Happy Saturday!

Yippie! I found some time to write my blog post today. And I’m going to talk about a topic that many an artist can relate: the day job. I know that those words can shivers down your spine for it’s such a loaded phrase. But it’s a necessity for artists until they get “discovered.”

I could go on endlessly about their good sides and bad sides for they have both. It’s more the realization that I will always need one given that I want to be a writer and a filmmaker. Markets are always unpredictable and things like COVID knocked the wind from the sails of the movie industry. And it takes a long ass time to make indie films if you’re not rolling in the dough.

Don’t worry – this isn’t CUE WHINING or ENTER WHINING. It’s more to have you consider something that has been coming to light for me about “day jobs.” Maybe some of you can relate. See… I’ve never given much thought, or been deliberate about my chosen day job except when I did freelance writing. It’s just that I gave it up when I moved to Los Angeles because it’s the kind that requires relationships.

Huh? What does relationships have to do with freelance writing? It’s that I wrote some news articles like is traditionally associated with this kind of writing. Afterall… Who doesn’t want a byline in some fancy magazine or website? As publishers know this, some exploit it with paying people as little as $0.01 per word. This means you have to write at least 100 words to make even a dollar. God also knows that it can be brutal coming up with those 100 words thereby easily burning through that dollar long before you make it.

Research is also included in that time for your article doesn’t get published if you went left field from the publisher’s guidelines. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoyed writing for a local newspaper when I did it. But I did it more to get my name out there as opposed to the big paychecks. And it worked for it help me get build the relationships that I needed to launch a business where I wrote a lot of interesting pieces. It’s just that this job didn’t transport itself to Los Angeles.

Life also took in the direction of working in social services instead of only writing about them. And I was also able to delve more into the moviemaking world. It’s been a gift. I reached the point where I’m grateful for the opportunities that have come my way here in Los Angeles. It’s also time to start to make a shift.

See… I’ve come up with a day job that I want to keep. You know the kind that I deliberately chose because I like it? Well, my creativity also even begun to flourish. It’s called therapeutic breathwork. As part of my training, I’m supposed to do 30 days in row of me doing my therapeutic breath for 30 minutes. I’ll be honest that I thought breathwork was bullshit until I tried it. Repressed memories came forward during my first session. And I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve seen it work miracles in people and even simply just calm people. Its impact is as unique as the individual. I love it!

A small note about breathwork: I feel like I’ve been able to do more work on my complex PTSD with breathwork than all of my years in therapy. One could also argue that if it weren’t for my years in therapy that my breathwork wouldn’t be so effective. I figure the truth is somewhere in the middle: Breathwork brings forth the information. My tools from therapy help me unpack it. As I want to be more supportive of my clients, I’m currently taking a community-based class to help me be a counselor. I’ll let you know more shortly for I have no interest in going back to formal schooling for that. It’s more that I want those tools to help people better process of their breathwork sessions.

I’ll talk about it more in the coming months while I go through the process of my certifications. The other part will be to combine it with freelance writing for that will be supporting my indie filmmaking. I’m writing grants, fact sheets, website content, blogs, etc… I also love this kind of writing. No. Plot twists aren’t quite the same in this less than sexy writing. But the ability to write short papers instead of long ones is a God send from screenwriting. This can be so damn liberating.

My point now is to exit one part of my life to move onto the next in the coming months. I’m beyond excited!!!

Reach out to me at hollysorianoblog (@) gmail dot com if you want to know more about breathwork or other things that I wrote about today!

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