Cynthia Morris

Jane Fonda in Five Acts

Ever since I saw the documentary about Jane Fonda’s life, I have had new respect for her.

Jane Fonda in Five Acts (documentary, 2018 by Susan Lacy) blew me away. It’s a bit long, but thankfully so is the life of Jane Fonda. I’m impressed by how many different experiences she has had. Sure, many of them were attached to rich and powerful men. But Jane has been her own dynamic force in the world since she became an activist in the 60s. After I saw it, I couldn’t stop thinking about how we can have wildly different chapters in our lives, and how Jane gives me permission to speak up and take a stand for my values.

Last week, Jane was on one of my favorite podcasts, ON with Kara Swisher. I’d just been writing this Boost and the next morning I got to listen to their conversation, How to Turn Rage into Hope. It felt like a fun synchronicity.

If you want to see more Jane Fonda, check out the French film All Together (2011 Stéphane Robelin) In French it’s et si on vivait tous ensemble. I watched this entire movie some years ago and didn’t realize it was Jane (speaking French!) until the end.

GREAT movie about a group of friends – septegenarians – who decide to take their lives into their own hands and move in together.

Other great women you should know

Speaking of amazing American women speaking French, you must see A Private Life with Jodie Foster.(2026 Rebecca Zlotowski) In French, it’s une vie privée. I loved this movie so much. Great in so many ways, and I adore anything featuring a therapist. Give me a French psychological drama any day, and I will be happy.

Tami Palmer and I have been internet friends for a while now. She writes novels and leads writing retreats, and now she’s launched a podcast, The Intention Podcast with Tami Palmer. I was honored to be her first guest, where we talked about living a creative life, Big Magic, and the spiritual aspects of creativity.

Helen Hiebert is a fascinating Colorado paper artist and teacher. Her newsletter, The Sunday Paper, is full of interesting things Helen is doing in the world of art made with paper. Her new book, Weaving with Paper, features 30 paper weaving projects.

The book also includes insights from artists on maintaining a daily practice. I contributed to this with my counterintuitive advice (pages 62 and 69).

There’s a new magazine by Rachel Allen and Solveig Petch, The Bigger Picture. The first edition – a lovely paperback – theme is Thinking Bigger. What a gorgeous magazine featuring people doing what they love, and doing it big! I am honored to have been featured in the inaugural edition.

Have you ever done an audit on the things you consume? And the resources you devote to what you consume – time, money, etc?

I think about this a lot, and admit to being somewhat unconscious about my consuming. I feel sometimes a bit obsessive around books, movies, TV shows and podcasts. I am a culture junkie, and I love being connected to the world through the things people create.

And sometimes it’s just too much. How to know what’s too much?

Many of my coaching sessions revolve around how my clients spend their time and resources. Writing a book or starting a business takes a lot of energy. Most of us are already maxed out, so something has to go.

If you made a list of all the things you consume, including mindless scrolling online, where might you find time/energy/space for your own projects?

Something came up last week that forced this issue for me, and I am excited to share it with you.

I follow Scott Galloway, a professor and author whose Pivot podcast with Kara Swisher always informs me and makes me feel more human.

Scott has launched Resist and Unsubscribe, a simple yet powerful Economic Strike  that gives us a way to take a stand. Scott believes – and I am with him – that in the US the thing that has the most power is our ability to decide where we spend our money. Resist and Unsubscribe gives us a way to say no to the billionaires who are driving a dehumanization on a mass scale.

Resist and Unsubscribe is also a stand against companies that are directly funding ICE efforts. The website is here, including links with instructions for how to unsubscribe.

This helps immediately

The impact of unsubscribing can reveal things. How much are we spending, perhaps on things we don’t use or want? How the spending we have perhaps unconsciously continued actually does not reflect our values and how we want to live. What would we be doing with our precious resources of time and money if they were not going to billionaires who don’t even respect us?

Steve is going to work in the mountains today. “I’m going to end it today,” I told him.

“What?”

“I’m going to pull the plug.”

“On what?”

I pause. Saying it means I have to actually do it.

“Cancelling Netflix.”

I have already unsubscribed from most of the subscriptions Scott mentions. The hardest for me is Netflix.

Since 2020, I have been a couch potato in the evenings. It’s time to relax and unwind with Steve. If we aren’t doing that, will we lose some connection while we are in our separate spaces? I would like to be in my studio some evenings, but my time with Steve is precious and I want to have as much of it as I can.

I spoke with a client yesterday who has the same relationship with Netflix. But she was able to pull away and devote more time to reading. Yes! I thought. I have all these books I want to read NOW:

If I am honest, my relationship with Netflix has been 50/50. The endless scrolling to find something we want to watch is draining.

What I really want to watch is Ken Burns’ American Revolution show. We’ve seen a couple of episodes and I have learned so much. And the artwork is stunning! No photos from that era, so it’s mostly paintings used to depict events.

