Little bit o’this

You know that old saying “a little bit o’what ails ya”? Or what about the old “hair o’the dog that bit ye”? Olde English added for extra effect. Both sayings have probably been around for centuries ~ in other words, Old Wives Tales ~ but like so many old sayings, they are actually quite sciencey.

Scientists (sciencey people) have found that giving people tiny amounts of an allergen and building it up over time can completely nullify allergic reactions, even severe anaphylaxis.

And this, this is incredible- If you suffer from hay fever in spring, the best thing you can do is eat locally produced honey. Apparently, the minute amount of pollen present in the honey can reduce the allergic reaction to the local flora (sciencey word for plants). (Sciencey is now coming up on my autocorrect and Grammarly has completely accepted it as a word!)

This information comes in handy when we’re trying to change our habits or introduce new ones. Knowing that a little bit each day can gradually have a huge impact on us really helps to get up earlier, hit the meditation or yoga mat, go for a walk, etc. It can also be the kick in the pants that we need to drop the detrimental stuff. Bit by bit and then one day…we realise we’ve been eating better, journaling for a month, exercising more.

The concept of having a bit more alcohol (hair) to even out having too much (the dog) last night is definitely sciencey but I’m pretty confident that’s one of those detrimental habits we should probably drop.

We can also draw correlations here to social media use. I love social media and use it daily, but I have also gone days and weeks without accessing my accounts. I have built an almost 3000-strong following for my Paris writing by posting regular, quality content. Social Media is like alcohol in so many ways; it’s a social lubricant, excellent for introverts… And like alcohol, it’s not inherently bad but it can do real damage if overused, abused or taken too young. Anyone who wants to build a (dreaded word alert) ‘platform‘ really needs to embrace social media because it makes it easy to get your message out to a huge audience in unprecedented time frames. Do you need Social media as a creative? Probably not, but it does help find your audience, aka people who might just read/buy your work.

Having said that, we can waste valuable writing/making time dicking about on socials, convincing ourselves we’re building our platform, marketing, etc… It’s important to remember to take a little of what ails ye, not binge on it because that will result in, well, nothing. No writing is getting done while you’re competing in the latest Instagram challenge…Note to self…

As for the hair of the dog, I find when I’m writing late into the night, the first thing I do when I wake up is – grab a pen and paper, and write down an idea that came to me during the night!

So as Nanowrimo approaches, I was planning to stay away from social media altogether, but I’m just going to take little bites each day, a tiny 10-minute session to tend to my #parislovers on Facebook and post my Nano progress on Instagram. Gotta keep that platform building!

below – my super crappy working cover for Nanowrimo! hahaha, step away from Canva, Christine!