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Hi Friends-
You know that feeling when you’re driving down the road and you suddenly hit a really big pothole and it rattles the entire car, including you, and there’s a moment where you’re like: Is the car still in one piece? Is it okay to keep driving? But you just keep going and it seems like everything is okay so you just assume it is?
My brother and I were talking about how that’s what 2025 feels like — hitting those potholes again and again.
In fact, this year has contained so many moods and so many chapters and so many changes that I keep having to reframe it with new metaphors to get some perspective. (For instance: uncertainty training, walking beside yourself, and finding your home button.)
And today, as I write this, big-ass potholes are offering that perspective. I feel like they communicate the right amount of full-body jangle and discombobulation. Just earlier today, I texted my girlfriend: “I have to go recombobulate my nervous system now!“
That’s right, these times are so weird, we have to use terms like recombobulate.
But seriously, how do we recombobulate? My friend Sebene and I were talking about it on our new podcast Cosmic Clowns recently and the answer we arrived at was:
Practices.
Practices.
Practices.
When fear and anxiety are always on the menu, when you are inevitably going to get rattled by a pothole or two every week, or maybe even every day, what are the practices that help you put yourself back together? That help you regulate your nervous system? That help you get out of your head and back into your heart?
As things get exponentially more unhinged, we need exponentially more practices to keep our wits about us so that we can respond with thoughtful, grounded (non-reactive) action. Otherwise, we are going to be sentient pinballs blindly ricocheting here and there.
Much like my dog circling and circling before he settles down to sleep, I’m engaging and engaging with my practices so that I can settle down to work. I’m meditating, I’m dancing, I’m walking in the woods, I’m writing, I’m stacking wood, I’m taking deep breaths. I’m doing anything and everything I can every single day to regulate my nervous system.
Similarly, I’m noticing and banking little moments of joy where I can.
Walking through the forest this morning, my dog friend Junebug came trotting up to me. I see her most mornings and she is always in good spirits, usually stopping at my feet for a little scritch before she goes on her way. Today, she was particularly excited, giving me a little play bow and a wild wriggle before zooming off to continue her explorations.
That moment got me thinking about the power of play. And my mind turned to the armed forces being sent into our cities here in America. I thought about the folks wearing animal costumes and engaging in other acts of brilliant absurdity to show their resistance to this regime.
I wondered—
What does it mean to face fear with a play bow?
To bring dogged good cheer to all of these bumps in the road?
To get rattled and then just shake it off?
When my good cheer fades — and, believe, me it fades nightly as my anxiety brain awakens at 4am — I use my practices to build myself back up again. To recombobulate myself again. To ruthlessly find my joy again.
Sending warmth,
Jocelyn
KILN is a sacred container for reconnecting to your creative self in community. A recent participant described it as a “sanctuary” and “a deep well of support for the creative process.” I’ll be re-opening KILN in February 2026. You can learn more and get on the waitlist here. Stay tuned for more details soon.
RESET is my self-guided, 4-week course that distills down everything I’ve learned from my years of research in the productivity space and my personal experience with burnout. It looks past b.s. silver-bullet solutions and shares simple, intuitive approaches that really work. If you’re burnt out, exhausted, and ready to work in a new way, this is the course for you. Use code “RESETME” at checkout to save $100 now. (The discount applies to payment plans as well.)
To learn more about my other offerings and 1-1 sessions, visit jkg.co.
—
Sebene and I explore the closet, masks, and hidden identities in the latest episode of Cosmic Clowns.
The consciousness of creativity: Are ideas alive and do they choose us?
Francis Weller in conversation with adrienne maree & autumn brown: “The creation of beauty is an indispensable part of soul activism.”
Woah: Japan’s new 300-mph maglev train is basically one step down from teleportation.
Me watching my brain during meditation.
On embodied, earth-based gratitude.
Why everything became television.
✨ ✨ ✨
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