Thank you for being you, for being with me in this creative adventure, and for helping me stay honest. I’m going right now to unsubscribe from Netflix and subscribe to PBS.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Share what you’re unsubscribing from below.

I know many of us are wondering, “What can I do?” How do we contribute to bringing peace into action in the world?

As a coach, I focus on helping my clients be stable so they can do their creative work. But distraction, overwhelm and the inability to focus is plaguing many of us now.

What gets in the way of emotional stability? A deregulated nervous system. You’ve probably heard about how a deregulated nervous systems can cause us to feel:

• Anxious all the time
• Unable to sleep well
• Easily irritated
• Overwhelmed by emotions

If you feel out of whack and unable to bring calm and focus, you might consider building a new relationship with your nervous system.

With a regulated nervous system, we can:

• Show up more for ourselves and others
• Have resiliency around the intensity of the world
• Feel grounded and able to act according to our strengths.

What’s making a difference for me now

Today, I share some of the things that make a noticeable difference for me and my nervous system.

One of the most meaningful shifts for me has come from working both as a client and a practitioner with a modality called Quantum Energy Coaching.

For the first time in my life, I know what it feels like to live with a consistently regulated nervous system. I’m still myself, but I’m no longer pulled into overwhelm or left at the mercy of sudden emotional surges.

When something does trigger me, it’s more like a match being lit and then extinguished. The fire doesn’t take over my day. I don’t get caught in endless thought loops that burn up my precious energy.

This kind of steadiness has made life and my work far more enjoyable.

If you’re curious about experiencing this kind of transformation for yourself, reach out, and I’ll send you more information.

Along with this longer-term support, there are easy, inexpensive things I turn to every day to bring myself back into calm. They’re not cures, but they help.

Here are my favorite calming practices.

Daily morning time in my studio ‘lounge’. There’s a very low bar = it’s just time with me as a human as I awaken to the day, not diving into work mode as I did in my 30s and 40s. This ritual is not any big whoop, just time with coffee, water, my notebooks. I pull my tarot and angel card and doodle some notes and images in my journal. As the coffee kicks in, ideas formulate. Sometimes I write for work, sometimes I do research.

This time is always accompanied by music on Insight Timer. I love the gentle, soothing sounds. I am not claiming this time as ‘meditating’.

Shakti mat naps You may have heard me rave about my Shakti mat. This acupressure mat allows for deep rest and a deep nap. The feeling afterward is like having had a wonderful massage or a great yoga class. Also accompanied by music on Insight Timer. I do this almost daily and take my mat on all my travels.

Walks in nature Living close to City Park gives me a giant backyard to wander in. Seeing the lake, tons of geese coming and going and squawking and pecking and pooping, plus people, dogs, life helps me recenter myself after being at a screen for long hours.

Time with my artist at my studio desk playing with watercolor paint. My artist is back! If you want to see what’s happening in my art studio, join me at Stumbling Toward Genius where I share my art and process.

Cuddling with my husband Steve or my granddog Rex instantly calms my nervous system. I feel a sense of love and connection. My body relaxes instantly in a primal way.

Expressive journaling has been helpful to clear thoughts and emotions and recalibrate to what’s true for me. Takes some time, but it’s surprisingly powerful and simple.

What helps you maintain a regulated nervous system? Share in a comment below.

Art on this website is by Cynthia Morris. 

What are you hungry for, creativity-wise? If you’re like me, you have plenty of ‘good’ ideas. Maybe you’ve followed one of those genius ideas only to realize you had no gas in the tank to take it very far. It was a ‘smart’ idea, not a ‘heart’ idea.

You have probably heard me talk about creating from devotion, not discipline. Sure, we need structure to bring our ideas to life. But if we are forcing ourselves to do show up, it just won’t happen.

This was my experience last fall, when I committed to a writing project that was not aligned with my soul. I thought that accountability and structure would do the work of making it viable. Instead, it just felt awful. I cycled through a lot of dark forest paths until I found the bright light of my truth:

I cannot do anything that doesn’t come from the heart. 

This insight came to me during a reflective writing practice in my Write ON group. Wow, was it powerful. It may sound obvious but I truly felt the difference between the mind’s ideas about what we should do – perhaps driven by cultural expectations – and the heart’s desire – driven by our soul work.

This brings me to a natural experience – hunger. We know when we are hungry, and if we pause to inquire within, we also know what we crave. I believe this is the same for our creative work – it’s a natural impulse.

What are you hungry for now? What do you devote yourself to this year? 

After three years of writing and publishing a novel, I’m now hungry for my visual art. I have filled pages in my new artist notebook with what I want. Over the holiday break, I spent time every day painting in my studio and it filled me up and made me hungry for more.

I’ll share more about my Creative Edge for 2026 soon. For now, here’s the first painting I made when I came back to my watercolors. I love these colorful macarons so much. I simply played with my watercolor palette, exploring different color combinations.

Later this week, I will share what’s coming up for us in 2026. A couple of big new things are on the agenda and I can’t wait to share with you!