But what actually is a Winter Arc?

In short, it’s a mindset shift. It’s the decision to take the final four months of the year, from September through December, and use them as a quiet, focused season of personal growth. Instead of coasting through the cozy, dark autumn months and waiting until January 1st to make a frantic list of New Year’s resolutions, you start now.

The philosophy is simple: while the rest of the world slows down, hibernates, or puts their goals on pause until the new year, you choose to gently work on yourself in secret. You build the routine, refine your habits, and do the inner work so that when January 1st rolls around, you aren’t scrambling to change. You’ve already changed. You’re already a step ahead, glowing, and grounded in your power.

How Do We Make the Most of Our Winter Arc?

To actually make this season work for you, a successful Winter Arc needs three things:

Clarity: Knowing exactly what you are focusing on each week so you never feel overwhelmed.

Sustainability: Choosing gentle, powerful daily habits over drastic, unsustainable shifts.

Accountability & Connection: Having a warm, safe space that keeps you going when motivation inevitably fades.

Doing all of this completely on your own can feel lonely. Life gets busy, the days get shorter, and the pull of old, comfortable habits is sneaky.

Which brought me to an idea: what if we didn’t do this alone?

There are over 3,000 of us reading Feeling Pink every week what if we built a cozy, dedicated circle to walk this path together, step by step?

Introducing The Guided Winter Arc Program

That’s exactly why I created The Guided Winter Arc Program. A cozy, structured 4-month space where we stop wishing and start gently doing the work together.

I will be right by your side every single week, guiding you, keeping you accountable, and cheering for every single win.

Here is the most important thing: for me the Winter Arc is not a performative challenge.

It’s not about toxic productivity, waking up at 4 AM, or burning yourself out to prove something to the internet. That’s why most solo attempts fail by week three.

I chose the Winter Arc precisely because these winter months give us the permission to slow down and work on ourselves with grace and patience.

It’s about reflecting, studying, learning to understand yourself better, and making soft, meaningful adjustments. No pressure, no performative perfection, just real, quiet evolution.

How The Program Works (And Why It Fits Your Busy Life)

I know you’re busy, and the last thing you need is another overwhelming to-do list. That’s why I designed every weekly drop to take no more than 15–20 minutes of your week. It’s lightweight, hyper-focused, and seamlessly fits into your routine.

The 4 Pillars of Your Transformation

Over the next four months, we are going through four lovely phases to rebuild your routine from the inside out:

September | Reset & Foundations: We clear the slate. You’ll learn how to do a deep mental and digital declutter, fix your sleep hygiene for real energy, and gently spot the habits draining your vibe to swap them for systems that support you.

October | Body & Fuel: All about reconnecting with your physical self. We’ll introduce structured workout splits, move into conscious and nourishing eating, and focus on hydration and genuine rest. Moving your body out of love and power, never punishment.

November | Mind & Growth: Feeding your mind and spirit. We’ll dive into cozy reading lists, a gentle digital detox to protect your focus, stress-relief practices, and soft financial wellness basics to make you feel empowered and secure.

December | Reflect & Elevate: As the year wraps up, we consolidate our magic. You’ll lock in your new routines, reflect on how far you’ve come, and map out a clear, confident vision for 2027.

Are You Ready to Step Into Your Next Era?

This is your official invitation to stop waiting for “the perfect time” and join us. You don’t have to figure it all out by yourself anymore.

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Exclusive Early Bird Access (Available Until Sept 1st)

I want this space to be as open and accessible as possible for anyone who feels called to join us. That’s why I’m offering a special Early Bird Discount valid until September 1st.

By upgrading to a paid subscription today, you lock in a 50% off forever.

Get 50% off forever

Early Bird Special: Get full access to the 4-month program, all weekly toolkits, and the private chat at a reduced price.

Deadline: This special price is my way of welcoming early commitments before our official launch on September 1st. Once our first official newsletter drops, the discount disappears forever and pricing goes to full rate.

Another year of doing it all on your own, or four cozy months surrounded by a community that lifts you up? You already know where you want to be in 2027. Let’s walk there together.

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We often blame ourselves for having too many thoughts, but overthinking is not actually a volume issue. It is a problem of cognitive mode. Human thinking generally splits into two distinct categories. On one hand, you have productive thinking, where you analyze a situation, form a solution, and take direct action. On the other hand, you have rumination, which is what we commonly refer to as overthinking. This is where you cycle through analysis over and over without ever reaching a resolution or taking action.

When you overthink, your brain has detected uncertainty and has mistakenly concluded that thinking a little bit more will solve that uncertainty. This trap manifests in two main ways. First, there is the open loop problem. Your brain hates unfinished business and treats unresolved situations like open loops, forcing information to remain active in your working memory until it finds closure. Second, overthinking creates the illusion of control. The future is inherently uncertain, and because thinking feels like doing something, your brain uses overthinking as a strategy to manufacture a false sense of control over unknown outcomes.

Once you recognize these mechanisms, breaking the cycle becomes an actionable practice.

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Most of us live under a subtle, persistent illusion: we believe that as soon as our life circumstances improve, as soon as we get the dream promotion, land the ideal partner, secure that financial buffer, or earn public validation, we will finally feel confident, calm, and fulfilled. We wait for external reality to hand us permission to feel good. But neuroscience and human psychology show that this equation is entirely backwards. Your brain does not simply react to the world as an objective observer, it actively predicts reality based on who you are being right now. The way you breathe, move, think, and feel sends continuous biofeedback to your neurological hardware, shaping the lens through which you perceive opportunities and take action. If you want your external world to transform, you have to embody the internal state first.

Think about how you fall asleep at night. You lie down, close your eyes, slow your breathing, and essentially pretend that you are already asleep long before your brain actually switches into slumber. You embody the state before it becomes physical reality. Shifting your life operates on the exact same physiological principle. As long as you outsource your emotional well being to future events, you remain trapped in a state of waiting and lack, unconsciously filtering out the very possibilities that could elevate you. Taking your emotional power back begins with getting crystal clear on how you actually want to feel, rather than just focusing on static goals. Once you identify that desired emotion, whether it is freedom, abundance, growth, or peace, you must give yourself unconditional permission to feel it today, without needing an external trigger to validate it.

