Hey, brain-- get a room!

cognitive load, creative explode, and one juicy invitation

My life’s not in shambles. Just in boxes.

I’m moving. In the process of packing, I found a journal from when I was in eating disorder treatment and opened to this page:

Two years later and this invocation is reading like a prophecy.

~~~

🍊 The Orange Place

I’ve called this glorious internal sactum my “Orange Place”, although as I’ve explored this space within me, I discover each day new shades and hues , all of which I feel compelled to share with yous. Sharing helps increase the capacity of which I can hold, as now you, I, and the artifact of communication (i.e. this Museletter, a poem, a performance) all act as external harddrives so it doesn’t need to all stay in my mind. Frees up that brain and body and soul o mine up to make more beauty.

🧠 Cognitive Load Theory, Baby

You can really crank up that utility of outsourcing information storage by putting yourself in a physical environment that is dedicated to a certain task, like busting out business plans or birthing your magnum opus.

It’s called Cognitive Load Theory (learn more here), and it basically says that your working memory is a tiny desk: it fits like 7 sticky notes, max. Try to cram more, and stuff starts falling off the edge (aka burnout, confusion, blank-stare-scroll-spirals, aka story of my life).

Creation isn’t about doing more—it’s about designing for less. Strip away the mental noise (extraneous load), don’t pick projects that are too damn hard too fast (intrinsic load), and instead, feed your sexy little schema-building brain the good stuff—like patterns, practice, and juicy examples that make meaning click (germane load).

TLDR: clear your desk, don’t overdo it, and romance your mind into remembering what matters.

🪑 I’m Getting a Whole Damn Room

So, in my natural fashion, I’m flipping over this desk metaphor entirely and getting a literal room instead.

That’s right. I’m investing in a space dedicated for just my art. I’m moving in literally today. It’s got a window, walls, and wonders to come.

I cannot wait (like literally cannot— like I said I’m literally going there in less than 2 hours). As soon as I walked into the space, I immediately felt connected to:

1. My future self, who I saw so clearly and felt so intensely that I wanted to be HER, the me that I was envisioning. She looked back at me from over her sunglasses and said, “Okay, E. You wanna be me? Then show me.” So I’m womaning up on behalf of my womanier self in the years to come AND

2. My past self, who honestly martyered so much time and energy to get me SAFE. Whose biggest secret for 30 years was that, beneath all this dense shame, she loved herself. I say to her, “It’s okay, lil E. I got it from here. Time to just enjoy the ride.”

I’m so so so so excited to see what happens when I am in an incubator of my own creating. Can’t wait to see what grows and unfolds. I dream of this studio becoming a hub for other’s creativity, to explore and share and connect and LAUGH and DANCE, make a bunch of coffee, friends, memories…

So that’s one way I’m decreasing cognitive load to increase creative explode.

🏞️ And Another Way…

It took literal decades to get me to a place where I can… have a place. I see for so many people, it’s nearly impossible to have this sanctity for clarity. Which is why I’m here to announce another friggin smile-inducing and new (for me) way I’m doing this is…

Co-hosting a retreat in the Catskills!

It’s a working and wellness retreat designed for women who want a low-pressure, high-impact time/space to envision and execute their next chapter.

It’s a retreat from a million open tabs, dooming Slack pings, and the spiraling hustle.

It’s an approach towards calm, connectedness, and clarity.

☁️ The Retreat, In Short:

🗓 July 14–18 at Akera Retreat Center (check out this beautiful space here)

• Cozy workspaces (quiet & communal)

• 3 nourishing, GF/DF meals per day

• Morning movement (hi, my yoga babes)

• Optional mastermind sessions with expert coach/personal secret weapon Stephanie Redlener

• Creative coaching from yours truly! (that’s me)

• Connection, solitude, beauty, and breakthroughs

Slow-burn sisterhood as the antidote to burnout.

✨ Sign-ups close 8pm Monday, June 30.

(and yes there is a sauna, hot tub, and cold plunge 🤤)

Grab your spot now.

~~~

Whether you’re in a season of boxes, breakthroughs, or just trying to find a clean

surface to think on…

Let me know how my me-ness can help you with your you-ness.

Catch you in the studio, the mountains, or whatever your version of the Orange Place is 🧡
E