Yay! I Think it's Possible to be a Self-Employed Introvert without becoming an Actual Hermit

What a typical day looks like for me, 7 months in

One benefit the decision to no longer ask for paid subscriptions on Substack has given me is the lightening of pressure to produce something of value. I wrote that, and then hilariously found myself rewriting this sentence three times! So, maybe I do still feel I must sing for my supper.

Today will be a little update on life in my self-employed solo shop and a reflection on the topic of loneliness vs. being alone. Even as an introvert (I may actually put Hermit as the occupation on my 2024 tax return, it may explain the nominal income), I miss having colleagues. I was never really alone when I worked in pharma because I was on Zoom meetings ~6 hours/day, traveled to face to face meetings about once a month, and was on email, instant messaging, and text most hours of the day. I sure was lonely, though, because I wasn’t being my real self (to be fair, I didn’t know who that was until the end) and that blocked any real connection.

Now, my days flow something like this, often I am alone, but never lonely:

• My son works overnight shifts, so we have a check-in as he is getting home and I am having coffee.

• Walking my dog each morning (see pic), sometimes intentionally with a friend (Georgie), sometimes accidentally with a first-name-friend (Barb) we run into on our regular route.

• Writing or studying, then working out before lunch.

• Taking breaks to take care of the garden and birds’ needs.

• Going to the yoga studio a couple times a week for community. 

• I have two standing meetings with two little trios of friends, one (Hypnotist Study Group) weekly and the other (Spiritual Entrepreneur Sisterhood) every other week. These women are soul sisters, and I couldn’t do this without them. (How I manifested these women).

• Zoom classes for my herbalist program and my evolutionary astrology certification a few times a week.

• Occasionally seeing a client or two.

• Recording my weekly podcast episode, usually on Tuesdays.

• The regular chores we all have are mixed in throughout.

Another reason I don’t feel alone is that I am connected to the whole of life. Sounds about as woo as you can sound, but I don’t know how else to put it. It looks something like this:

• I start my day meditating. This always involves laying in bed right after I first wake up, eyes still closed, thanking my spirit team and just listening for anything they want to relay.

• Sometimes it involves doing a guided meditation while I have my coffee on the couch (if it is a day my son has off so we don’t have our check in). Sometimes I even multi-task and apply the heated eye mask thing to ease my dry eyes (I can still drink coffee blindfolded, probably even upside down if I had to).

• Sometimes during the day if I am having a hard moment, one of my close spirit guides (like my dad or my friend Carol or brother-in-law David on the other side) will pop in to offer encouragement.

• Sometimes a chickadee will boldly come close and cheep cheep at me while I am smelling my roses or scanning for the red tomatoes hiding behind the green ones.

• Sometimes I find a feather and think of the spirit of my client’s friend on the other side, because she likes to leave feathers for my client and her mom to find. Or, it just reminds me that the crows like to get up to shenaningans in my backyard (see pic), and once in a while their roughhousing loosens a sleek black feather.

• I check in with my friends and recovery group (the BFB) throughout the day. It still amazes me that there are all these wonderful people out there doing hard things, and I am somehow magically connected to them.

• I journal every night and almost every morning, and have been since I decided it was time to end my long term use of alcohol because, among other things, it was enabling me to numb and remain in circumstances and with people where I didn’t feel my true self would be welcome. Put simply, using alcohol was making me feel lonely, whether I was actually alone or not.

Really, I do not walk around with my head in the clouds. I am a really hard worker who doesn’t enjoy sitting still. I have a fire in my belly at all times (Leo Sun, Aries Moon!) that must be fed regularly with inspired action.

I also know that at some point, money must be made, or I won’t have actual food in my belly (cue the singing for supper), but I have surprisingly made the cushion I left pharma with last longer than I thought I could. It turns out that the things I need on a daily basis do not cost much money. And I haven’t felt lonely in a very long time.

The company I keep these days