To ground this in reality rather than wishful thinking, take a deliberate inventory of your present life and look for every existing reason you already have to feel that way. If you seek confidence, recognize every hardship you have survived and every skill you have mastered. If you seek growth, acknowledge the subtle ways you are evolving, even if one specific area feels temporarily stalled. Beyond mindset, anchor this feeling into physical habits you control completely: map out three small, non negotiable daily actions that nourish that state, like spending undisturbed time with yourself or completing key priorities early in the day. And when bad days or emotional slumps inevitably hit, avoid judging or invalidating yourself. Uncomfortable emotions are a natural part of a rich life. Instead of fighting your low moments, ask yourself what a caring, supportive version of you would do in that instant, and remember that unexpressed creative potential is often the secret root of daily anxiety.

Once your emotional baseline is established, your physical momentum must follow suit. Aligning your life requires moving, deciding, and carrying yourself as the version of you who already operates at that higher level. If you do not know what that person looks like, your very first step is to meet them through vivid visualization or detailed journaling. Map out their exact identity: how do they react when faced with unexpected failure or friction? What are their daily morning boundaries? How do they handle moments of self doubt? Write down this full identity profile by hand, creating a clear blueprint for how your future self navigates the world.

With that vision in place, convert it into an immediate decision making framework. Whenever you encounter a crossroads, a moment of procrastination, or a surge of fatigue, pause and ask yourself: What would the highest version of me do right now? The answer might not always be the easiest option, but it will always be the one aligned with your long term evolution. And whenever you feel physically stuck or emotionally looped in a room, leverage the physiological reset known as the doorway effect. Changing your physical environment, stepping outside, walking into a different room, or going to the gym, signals your brain to segment its memory and reset its cognitive state, making it vastly easier to break out of low energy cycles and step directly into your daily power.

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None of my close friends share this specific reading obsession, so I thought: with a community of over 3,000 of you here, surely someone has read Dostoevsky, is planning to, or just enjoys diving into these kinds of stories. I really wanted a space to exchange thoughts and see if anyone else has experienced a book quite like this.

It all started a few months ago when I picked up Crime and Punishment. I loved it so much that I immediately wanted to keep exploring Dostoevsky's work, which led me straight into Demons.

To be completely honest? I disliked almost the entire reading process.

Aside from a few specific chapters, I didn't enjoy reading Demons while I was actually in it. The only real exceptions for me, the moments where I was genuinely hooked, were the chapters focused on Stavrogin.

Specifically, his confession to the bishop, the final letter he writes to Dasha, and him talking to other characters all around the book.

Even though Stavrogin ultimately represents an absolute moral void, he possesses this magnetic 'charm of evil.' He acts like a natural disaster for everyone around him, drawing people into his orbit only to destroy them. And honestly? I think he exerts that same dark fascination over the reader, too.

It took me two full, heavy months to drag myself through it. But then something wild happened: the real "plot twist" of the book didn't happen on the final page, it happened after I closed the cover.

While I was reading, the book felt infuriatingly chaotic and noisy. It seemed like an endless stream of random people sitting in salons, gossiping, and debating useless, trivial things.

I couldn't find a clear narrative thread to follow. The characters felt hollow or senseless, and every relationship in the book, especially the romantic ones around Stavrogin, or Šatov and his wife, seemed to only exist at the moment of breaking down. We don't see them form or grow; we only see them shatter.

Then came the ending (that was weirdly spoiled on the back cover): an explosion of senseless, brutal violence. Fires, bloodshed, murders, and a wave of suicides. It felt completely gratuitous.

I closed the book feeling bewildered and thought, "Well, I guess I really didn't like that."

I sat with it for a while because, despite my frustration, the book refused to leave my head. And that's when it finally hit me.

The total confusion, the lack of meaning, the superficial chatter of salon intellectualism that leads nowhere, the absence of real human connection, and that final burst of senseless violence that IS Dostoevsky’s portrait of Evil.

The reading experience was uncomfortable because Dostoevsky didn't want to tell a story; he wanted to force the reader to experience what evil actually feels like.

Evil doesn't build or create; it confuses, it chatterers, it isolates, and ultimately, it destroys.

The moment I realized this, my entire perspective shifted. It transformed from a frustrating "what a chore of a book" into an incredible, immersive dive into Dostoevsky's worldview.

It wasn't just a novel anymore; it was a sensory experience of psychological chaos.

Interestingly, when I browsed Goodreads reviews afterward, I didn't see anyone describing the book through this specific lens so I decided to share my perspective with you to see what you think about it and hopefully we can discuss it in the comments.

A Modern Parallel: Light Yagami (Death Note)

While processing all of this, and having Crime and Punishment still fresh in my mind, I couldn't help but make a connection to one of my favorite anime, Death Note.

To me, Light Yagami feels like the perfect modern fusion of Stavrogin and Raskol'nikov:

The Stavrogin side: Light begins as a handsome, brilliant, deeply attractive young man who has everything, yet he is mortal bored.

Like Stavrogin, his evil stems from an absolute, detached apathy. As his story progresses, he sheds all empathy, refuses to feel guilt, and views people as mere tools.

The Raskol'nikov side: Light rationalizes his actions by elevating himself to a god-like status.

Just like Raskol'nikov kills the pawnbroker to prove he is an "extraordinary man" (a Napoleon above common morality), Light becomes Kira to judge humanity and execute "justice" for what he convinces himself is a noble cause when, in reality, it is pure ego.

The political prediction

Another thing that completely blew my mind once I stepped back from the book is how insanely prophetic Dostoevsky was. Writing in the late 1800s, he essentially foresaw the psychological mechanisms behind the totalitarians of the 20th century.

