Amid political chaos, personal grief, and professional uncertainty, it can feel nearly impossible to show up for your freelance business the way you want – or need – to.
Rachel Meltzer
First of all, sending you a huge virtual hug 💜
Honestly, I had a super hard time working when I was going through my last breakup, when the election happened, and with all this ongoing turmoil. You are so not alone, and what you’re experiencing is incredibly normal—but that doesn’t make it suck any less.
Here are a few things that helped me (and others) during times like this:
🥧 Think of your brain like a Pie
One way I’ve come to understand it is by thinking of my brain like a pie (kind of like spoon theory).
When your grief is taking up a much larger slice of the pie than usual – which means there’s just less available for things like focus, creativity, energy, motivation – something’s gotta give.
That reframing helps me be more compassionate toward myself when the brain fog rolls in or my motivation is low.
🧠 Accept the fog
If focus is hard, it’s not because you’re lazy or unmotivated – it’s because your brain is doing a lot behind the scenes.
It’s grieving, processing, recalibrating. Let it be a foggy day. Do the smallest next thing. That’s still progress.
💼 Create a “bare minimum” work plan
Strip your workweek down to the essentials – just enough to keep your business running and your clients cared for.
On hard days, that’s all you do. On better days, you can layer in more. This gives you room to ebb and flow with how you’re feeling.
🤝 Get some external structure
I honestly only get my work done when I'm feeling grief by getting on coworking calls 😅 It gave me the nudge I needed to show up, even if I wasn’t operating at 100%. Highly recommend if you haven’t tried it.
→ We have 3x half-day coworking sessions inside Pop Club
→ Pop Club member Michelle Hsu hosts free coworking sessions
→ Groove, Flow Club, Focused Space, and Cave Day are also good options!
📉 Reduce your hours if you can
This might be a season to pull back — intentionally. Make more space for rest, processing, and being with people who ground you. If you don’t have local community right now, phone calls with faraway friends can help more than you’d expect.
🌀 Let the grief move
Trying to outrun it with hyper-productivity or obsessive self-care routines (guilty here too 🙋♀️) doesn’t usually help.
Sometimes the most healing thing you can do for your business is cry, journal, go for a walk, lie on the floor, or take a nap. Oddly enough, that kind of surrender can be wildly efficient in the long run.
❤️🩹 You’re not broken. You’re becoming.
This is one of those identity-melting moments that shapes us in ways we don’t fully understand until we’re further down the road.
But just know: you are doing an incredible job. Your business will still be there. And so will you — wiser, clearer, stronger.
You're not alone. And you’re already doing beautifully, even on the days it doesn’t feel like it. 💜
Free Podcasts & Guided Meditations
Sarah Blondin is the creator of my favorite guided meditations on Insight Timer. But she also has a podcast with similar recordings if you don't want to use IT.
She's helped me learn self-love and compassion (I genuinely used to hate myself, fun fact 😅), get through trying times (a really rough breakup), and become more mentally resilient (in times like now).
If this newsletter resonated with you, then Navigating Life's Shifts: Practice for Graceful Adaptability is the perfect place to start in Sarah's library. You can find it on Insight Timer or in her podcast feed.
My friend Marie's podcast, Self Growth Nerds, is one of my favorites. She's got tons of great episodes about mindset, finding yourself, staying true to yourself, and much more.
Her episode 113. Navigating Pain: Get Good at Feeling is perfect for you if this newsletter resonated.