Using the internet for good 3 ways...
Anyone can make a beautiful difference to someone's day or quite the opposite actually.
Hi Sparklers,
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How are you? I’ve got a three part post for you all today. It’s been a tricky one to birth but it’s ready now… I hope it helps!
1. Trolls, tricky messages and trepidation in the online space
I was thinking about the responsibility we have to process our online experience.
It was prompted by some of the unhelpful, unsupportive comments I’ve received recently that have nowhere to land in my body. More they sit outside me and tell me to stop showing up, give up, close the laptop, delete the apps, stop trying. They become a whole entity in themselves.
Some comments are well meaning but confuse me tangled up in who I am because I have ‘big’ platform or I’m “Substack famous”.
Comments about being too busy or too audacious or too much or too confusing or too bold. Wrong or confused or deluded about life.
A similar stunned thing used to happen in my nervous system with the positive comments too but I have worked on that. I used to literally close my phone if someone said something lovely. 🫨 💖
I see the words black, white and barbed, unnecessary and often clumsy with typos that hurt my eyes.
And as I mentor you to grow here joyfully and sustainably and do the work you want to do in the world, I know some strange or negative comments might end up in your space too. When we focus on human to human connection, people feel safe in our space and shares and comments pour in.
I want you to feel safe to create, safe to share your magic, safe to be you here on Substack.
For every strange comment there are a thousand and one GOOD ones. Beautiful people who appreciate your work and words. You can be part of spreading those across the airwaves here - you can be the GOOD in someone’s day - share your sparkles and tell people how much they made your day, tell them their words are like honey, tell them they inspired you - only good things happen when you pour the love in. ✨
2. Using the internet for Good
I wanted to introduce you to Nicole. Nicole is mum to Evie and drawing portraits to mindfully impact her wellbeing in a challenging time.
Her daughter is in Great Ormond Street Hospital in the UK and has been very very poorly. She is doing much better but the way the UK government is set up means she needs funding to continue to support her recovery and sprinkle more creativity and joy into her life.
I don’t know Nicole but I supported her crowdfunding campaign on Go Fund Me and she drew me a portrait. ⬆️
For those of you who are introverted, this is such a lovely idea for your profile picture here or anywhere. Or perhaps for using on your Substack in other ways. Drop Nicole a message to get yours? Yes it’s genuinely free and you are invited to leave her a donation.
Nicole’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nicoleadeleillustrations, dm to request her to draw you for free/ a donation.
Her go fund me page for her daughter Evie if you can afford to donate - https://gofund.me/e4915e99
3. NEW WORKSHOP!!
What if we learnt to create and converse with the hologram who runs our online spaces? S/he’s a boss! Do you know yours?
The hologram who runs my online spaces is a…
👸🏽 QUEEN!
How do I help you to understand that the people who choose to not support you have sh*t of their own to deal with…
How do I get back to my emails and dms, leading in service to you all if I’ve read an unkind message?
I’ve found a way…
Who is this workshop for;
Folks who want to show up online and publish work
Folks who want to build community
People who feel ‘imposter syndrome’
People who have been hurt on the internet or are nervous of that
People who are curious about leaning into their blocks
Anyone who has had inbox anxiety!
Folks who want to meet their muse to walk with them head held high in the online space.
✨ Perhaps you are about to publish a book, you want to grow your Substack, you want to invite more comments, you want to feel more confident online. Perhaps you’re curious about my experiences as I’ve grown my platforms - come sit with us in circle, let’s meet the muses who support us and give them a full time job!
Creating a hologram of who we really are…
I know the person writing sees a world that isn’t there. It’s simply not real; it’s a shard of projected imagination and lands in a world that is very real; yours.
They are not wild in madness.
No, they are merely projecting a whole load of unresolved hurt into a message to a person they don’t know online. Maybe they have paid money or entered our space with an unrealistic expectation we haven’t delivered.
Maybe they see us as uncaring or aloof, ego centric or uncaring?
Maybe we missed a tag, a comment, a request and they have rejection sensitivity.
Here’s the deal!
They don’t know all of the fabric that makes me me or you you. How could they? They know the version they have built up in their heads from all the electronic shards and words we’ve shared that have landed somewhere in the hologram version of them…
Humans are flawed, we get it wrong a lot, life online is busy and chaotic and things get misinterpreted and misunderstood… People online can be really really demanding, they can be dismissive, strange, cruel, difficult. Here’s the link again to join us at the workshop. Limited spaces so I can keep it intimate, replay available here on Sparkle for members and over on Creatively Conscious by Claire Venus in the members portal too.
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Would love to hear from you in the comments if you’ve had any tricky experiences online and you want to share. We’re here for you!!
Sending sparkles,
Claire
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PS - Our book ‘How to Build a World Class Substack’ is available now and ONLY until 31st August on Kickstarter. The project is fully funded so head here to pre-order your copy. You can create a kickstarter account or check out as a guest - either will work. Russell Nohelty and I would love to see YOUR name on the backer wall and support you in your quest to build a world class Substack where the positivity pours in and people know your name. ✨📖✨
I am currently visiting an old school friend in very beautiful Exmoor. She is a poet and wants to set up a Substack and I will show her how. I was just telling her last night how nice people are on Substack, unlike what I have heard about other social media (I have limited presence anywhere else, so don't really know). It seems such a shame when you are doing everything you can to help other people that some are unkind to you. What can I do? I send you a hug.
The b*tchy people clearly don’t know you, and are probably extremely jealous of your success. It hurts though. There is this weird thing about people, that if a person is well-known in their sphere, it sort of dehumanises them in the eyes of some other people, who then seem to feel free to verbalise praise and criticism equally. Whereas if nobody knows who you are, you are immune from that. Sending lots of love and support.
I hear what you’re saying about learning how to take praise, too. Somebody wrote a lovely comment about one of my pieces and I was so shocked I clicked off the thread, and then sort of crept back a couple of times later until I really processed. Good old imposter syndrome is still whisoer in my ear that they commented in the wrong place… Thank you for the mini course - it’s in my diary