He showed how abstract, utopian theories, debated casually in living rooms by intellectuals can slowly turn into ideological fanaticism.

When people abandon individual morality for a 'greater cause,' those grand ideas inevitably end up in the exact same place Dostoevsky showed us: senseless violence, destruction, and death.

He predicted the tragedy of the world wars and modern totalitarian regimes decades before they actually happened.

What's Next for me

Despite the emotional marathon Demons turned out to be, this realization has only made me more passionate about exploring Dostoevsky further. Up next on my reading list is Notes from Underground, I want to keep digging into his exploration of human dark side and moral alienation.

If you made it all the way to the end of this long reflection, thank you so much for sticking around! I honestly just really needed a space to share all these thoughts. We so often forget that this is what social platforms and online spaces are originally meant for, to connect us through shared passions and have real, meaningful conversations.

I really hope to find a few kindred spirits here who want to nerd out about these things with me!

I'd love to hear from you:

Have you ever read a book that you hated while reading, but loved once you stepped back from it? If you’ve read Demons or Crime and Punishment, how did you perceive his portrayal of evil? (And any Death Note fans out there see the connection too?)

Let me know in the comments, please don’t leave me alone fangirling about this nerdy stuff!

Love,

Lux

When you feel like you have lost everything, or when you are so deeply stuck in a rut that you do not even recognize yourself in the mirror anymore, the universe gives you a rare gift. You no longer have anything left to protect. The fear of failure, the anxiety of being judged by people who do not care about you, and the fragile ego you spent years trying to maintain, it all vanishes. You are clean, raw, and completely free.

Yet, most people waste this incredible surge of raw energy doing the absolute worst thing possible: they lock themselves in their rooms, play sad music on repeat to romanticize their misery, and keep hanging around the same drained, passive people who dragged them into the ditch in the first place.

If you are genuinely tired of your current reality, you have to understand a fundamental flaw in human biology: your brain is a brilliant engine, but it cannot tell the difference between what is actually happening in front of you and what you are repeatedly feeding it. If you spend every waking hour obsessing over a heartbreak, staring at a depressing bank account, or complaining about your stagnant career, your subconscious registers that pain as a brand-new trauma happening in real time, over and over again. Your sensory input directly dictates your reality.

The truth is, your habits, your mindset, and your bank account will always mirror the five people you spend the most time with, alongside the content you consume daily. If those inputs are comfortable being stuck, staying near them acts like an anchor on your soul.

You have cried enough, you have complained enough, and you have spent far too many nights feeling sorry for where you are. To turn your life completely upside down over the next 30 days, you need to stop acting like a passive tourist in your own life and adopt an aggressive, unshakeable protocol that forces your mind and environment to adapt to a higher standard.

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Lately, there’s this heavy, shared feeling that we’ve lost the ability to simply enjoy our hobbies. Everything we used to do for fun or relaxation has turned into a metric, a daily report card to measure how productive, fit, smart, or successful we are. Welcome to the age of total optimization and maxing.

It started off innocently enough. Fitness trackers gave us access to health data that used to require constant doctor visits. But somewhere along the way, it stopped being about how we actually feel and became entirely about the numbers, like our Strava pace, deep sleep cycles, protein targets, and calorie counts. Social media has only pushed this into overdrive with endless trends around looksmaxing, moneymaxing, or fitnessmaxing. We watch video after video of hyper-curated routines, conditioning us to treat our daily existence like an Excel spreadsheet. We find ourselves constantly asking what formula or habit stack we can use to optimize our lives and reach peak happiness as fast as possible.

The irony is that happiness doesn't work like a project deadline. By turning our daily lives into data points, we end up stripping away the very things that actually make us feel grounded and human, such as genuine connection, spontaneous moments, and simple presence, which are things that can't be sold in a supplement bottle or tracked by an app.

Living in a culture obsessed with hustle and grind makes it dangerously easy to start viewing yourself as a brand to be marketed or a business to be optimized. We even hear people unironically talking about "high-value" individuals, as if human worth were traded on the stock market. Everything in daily life gets framed as a strategy, from time blocking every hour and habit stacking to strict dietary protocols, sleep tracking, and screen time limits.

This optimization mindset thrives on our quiet insecurities. Advertisements and algorithms constantly try to make us feel like we’re in a state of lack, convincing us that the next routine or product will finally make us whole. And for many of us trying to figure out our twenties in an uncertain economy, when long-term goals like buying a house feel out of reach, we channel all our anxiety into the one thing we feel we can control: our bodies, our routines, and our stats.

We’ve subtly rewired our brains to believe that if an activity doesn't produce a visible output, whether that is a logged workout, a finished project, or a published post, then it had no real value. Doing something purely for the joy of it now triggers a strange, lingering guilt. A voice in the back of your head whispers that you could be doing something productive right now. But your life isn't a company, and you aren't a brand that needs to show quarterly growth. Constantly feeling like you're behind or that every waking moment needs to be leveraged for self-improvement is exhausting.

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Breaking out of this mindset doesn't require another complex system, it just takes a conscious effort to step back and exist without measuring it.

Try an untracked day, like going for a run or hitting the gym without wearing a smartwatch, or going to sleep without looking at a sleep score. Move simply because it feels good to move. Create something just for you, whether that's writing something, drawing, building a project, or trying a new recipe without documenting it or sharing it online. Keep the experience entirely private. The next time you’re having a great meal or spending time with friends, leave your phone in your pocket and let the moment stay a memory rather than a piece of content. Give yourself permission to be bored, put the phone away, and let your mind wander for ten minutes, because boredom is often where real reflection and genuine inspiration actually begin.

At the end of the day, we are here to live life, not to manage it like a corporate portfolio. You don't need to earn the right to rest, and you certainly don't need to log every moment to prove you existed today.

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But one thing that did happen there completely shifted how I view my anxiety.

