me what happened on my trip, how I was feeling, if I was okay now, and if I could move on now. Up until that point, I thought I would be okay being around people. I wasn’t. I wanted to scream at this person, and I wanted to run away and cry.

I didn’t, of course. I am thankful I bit my tongue and prayed for my tongue to stick to the roof of my mouth so I wouldn’t say anything I couldn’t take back. I knew this person did not have the capacity to understand the depth and heft of my grief, because they hadn’t experienced the death of a parent, and really, because we all deal with situations differently. They were approaching me and my experience in the way they would if they were in the same situation. I behaved differently around this person after that. I didn’t feel like we were occupying the same spaces anymore. I know I may have judged too harshly after that experience, but I had to step away. I was too hurt. I don’t think they realised that they had wounded me so deeply. At the time, I didn’t have the capacity to explain what I was going through (that’s on me completely), but I knew that if I had opened my mouth, I would be caustic and say things I couldn’t take back.

Grieving and healing are both processes that involve ebbs and flows, with twists and turns. I think boundaries are the same. They shift and stretch depending on a person’s growth and capacity

Everything is a work in progress.

Yelly Writes

Choosing to sit

Yelly

When you choose to be positive, you choose your future. — Unknown

Woke up way too early again on a Saturday morning. I have been working through a lot of personal stuff and the thoughts are noisy and intrusive. I’ve always loved Brené Brown’s advice to sit in the discomfort of one’s vulnerability, because exposure to discomfort builds tolerance and resilience. So I’m choosing to sit with the head full of noise. Picking out the strands that I can pick out will help, and telling myself those that I can’t can stay jumbled. They’re for sorting out another day.

@yellywelly

We’re told these days that we can choose our future, that we can control what happens to us. If we manifest using specific words, if we behave a certain way, if we one day decide to radically change our lives in pursuit of the future we want, if we eat less/more of certain foods…it all boils down to controlling something we haven’t even experienced yet.

The only thing we can control is how we react to our environment. We react to our environment through small daily actions that become routine and habitual. When things become routine, they become predictable. This is how you can predict the future.

“But predictable is boring!” I’m sure a lot of you will say. And to that I say, NO IT IS NOT! When we habitually strive to find joy, when we routinely try to look for the positive, it becomes second nature, it becomes part of who we are, and that’s how we bake positivity and hope into our future. When we choose to view everything as potentially filled with light and joy, we choose a future filled with exactly that. The future will always be an unknown quantity, but if we sit with the knowledge that, whatever it is, there will always be hope that it could be shining, shimmering, splendid, that is the exciting part of it all.

What small thing will you do today that your future self will thank you for?

Yelly Writes

One of those days

Yelly

I know that every day is different. Life, these days, seems to be more challenging than usual. So many people have been saying that they’re finding everyday that little bit more difficult.

I’d like a purely good day, though. One where I don’t have to pivot the mindset. I know the low mood might have something to do with my recent anxiety issues. Nevertheless, I’d like a really good day, please. Or at least a pause in the sleep deprivation, the overthinking, and the over-worrying. I’m exhausted.

I’d really like to have the opportunity to get off the spinning world for a bit and just be in a bubble.

Yes, yes, I realise that that might be called a vacation. But going away for a holiday is a band-aid. I’d like to not to rip the band-aid off. I realise that there is a lot of work to be done and I am prepared to work. But really, I’d just like a sunshiny, smiley, happy day.

Yelly Writes

Are we there yet?

Yelly

Success is a journey, and every single day is a beautiful mile. — Unknown

I’m going through quite an anxious period in my life. Because it feels like everything is up in the air and I don’t necessarily know which way is up. I have this list of (inspirational) quotes and, because I’m pedantic and persnickety (I also like old, interesting terms), I will go through the list, one item at a time, in order. I’m in the section of my quotes that seems to be one quote after another about success. It’s making me anxious because, what have I got to say about success? My current situation feels more like a disaster, and so far removed from success.

