Moving Thru Doubt & Getting Listed on a 'Top Self Help Blog'!
Walking Through Newness, Risks, Doubt and the Gifts of these.
I’m thrilled, honoured and thankful to be listed on FeedSpot’s Top 60 Self Help Blogs (I’m #25)!
It’s certainly an incredible feeling to be listed somewhere that starts with the word ‘Top’. Yet, I am more thankful for the deeper journey moving through the energy of doubt in the days prior, that led up to this moment.
A few days ago, I read this awesome article by Emma Gannon ‘How I make six figures on Substack’. I usually don’t read articles like this to completion, because I assume they are a sales pitch for something. Emma’s article wasn’t like that. As I read it, it helped me cut through some of the mental chatter and doubt in my mind — something that most writers and creators have to reckon with.
I especially loved the reminder to ‘Try Something New’.
My last post was called How to Welcome in Newness. So, ‘trying something new’ wasn’t exactly new for me, in some ways. But, in other ways, it was.
After reading the article, I searched for ‘how to find blogs’ and came across FeedSpot — a website I had only heard of once before. FeedSpot is a bloggers database or repository. It doesn’t look pretty. It does the simple task of helping you find blogs by your area of interest — be it green energy, European techno music or gardening blogs. They have an expansive list and you can narrow down your search by interest or region. As a bloggers database, it serves both individuals as well as companies.
Not many Substack publications appear on FeedSpot. I thought this was odd, because Substack has an incredible community of writers and poets, and I am a fan!
In an attempt to continue ‘trying new things’, I had the idea to list my blog on FeedSpot. For this, I had to create a profile and send it to them for approval.
In the few minutes it took me to create my FeedSpot profile, I wondered if the task was worth it. Doubt is sneaky type of creature. It lurks in our consciousness, just waiting to rear its head and ask us:
Is it really worth it?
Are you really worth it?
What will come out of this task?
Does anyone truly care?
My doubt often has the quality and format of a question.
That, I realized, is its gift.
As I went through the clicks of making my profile and uploading it to FeedSpot for their review, I realized that I didn’t have to answer those questions that my Doubt asked me.
I didn’t owe myself any explanation or justification.
I followed the path of inquiry. I explored something, I found something new, I pushed on, I took a risk and touched into it.
I let the questions, stay as questions.
To be honest, I forgot about FeedSpot completely, until today, when I got the email congratulating me for being listed on their Top Self-Help Blogs!
I’ve never thought of my publication genre as a ‘self-help’. I would certainly not categorize it as such, and this thought quickly interrupted my joy. There is a piece on surrender here that became necessary. That surrender allowed a sense of trust where I could just enjoy the moment, without needing to curate or control it in some way.
I don’t mean to state that this was somehow the direct reward to my action, risk and inner work.
It is actually far simpler than that.
I am deeply moved by how the dots in our days (little moments of invitation) connect and form patterns.
How action is birthed from inspiration.
How patterns of thought, ideas, frameworks become conscious within us, and we get to see what holds us back (doubt) and what allows us to flow forward (inquiry).
I am moved that our problems (doubt) hold within them, the potential for our liberation (questions, inquiry, non-answers).How we fight against life and present moment so much, until we don’t, and it is simply brilliant!
The more I let what I understand as my problems, just be, the more they reveal their lightness, their medicine, their potential and the way forward.
This work is pushing the edges of my patience with myself, with life, with others and with the world. It requires me to pause and breathe deeply and do some of the practices or exercises I’ve been taught over the years, so I can stay in the present moment.
The present moment can be many things:
It can be reading an article that I wouldn’t normally read, to completion.
It can be getting inspired and actioning that inspiration.
It could be trying something new….
Staying with the new thing and tempering fear and risk with breath and possibility.
It could be listening to doubt, but not needing to heed or engage with it immediately.
It could be breathing, praying, wishing, desiring, allowing.
It could be, letting it all go with an exhale….
…and receiving the next moment, exactly as it is.
YAYY!!! Congratulations!!! So lovely to see!! I certainly use your guidance a lot so nice to see other ppl leveraging the gift of your guidance as well.