Since I’m currently studying Spanish, I wanted to find a book to practice with. I wandered into a quiet bookstore, and a familiar author’s name caught my eye: Rafael Santandreu. He is a brilliant cognitive psychologist, and years ago, I read his famous book, The Art of Not Making Your Life Bitter.

Right there on the shelf was another one of his titles: Ser feliz en Alaska. I decided to buy it.

Honestly? I am completely adoring it.

The core of the book is based on cognitive psychology, but it has this beautiful, almost Buddhist philosophy woven into it. It tackles the exact thing that kept me frozen for months: attachment and the trap of making everything a tragedy.

Santandreu uses a term that I think we all need to learn: “Terribilitis.”

Terribilitis is the mental habit of taking a normal, everyday inconvenience or a period of uncertainty, and turning it into an absolute, irreversible catastrophe.

“I don’t know what to do with my life right now? This is terrible, I am a failure.”

“Things aren’t going exactly according to my timeline? This is a disaster, everything is ruined.”

We do this all the time. We attach our happiness to external things: perfect outcomes, constant validation, a flawless roadmap, or having more and doing more. We convince ourselves that if we don’t get exactly what we expect, our lives are a tragedy.

Paralyzed by the destination, we make our own present unlivable.

But cognitive psychology reminds us of a liberating truth: we actually need very little to be happy.

Most of the things we stress about are not survival needs. They are just preferences. When we learn to detach ourselves from the obsession with perfect results, the weight on our shoulders instantly drops. You realize that even if you fail, even if you are lost for a while, you are still okay. You can still be happy, even in “Alaska” meaning, even in the coldest, most difficult phases of your life.

Reading this in Spanish, slowly translating the words, made the lesson sink in even deeper. It made me realize that my existential crisis wasn’t caused by my life being a tragedy; it was caused by my mind making it a tragedy.

If you’re drowning in overthinking right now, ask yourself: are you dealing with a real disaster, or is it just a case of Terribilitis?

Maybe it’s time to let go of the attachment to having it all figured out, and just enjoy the walk.

Have you ever caught yourself “terribilizing” a situation? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

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We tell ourselves we just need a little more time to think, more data to process, a clearer sign. But if I’m being honest, most of that "waiting" is just paralysis disguised as due diligence.

I’ve spent the last few months trapped in exactly that loop. In fact, I completely stepped away from writing this newsletter (and from all my life’s duties) because the uncertainty of “what am I doing with my life?” became too loud to ignore.

If you were wondering where I disappeared to, here it is: I packed my bags and went to Spain for a couple of weeks, desperately chasing a magical epiphany. I had this romantic idea that a change of scenery would fix everything, that I’d sit in a quiet beach, look at the horizon, and suddenly figure out my entire future.

Spoiler alert: it didn’t happen.

Spain was beautiful, but my overthinking mind packed its bags and came right along with me. I spent weeks walking through gorgeous cities while simultaneously drowning in the exact same doubts. And that’s when I realized a brutal truth that might help you if you’re feeling stuck right now:

Clarity doesn’t come from thinking. It comes from doing.

We live in a world that obsessed with optimization, goals, and results. We are told to have a strategy for everything. But when you overthink, you get paralyzed by the destination before you’ve even tied your shoes. You try to see the entire staircase before taking the first step.

That pressure to get it “right” is exactly what kills the process. It’s what made me stop writing, and it’s probably what’s keeping you from starting that project, making that pivot, or changing whatever is making you unhappy right now.

We think we need to wait until the confusion goes away to act. But the truth is the exact opposite: the confusion only goes away after you act.

So, this is my messy, un-optimized way of breaking the ice. I still don’t have a master plan for my life. But I’m done waiting for perfect answers.

The message I needed to hear, and maybe the one you need to hear today too is painfully simple: Just do it. Just do the things.

Write the messy draft. Take the tiny, imperfect step. Stop waiting for the roadmap and just start walking.

Here’s for you a few nice pics from my trip

I think this Substack has changed shape a thousand times already.

And I think that says a lot about me.

When I first started writing here, this newsletter was basically a collection of opinions. Thoughts about things happening online, trends, conversations, things that were going viral.

Then as I started growing it slowly became something else, more like a “let’s grow together” kind of space. I was trying things, learning things, sharing what worked, sharing what didn’t, hoping maybe it could help someone else too.

Over the past months I’ve watched the numbers go up, then down, then sideways. There were moments where my Notes got a lot of attention, a lot of likes, a lot of engagement. Then quieter periods. And if I’m being completely honest, this whole journey has never really felt coherent, never really felt authentic, maybe just at the very beginning.

Not because I didn’t care, maybe because I care too much and I was constantly trying to figure out what this was supposed to be.

What works. What performs. What people want. What kind of content grows. What kind of person grows.

And now I got tired.

I mean, not tired of writing because I love Substack. I love the feeling of publishing something and knowing there are real people reading it somewhere in the world.

But I’m tired of trying to optimize this space all the time.

I’m tired of treating every post like it needs a strategy behind it. Tired of chasing consistency for the sake of consistency. Tired of trying to become “the version of myself that works online.”

So this is me officially giving that up.

This is no longer going to be a carefully curated newsletter with a fixed direction, or a “you should post every Monday at 8AM” kind of project.

This is becoming my blog.

Just a simple blog where I document my life, my ideas, and the behind-the-scenes of building a brand from scratch, which is what I dream to do.

I actually want to talk about what I genuinely care about.

And right now it’s creating my own brand.

At the moment, it’s still just an idea. Nothing glamorous yet. No huge launch. No perfect branding. No success story.

Just an idea I believe in enough to try.

So I want to start documenting my personal journey from the beginning: writing the business plan, applying for funding, figuring out production, understanding logistics, building the identity of the brand, making mistakes, changing direction, doubting myself, trying again.

The real process.

I’m Sicilian, and although I lived abroad for a long time, a year ago I came back home and I decided that I want to stay here.

A lot of people from Southern Italy leave because job opportunities are limited.