But okay, let’s not make this about me. Or at least, let’s try.

What is your definition of success? Some people are planners, and success is ticking off items on a list to get to the end of a project. Some people are thinkers, and success is finally arriving at a conclusion after testing ideas. Some people are creatives, and success is finally breathing life into a body of work. But all this is success in relation to productivity. For some people, there is no need to produce; success is being able to have a good day, to have a chance to laugh, to breathe, to just be.

Is it just me, or does society these days focus on having something to point to, where we say, “I made that!” It just feels like we’re on this perpetual hamster wheel of production. It feels like everything has become a commodity and the measure of success relates to a list of assets, and in order to build that list, one has to either produce or acquire.

I enjoy pace and I enjoy the challenge of finding solutions right away. I know I can sprint along with the best of them. But lately, I’ve been feeling exhausted. I’ve been questioning the constant need to chase…everything. Maybe this is why I feel so lost, so disconnected. Maybe I’m missing being able to have time and space. Because while I know I can do things quickly and efficiently, I like to be able to process, at a pace that is my own, in an environment that is less frenzied and frantic. But when success is only measured by what you can show for yourself, the journey — the wrestling, the questioning, the becoming — gets dismissed as inefficiency. But that part of the journey is where the real work happens.

Have we forgotten to appreciate the time it takes to travel? Have we forgotten that the journey isn’t just merely arriving at the destination? Have we forgotten that it’s the experiences between departure and arrival that make the journey? That’s where the lessons are learned. That’s where the memories are made. That’s where the experience is created, where expertise is gained. Because while you have a destination in mind, the things that happen in between change where you get to.

Yelly Writes

How do you…?

Yelly

Whenever I work on something, I start with the WHY. Because things start with intent, why I’m working on what I’m working on.

In an ideal world, once I know my whys and my whats, I’ll figure out the hows, whens and the how much’s. So there’s a need to identify the required information so I can finish my project, and then I fact-check it to make sure the information is current.

Then I organise the information I have into a sane, pragmatic, see-everything-at-a-glance pattern so I can bring everything together and finish what I started.

In the case of my AI workbook, I used post-its. Post-its are so useful for working things out, and not just making sure you remember your to-do’s.

What’s your workflow?

@yellywelly

Yelly Writes

I finished my AI Workbook!

Yelly

I’ve been quietly working on something on the side for a while now. It’s taken quite a while to get it to where it is (mostly because I kept starting, restarting, editing, red-penning it to hell). But I finally shared it on LinkedIn! 👀 So what did I do?

I created the 28 Day AI Challenge Workbook — a structured, printable workbook that walks you through 28 AI tools across 4 weeks, one tool at a time. No jargon. No coding. No assuming you already know what any of it means. AI kind of intimidated me. Everyone around me seemed to be talking about it like it was the most natural thing in the world and I was just… nodding along. I didn’t want to admit I had no idea where to actually start.

So I decided to do something about it. I wanted it to be an honest, practical guidance and hands-on exercises that help you actually get to grips with AI rather than just reading about it.

It covers everything from ChatGPT and Claude to image generation, video tools, automation and beyond — and it’s written for people like me. People who are curious but have been putting it off. EAs, PAs, admin professionals, anyone in a busy office role who suspects AI could genuinely save them time but doesn’t know where to begin.

I’m really proud of this one. It started as a personal project to stop feeling so daunted by AI and it turned into something I genuinely think could help a lot of people. Also, I had fun using post-its to map out my process and decide what I wanted to include in it!

It’s available now as a digital download.

Please would you help me by buying it? I would really appreciate it! The link to get it is below!👇

yaelmedina.gumroad.com/l/ecobqd

Yelly Writes

Making like Elsa

Yelly

One thing that never ceases to surprise is me is how quick the passage of time is. Blink and you’ll miss it. I’ve always said that time flies, even when you’re not having fun.

