What is Gentle Creative?

My name is Cali Bird.

I describe myself as post-menopause, post-fatigue (hopefully) and post-husband (sadly).

Let me explain. I’ve always been highly sensitive and prone to tiredness. Many years ago, I realised that if I am gentle with myself, then I’m more resilient. In 2022, my health plummeted thanks to severe fatigue caused by long-covid. Thankfully, I’m now in a recovery phase.

In summer 2023, life took a dramatic turn when my husband had an accident and sustained a traumatic brain injury. It changed everything, for both of us.

Gentle Creative has morphed in to a place where I write about the lessons learnt as I discover a chronic sense of self-love and a side-order of resilience.

I give people permission to be kind to themselves.

Why subscribe?

Do you need someone to remind you to go gentle on yourself?

Would it inspire you to hear advice from someone who spent years pushing through exhaustion in an unrelenting quest for achievement, to a person who has finally learnt to be kind and loving to themselves?

Would you like to hear wisdom that only comes from acceptance of health and life circumstances that are beyond one’s control?

Who are you?

Perhaps you suspect that the way you are currently living isn’t working for you.

Maybe you have an energy-limiting illness or you are recovering from an illness.

You wish the world was a kinder, gentler place.

Perhaps you are going through a huge life transition. Maybe you are grieving what has gone and are a little bit trepidatious about the future.

If any of this resonates with you, then welcome to Gentle Creative. You’re in the right place. Pull up a chair, get cosy and subscribe now. Think of me as your gentle cheerleader!

What’s special about this newsletter – aren’t there loads of similar ones?

Well yes. Have a rummage around Substack and you’ll find lots of writers sharing their take on the world.

Here’s what’s unique about this British 50-something female:

  • Despite having a music degree, I’ve spent most of my working life in the corporate world as an accountant, investment banker and IT specialist.

  • Eventually I managed to work part-time in the day job and do creative projects on the side. These included writing novels, being a life-coach and giving talks.

  • I’m recovering from long-covid fatigue. Prior to getting sick I was very focussed on productivity and achievement. I had to abandon my goals and accept a slower, gentler pace of life with more rest.

  • I’ve learnt to “be” rather than “do”.

  • I’ve gone from a life-time of cursing my body for “letting me down” to loving it and praising it. This has been a crucial part of my recovery.

  • I was single until I was 40 and married my husband when we were both 46.

  • Sadly, he had an accident in 2023 and sustained a traumatic brain injury. He now lives in long-term care and is severely impacted by his injury. His essence has completely changed and all the lovely dynamics of our marriage have gone.

  • Because of this, I identify with widows. I have lost my honey-bunny. However, he is still alive and I have to continually witness how he is now and spend my life wading through mountains of financial and legal paperwork.

  • I’ve been a Buddhist for nearly 40 years. Without my faith, I’m not sure how I would have survived any of the above. Thanks to my Buddhist practice I do my best to thrive in spite of everything and create value for myself and others.

That’s me!

What will you get when you subscribe?

I’m currently publishing two new articles a month, on the 2nd and 4th Friday. I also produce an end of month GC Insider which is where I spill the details of my own creative activity – the good, the bad and the ugly. I promise to tell the truth. All of this is available free of charge for all subscribers.

For paid subscribers I’m trying out a new experiment. Every couple of weeks I visit my local park and hang out with my favourite tree, which I lovingly call Granny Oak. On these visits a theme for the week emerges in my mind, or a short piece of advice. Things like “tread carefully this week” or “have faith in your idea” or “rest” or “gently believe”.

I’ve started sharing them with my paid community – and they’re loving it!

Subscribe now and you’ll get the next article.

Here’s what some of my fans say

“I love your courageous heart and your down to earth, honest approach.”

“I’m so excited about your blog, your writing, and you. I love your ideas, your insights, and your creativity!”

“I connect a lot to this, it’s like you are describing my life!!”

“I love the way your emails pop up every now and then, with heart warming, life changing, inspirational honesty.”

“It's like you have a window into my mind!”

Check out these previous articles

Do You Like The Idea Of Chronic Play?

What Does It Mean To Give Yourself Grace?

Want To Change An Annoying Calamity Into A Positive Experience?

Screw Imposter Syndrome. Is It Time To Take Your Place?

How Do You Know If Your Writing Is Any Good?

But Why Do Fear And Doubt Accompany Creativity

Articles about writing

Gentle Creative started out as a newsletter that gave realistic, gentle advice to nudge you along in your writing journey. For writing tips, check out this index of my writing articles. You’ll find lots of useful encouragement, grouped into six categories:

Here’s a shameless plug for my novel

It’s called Tales of the Countess and is a romantic comedy featuring handbags that talk. Think Sex and the City meets Toy Story!

The book took twenty years to write (though it did spend nine years in the proverbial drawer). It turns out that a f**ked up imagination and reasonable command of the English language wasn’t enough. After six drafts of the manuscript, I discovered that I had a lot to learn about novel writing so I set about mastering story structure and how to show, not tell.

It was worth the effort. The book got excellent reviews. Here’s two of my favourite ones:

“Original (with knobs on), kooky (understatement), heartfelt and laden with humour…”

“It is the epitome of quirky and unorthodox, and takes romcom to a whole other level. I loved it.”

As well as writing Gentle Creative I’m also working on books two and three in the Tales of the Countess series.

Thanks for stopping by. If you’ve read this far then I’m hoping that you like what you see and will subscribe 😉 Thank you!

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Gentle Creative is by British author, Cali Bird, who writes about lessons learnt as she discovers a chronic sense of self-love and a side-order of resilience.

People

Gentle Creative is by British author, Cali Bird. This is where she writes about lessons learnt as she discovers a chronic sense of self-love and a side-order of resilience.