But personally, I feel this huge desire to build something here instead of somewhere else.

Marketing and communication are the only things I’ve consistently studied and worked on for years. And I decided I want to use my experience and my knowledges to create my own brand instead of working on other’s ideas.

Maybe this project will fail.

Maybe it’ll stay small forever.

Maybe it’ll become something bigger than I imagine right now.

I genuinely don’t know.

Thousands of people start brands every day. I’m not sitting here thinking I’m building the next billion-dollar company.

But I do care about this.

A lot.

And I want to leave a trace of the process while it’s happening.

Not packaged into lessons. Not turned into “10 things I learned building a startup.” Not optimized into content pillars.

Just sharing honestly my journey and what it means to be 26, have big dreams in a small town and trying to build something, to create a job from nothing.

The bio will probably change again. The profile picture too. Honestly, they’ve already changed dozens of times over the years. The name changed. The direction changed. Everything changed constantly.

And maybe that’s okay.

I think a lot of us are exhausted from trying to become the thing that “works.” Social media makes us feel like we always need to optimize ourselves into something more consumable, more strategic, more productive, more impressive.

And eventually you wake up burned out doing something you don’t even care about anymore. And that’s what was happening to me while I was writing the perfect post about consistency and discipline.

I just want to build something I love and write about it while it’s happening.

And if anyone wants to follow along, support the project, or simply witness the journey, I’d genuinely love to have you here.

And yes, if you subscribe as a premium member, you’ll also directly support this brand while it’s still just an idea living in my head and in these posts.

So yeah, after all this oversharing and all these thoughts spilling out of my head at once, I just hope some of you will still want to stay here with me.

And if you’ve been here for a while, thank you for sticking around even while this space kept changing shape over and over again.

I know Feeling Pink has been a lot of different things already. Honestly, I think I’ve been a lot of different things already too.

But maybe this version is the closest one to who I actually am.

And if you’re new here, I hope you’ll enjoy whatever this becomes.

love, lux

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For the longest time, I hesitated to even try an audiobook because I kept seeing this endless debate online.

All the "Book Purists" on social media arguing that listening to a book is "cheating," or that you can’t really say you’ve read a book if you didn’t physically scan the words with your eyes. I actually started feeling a bit of paranoia. I’d think, "am I just taking the easy way out?"

But recently, I decided to ignore the noise and just try it. And honestly? I wish I’d done it sooner.

It all started with "Vanity Fair" by William Thackeray. I’ve wanted to get through this book for years but it’s a 19th-century beast.

Every time I tried to read the physical copy, I’d get stuck in those incredibly long, dense descriptions of Victorian society. My mind would wander, I’d get frustrated, and the book would end up back on the shelf, staring at me with judgment.

I decided to forget what the "gatekeepers" online said and downloaded the audiobook. The shift was instant. Instead of fighting the slow pace of the prose, I let the narrator do the heavy lifting. The characters felt alive, like I was listening to a juicy piece of gossip rather than studying a dusty classic. I wasn't "struggling" through it anymore; I was actually enjoying it.

I’ve realized that the "it’s cheating" argument is kind of silly. Listening to a story isn't a "lesser" version of reading; it’s just a different experience.

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It feels like going back to the roots of storytelling, sitting around and having someone tell you a great tale. It’s less like "work" and more like an immersive experience.

I’m glad I stopped letting the online commentary get to me. Who cares if it’s "the same" as reading a physical book? The reality is that I’m finally finishing a masterpiece I’ve dodged for years. I’m laughing at the satire, I’m learning the story, and I’m genuinely entertained.

If I had listened to the people saying "it doesn't count," I’d still be stuck on page 50 of a book I truly wanted to experience. So, if you’ve been feeling that same weird guilt or paranoia because of what you’ve seen on BookTok or Twitter, let it go.

Life is too short to miss out on great stories just because of someone else’s arbitrary rules.

What do you think? Have you ever felt that "guilt" about audiobooks, or have you always been a fan?

And is there a book you only managed to finish because you switched to audio?

Let’s chat in the comments!

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As always,

hope this helps,

Lux

Feeling Pink is an independent publication, written with love from a small seaside town in Sicily 🇮🇹. If you find value in these deep dives into the reality of building a dream life, consider upgrading to a paid subscription to support my work.

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Today, we’re looking at the engine that actually drives success: The Compound Effect of Showing Up.

Let’s be honest: we live in a culture that worships the “big break” and the “overnight viral hit.” But behind every “overnight” success on Substack is a mountain of Tuesday mornings where someone sat down and wrote when they didn’t feel like it.

Doing a little every day doesn’t just “compete” with sporadic heroic efforts; it annihilates them. Here is why you need to stop trying to be a hero and start trying to be a clock.

1. The Math of Growth

Most writers fail because they misunderstand the relationship between Frequency and Trust. Let’s break down the two archetypes of creators:

• The Intensity Writer: They wait for a massive spark of inspiration. They spend three weeks researching a 4,000-word “magnum opus.” They publish it, get a rush of dopamine, and then... they’re exhausted. They disappear for a month.

• The Consistency Writer: They publish 600–800 words twice a week, like clockwork. They don’t wait for perfection; they aim for “good enough to ship.”

Why the Second Writer wins:

1. Algorithm Trust: Platforms like Substack and their recommendation engines are designed to reward reliable signals. If you publish erratically, the “system” treats you as a hobbyist. If you publish on a schedule, you become a “trusted node.”

2. The “Frequency Bias”: In psychology, the more we see something, the more we like and trust it. If you are in someone’s inbox every Tuesday, you become a habit. If you show up once a month, you are an interruption.

3. The Feedback Loop: The “Intensity” writer gets 12 chances a year to learn what their audience likes. The “Consistency” writer gets 104 chances. Growth is just a series of experiments. The person doing more experiments wins.