I received news yesterday – I knew it was coming but I didn’t expect to receive it so soon. The quickness of receiving the news was surprising which was probably why I was unsettled when I first read the message. What quickly followed was relief…and then the feeling of “now what?”

Then, as usual, I went down the rabbit hole of thinking up possible (but very improbable) scenarios, which I’m prone to do because I’m an overthinking (work in progress yes, but still an overthinker!). But the difference is, this time, I noticed the signs and told myself to stop. After a figurative shake-it-off session, I managed to slow down the downward thought spiral.

I need to let it go. Because it’s something I can’t control. The only thing I can control is my reaction to the situation. And my course of action: move on and let it go.

@ ctto
Yelly Writes

Happy New Year!

Yelly

Yeah, we’ve all been here before.

It’s a new year. And in the new year, we (usually) make these grandiose resolutions of wanting to better, healthier, fitter (some of us take out a gym membership!), more successful, more prosperous, an improved version of our previous selves; we want to make a change.

I’m not any different. I started to make my list of my new year resolutions last night, in the run up to midight. Then I remembered: I don’t have to. I already have a list. Because, really, what are resolutions but a guide for the things we want for ourselves, what we want to improve, right?

2022 was a year of seismic change for me. It was like someone took the tray that had everything I found familiar and safe and turned it upside down. I was recovering from my father’s death and I found myself confronted with the bomb site that was my life, surrounded by debris that looked familiar. There were items that I thought looked and felt familiar, or resembled things that I thought I knew, that no longer provided the same sense of security that they used to. I had to face the end of a relationship that I thought would never end – a relationship that defined my identity, my sense of self and, I thought, my future.

I suppose it was a long time coming. When you lose yourself in something, when you make impossible compromises (you know the ones, the ones where you do things because you think you’re doing it in the name of love), when you accept treatment that you otherwise wouldn’t (because, again, love), when you make adjustments in the name of being understanding (because you feel you have more capacity to understand), when you think it’s okay to settle because you think this is your lot, you made a decision, so you live with it.

It takes a life event of disaster proportions to make you see things from a different and possibly a clearer perspective. In my case, it was the end of a more-than-2-decade-long relationship for me to reevaluate everything. I guess from a making-a-change perspective, it was good that I was forced to do all these reevaluations from a different location. I was alone and I had to confront all the compromises and decisions I’d made to date. And it looked awful. I’m not blaming anyone else. I made those decisions. To paraphrase a once-favourite Wilson Phillips song, I’ve got no one to blame for my unhappiness, I got myself into my own mess. I contributed to the majority of the nuclear explosion that changed my life.

But, still thinking about that Wilson Phillips song, I am holding on. Because I know that things will change. Because now, I recognise the person in the mirror again. I recognise the person talking again. I’m learning from the experiences and I am coming out knowing who I am, grateful because I know I am so very blessed, learning the lessons and not settling for the bare minimum ever again.

I am a work in progress and I have a long way to go. But I am taking it a day at a time, a step at a time.

I am ready for the challenges that 2023 will bring because I know my God has me in the palm of His hands, I have people who truly love me supporting me and rooting for me.

I won’t have to edit who I am anymore.

I am walking forward being truly and authentically me!

Watch out world! Here I come!

Yelly Writes

This year…

Yelly

So WordPress asked me whether my life this year was what I thought it would look like this time last year.

HELL TO THE NO!

I’ve had so many shifts and pivots to my life that my life right now is definitely NOT what I would’ve even imagined it would be.

I’m not quite ready to write about it. To be fair, I haven’t actually written much about anything at all since my life started shifting. There have been a lot of massive life changes in the past 9 months. It hasn’t escaped me that it’s a 9-month reference. It feels like I’m a whole other person, and at the same time, I feel like I know who I’m looking at in the mirror again.

Life is different now. But different is good. Different means growth. Different means opportunities. Different means possibilitles.

How have you been?