   

2. Why Your Brain Hates “Big” Efforts

Have you ever noticed that the bigger the task, the more you want to clean your kitchen or scroll through social media? That’s because your brain views “Write a Masterpiece” as a threat.

When a task feels too large, it triggers the Amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for the fight-or-flight response. You experience this as “Writer’s Block,” but it’s actually just “Task-Size Anxiety.”

By lowering the bar to 15 minutes or 200 words, you bypass the brain’s alarm system. You’re not trying to “write a book”; you’re just “opening the laptop.”

• The Two-Minute Rule: If you can’t get started, tell yourself you’ll only write for two minutes. Usually, once you break the “static friction” of the first sentence, the momentum takes over.

• The Zeigarnik Effect: This is a psychological phenomenon where our brains remember uncompleted tasks better than completed ones. If you stop writing mid-sentence when you’re on a roll, your brain will “work” on the article in the background all day, making it easier to start the next morning.

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3. Creating Your “Invisible Infrastructure”

Willpower is a finite resource. If you have to decide to write every morning, you will eventually run out of “decision fuel” and quit. The secret isn’t having more discipline; it’s building a system that makes discipline unnecessary.

How to “Hack” Your Environment:

• The “Night Before” Rule: This is the single most effective productivity hack. Before you go to bed, open your writing app, type out the headline for tomorrow, and leave three bullet points. When you wake up, you’re not “creating”; you’re just “filling in the blanks.” You cut out the hardest part of the day: the start.

• Energy Mapping vs. Time Management: Most people try to manage their time, but you should be managing your energy. If you are a morning person, do not waste those two hours on emails. Save your “High-Value Energy” for the “High-Value Task”: Writing.

• The “No-Zero” Day: Life will happen. You’ll get sick, your car will break down, or you’ll have a bad day. The rule is: Never have a zero day. Even if you only write one sentence, you’ve kept the identity of a “writer” alive. Keeping the streak is more important than the word count.

4. Discipline is Freedom

We often think of discipline as a cage, a set of rules that keep us from having fun. In reality, discipline is the floor, not the ceiling. Without a system, you are a slave to your moods. If you don’t “feel” like writing, you don’t grow. But when you have a ritual, you are no longer a victim of your emotions. You become a professional.

Discipline is the highest form of self-care. It’s the act of your “Current Self” looking out for your “Future Self.” It’s ensuring that six months from now, you aren’t looking back with regret, wondering “what if I had just stuck with it?”

The Challenge for This Week

Stop looking for the “perfect” time to write. It doesn’t exist. There will always be a bill to pay, a house to clean, or a better show on Netflix.

I challenge you to do this:

1. Pick two days this week.

2. Set a timer for 20 minutes.

3. Write without editing. Just get the “ugly” draft out.

The goal isn’t to be great. The goal is to be predictable. Once you are predictable, you are unstoppable.

Every Monday and Friday, I’ll share with you the behind-the-scenes, the raw data, the mindset blocks, and the real-time process of building a dream life from scratch.

If you’re trying to do the same, you’re in the right place.

If you find this useful, I invite you to share it to help me grow this project so we can reach and help more people.

Share

As always,

hope this helps,

Lux

Feeling Pink is an independent publication, written with love from a small seaside town in Sicily 🇮🇹. If you find value in these deep dives into the reality of building a dream life, consider upgrading to a paid subscription to support my work.

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There is a certain romance to the idea of it, It’s easy to fall in love with the curated version, the linen sheets, the sun-drenched studios, the quiet ‘me-time.’

I love watching a seaside sunset, but I also know that the sky looks entirely different when your eyes aren’t bloodshot from a hangover, your thumb isn’t numb from scrolling through a stranger’s highlights, and your brain isn’t fried on four hours of sleep.

The truth is that building a life that feels authentic to you, rather than a life that looks good to them, is an act of social and internal friction. It is rarely comfortable. In fact, most of the time, it feels like swimming upstream in a world designed to keep you floating downstream toward distraction and numbing.

If you’re trying to build a healthier, more focused existence, here is the uncomfortable reality of what it actually takes.

The Social Tax: When Your Growth Feels Like a Judgment

When you decide to stop drinking, start going to the gym at 9:00 AM, or delete the apps that eat your brain, you think people will cheer. A few will. But many won’t.

Most people are uncomfortable with the reflection your choices cast on their own lives.

When you’re the only one not ordering a second round of drinks, you become a living reminder of the discipline others are avoiding.

You might realize that some friendships were held together by nothing more than shared habits, complaining about work, drinking on Fridays, or mindless gossip. When you remove the habit, the silence that remains can be deafening.

Choosing a different path means accepting that you will be “the weird one” for a while. You have to be okay with being misunderstood.

The Internal War: Your Brain Loves comfort

We talked about neuroplasticity in my last post whitch is the brain’s ability to reorganize itself. It’s a beautiful concept, but the actual process of rewiring is exhausting.

Your brain is biologically wired for homeostasis. It wants to keep things exactly as they are because “as they are” is safe and energy-efficient. When you try to meditate instead of scrolling, or eat a nourishing meal instead of ordering takeout, your Limbic System (the emotional, comfort-seeking part of your brain) throws a tantrum.

Your brain will tell you that “just one night” of scrolling won’t hurt. It will tell you that you’re “too tired” for the gym.

Being intentional requires more “battery” than being on autopilot. In the beginning, choosing the healthy option feels like a chore because the neural pathway for the unhealthy option is currently a 4-lane highway, while the new habit is just a tiny, overgrown trail.

To win this war, you have to design for Friction. (I talked about this in my last post) I leave my phone in another room at 9:00 PM because I know my “10:00 PM self” doesn’t have the willpower that my “9:00 AM self” had.

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The “Everything Now” Delusion

We live in a culture of the “Amazon Prime” mindset: if we want it, we should have it by tomorrow. But a healthy body, a nourished mind, and a curated life don’t have an “expedited shipping” option.

The most uncomfortable part of intentionality is the lag time.

There is a long stretch between “starting the new habit” and “seeing the massive result.” This is where most people quit.

You will spend months (even years) curating your sleep, eating well, and protecting your peace, and some days, you’ll still feel tired. You’ll still feel “behind”.

Building a dream life from scratch is “dirty” work. It’s about the days when you don’t feel “inspired” at all, but you do the work anyway because you’ve committed to the version of yourself that exists five years from now.

Finding Balance

There is a dangerous trap in the intentional living space: The Fixation.

It’s easy to turn “health” into a new form of anxiety. If you become so obsessed with your sleep data, your macros, and your “perfect” productivity that you can no longer enjoy a spontaneous dinner in a piazza or a late-night conversation with a friend, you haven’t built a healthy life but a prison with better lighting.

The Goal is Balance, not Perfection.

True intentionality is knowing when to hold the line and when to let it slack. It’s about:

• Nourishing your mind with a good book, but also allowing yourself to watch trashy tv shows if you enjoy them.

• Moving your body because you love its capability, not because you’re punishing it for what you ate.

• Building a digital business while knowing how to put the laptop away and just be a person.

If you’re feeling the friction today, remember that it’s a sign of growth, friction is what happens when you rub two things together to create fire.

The “10-Minute Gateway” Challenge: If the idea of a “healthy life” feels too big and the judgment of others feels too heavy, start with a 10-minute commitment.

• 10 minutes of reading something that challenges you.

• 10 minutes of walking without a podcast.

• 10 minutes of planning your tomorrow so your “future self” feels supported.

Every Monday and Friday, I’m here to show you the behind-the-scenes of this process, the mindset blocks, the real-time failures, and the small wins. We are building this together, one intentional choice at a time.

What is the one “uncomfortable” choice you’ve made recently that your friends or family just don’t seem to get? How do you handle that friction? Let’s talk in the comments.

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As always,

hope this helps,

Lux

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Feeling Pink is an independent publication, written with love from a small seaside town in Sicily 🇮🇹. If you find value in these deep dives into the reality of building a dream life, consider upgrading to a paid subscription to support my work.

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If you’ve been following my journey here in Sicily, you know I adore the romantic side of life. I believe in the magic of a seaside sunset and the power of a vision board, but I’ve also learned a hard truth: manifestation without discipline is just a daydream.

To hit the ambitious milestones I’ve set for my life and this publication I had to literally rewrite my mental software.

I’m using neuroplasticity, the brain’s literal ability to reorganize itself, to become the version of myself that success actually feels comfortable with.

Here what I’m doing to reprogram my mind and become the person capable of holding the success I’m calling in.

The “5-Why” Deep Dive: Finding the Fuel

Most of us fail at our goals not because we lack willpower, but because our goals are “surface-level.”

We tell ourselves we want 5,000 subscribers, a $10k month, or a perfect morning routine because that’s what the “hustle culture” blueprint suggests. But your brain doesn’t get fired up by numbers or aesthetics. To your subconscious, “1,000 subscribers” is just a cold, abstract digit. It doesn’t trigger dopamine, and it certainly doesn’t sustain you when you’re tired at 6:00 AM.

To rewrite my mind I had to start digging for my “Core Why.”

When I committed to Feeling Pink, it wasn’t just about “writing.” If it were just about writing, I could do that in my private journal. It was the challenge of building a digital empire from a quiet, sun-soaked town in Sicily, proving that location is no longer a limit to impact. It was about creating a roadmap for others who feel stuck in a life that doesn’t fit them.

If you want to manifest a goal, you have to find the version of it that makes your heart race. Take your goal and ask “Why?” five times, stripping away the layers like an onion.

1. I want to be a Substack Bestseller. Why? Because I want my work to be seen and validated.

2. Why do you want your work to be seen? Because I want to know that my ideas have value and can help people.

3. Why is it important to help people with your ideas? Because I want to build a creative career based on my unique perspective.

4. Why do you want a career based on your own perspective? Because I’ve spent too long feeling like I have to “dim my light” to fit into traditional roles.

5. Why is it vital to stop dimming your light? Because I want to feel truly free and secure in my own skin, knowing I can provide for my future self by being exactly who I am.

That 5th “Why” is your fuel.

Notice the shift? We went from a cold number (1,000 subscribers) to a visceral human need (Freedom and Self-Actualization).

When you hit that emotional response, the one that might even make you feel a little bit choked up, you’ve found your anchor. This is the “internal software” that keeps you disciplined when the “aesthetic” of the work wears off and when the “likes” aren’t coming in: You keep going for the freedom.

Tip: Write your 5th “Why” on a Post-it note and stick it to your laptop. Your brain will stop seeing your tasks as “work” and start seeing them as the literal keys to your liberation. (If you do it please drop your photo down below I’d love to see your 5th why)

Identity comes before the Result

The secret to discipline isn’t about white-knuckling your way through tasks you hate; it’s about changing the story of who you are.

Most people operate on a “Have-Do-Be” model: “If I have 10,000 subscribers, I will do the work of a professional writer, and then I will be a successful creator.”

But neuroplasticity works in the exact opposite direction. You have to Be-Do-Have. You must adopt the identity first so that the actions feel natural, eventually leading to the results.

Instead of saying, “I’m trying to become a consistent writer,” I started telling myself, “I am a consistent writer.”

It sounds subtle, but it changes your entire neuro-chemistry. When you are “trying,” you are giving yourself permission to fail. “Trying” implies an experiment that might not work. But when you adopt an Identity-Based Habit, you tap into the brain’s need for cognitive consistency. If you believe you are a runner, you don’t debate whether you feel like hitting the pavement; you go because that’s simply what a runner does.

To manifest my goals here, I had to stop seeing myself as a girl “giving it a go” or a hobbyist playing with a newsletter. I had to step into the shoes of the Founder of a Media Space.

Every day I ask myself: “What would the version of Lux who already is a Substack Bestseller?”

• She wouldn’t procrastinate on her draft: She knows her audience is waiting and she respects their time.

• She would obsess over the details: She understands that her brand is built on the excellence of her curation.

Identify the gap between who you are today and the person who has already achieved your goal.

If your goal is to be a successful entrepreneur, stop asking, “How do I make money?” and start asking, “How does a successful entrepreneur manage their focus?”

It’s not about being delusional, when you act as the person you want to become, you are bridging the gap between your current circumstances and your goal by proving to yourself, one action at a time, that you are already that person.

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The Ecosystem of Excellence: Designing Choice and Curation

If you rely on willpower to manifest your goals, you’ve already lost.

Willpower is a finite chemical resource. It’s high in the morning when you’re sipping your coffee, but by 6:00 PM, after a day of decisions, stress, and “life,” it’s depleted.

This requires a two-pronged approach: engineering your physical environment to save your energy, and curating your mental environment to direct your focus.

Your brain is biologically wired to take the easiest route. If your phone is next to you, “scrolling” is the path of least resistance. To win, you must engineer friction.

Here’s what I do:

• The 10-Minute Gateway: If a task feels like a mountain, your brain will trigger a “threat” response and shut down. I bypass this by committing to just 10 minutes. This lowers the “entry friction.” Once the dopamine of starting kicks in, the flow state takes over.

• Environmental Triggers: I set up my workspace the night before. A clean desk, my notebook open to a fresh page, and my water glass filled, when your space it’s clean your mind it’s clear but it’s also a visual cue that tells my subconscious: “The decision has already been made.”

Once your physical space is set, you must protect the “software” running inside it. You cannot manifest a high-level life if your mind is fed on “mental junk food.” Your Reticular Activating System (RAS), the brain’s built-in filter, is like a search engine. It will find exactly what you tell it to look for.

If you feed your RAS with mindless scrolling, comparison, and “rage-bait” news, it will filter your reality to show you more reasons to feel “behind” or angry. But when you become ruthless with your inputs, you reprogram the search engine.

Look at your day through the lens of a “Designer,” not a “Worker.”

1. Identify your biggest “Friction Point”: What is the one thing that always stops you from starting? (Is it a messy desk? A distracting app? Lack of a plan?) Fix it.

2. Audit your Top 5 Inputs: Who are the five creators or people you listen to most? Do they reflect your future, or your past?

When you align your physical space with your mental diet, you create a “container” where success it’s inevitable.

Rewriting your mind is “dirty” work. It’s tiring, and it requires you to look in the mirror and admit where you’ve been playing small. But it’s the only way to start being the director of your own life.

I’m building my dream life one habit at a time and you can start doing the same, right now.

Every Monday and Friday, I’m here to show you the behind-the-scenes, the mindset blocks, and the real-time process of building a dream life from scratch. If you’re trying to do the same don’t do it alone and join our community.

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I’d love to hear from you: If you were to act as the “future” version of yourself for just one day, what is the very first thing you would change about your morning routine? Let’s talk in the comments.

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Share

As always,

hope this helps,

Lux

Feeling Pink is an independent publication, written with love from a small seaside town in Sicily 🇮🇹. If you enjoy this content and want to support my work, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

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If you’ve read my previous piece on the shifts that changed how I show up as a creator, you already know this was a big one: slowing down in life to make room for creativity.

I’ve noticed that the more I slow down like this, the clearer everything becomes especially when it comes to what I want to create.

What follows is a collection of moments, rituals, and discoveries that genuinely made my days feel fuller, not in a productive way, just meaningful to me.

I hope this can inspire you and serve as a gentle reminder to choose habits and things that will shape the life of your dream.

Here are my highlights from this month:

Rituals

With spring finally here, the best parts of my month have been all about soaking up the sun.

There’s nothing like spending time on my terrace, lounging in a deck chair and reading after lunch.

2:00 PM has officially become my favorite time of day. The sun is high and warm, and there’s this unique, peaceful calm in the air that just feels special.

Picking wildflowers and turning them into these adorable little pieces of art.

It’s such a simple, poetic activity: you just draw a vase on a piece of cardboard, punch some small holes in it, and tuck the flowers through to create a “living” bouquet.

It’s the perfect way to spend time outdoors, alone or with your friends, reconnect with nature, and tap into your creative side.

It genuinely makes me feel like a child again and I’ve realised that’s often where the best creative energy comes from.

I’ve been dedicating a lot of time to long walks.

I feel really lucky to live in Sicily, where there are so many beautiful places to explore, whether I’m walking alone or with my boyfriend.

These walks help me clear my thoughts and calm my mind. Movement, in general, really helps me regulate my mood and feel more balanced.

Things that pushed me out of my comfort zone

I started taking Spanish lessons on Preply.

I’ve always loved languages and wanted to learn Spanish, even if I never studied it at school. So when a friend mentioned she had started learning it, her enthusiasm kind of pushed me to try as well, and I decided to give it a go.

If you don’t know the platform, it’s actually really easy: you just choose the language you want to learn, pick the teacher you like the most, and schedule your lesson. You can also choose the price that works best for you, depending on the teacher you select. I only pay $8 for a 1-hour lesson, which makes learning so accessible to everyone and I love that.

What I like most is that this decision forces me, once a week, to step out of my comfort zone and actually speak for an hour with my teacher.

I still speak like a child, but since I’m Italian it feels a bit easier because Spanish is similar in some ways, even if very different in others.

Before the lesson I never feel like doing it, but afterwards I feel super energised and motivated. That’s why I usually do it before work it gives me a really good boost.

It’s funny how the things that feel “unrelated” to work are often the ones that make me show up better.

But more importantly, it made me rediscover the pleasure of studying just for the sake of learning, without exams or pressure. I do it just because I enjoy it; it makes me feel good and proud that I’m nurturing my brain for the sake of it.

If you’re interested, I’ll leave my 70% discount link here valid for all subjects, all tutors.

I played tennis a lot lately when the sun was still high, and it felt so energising.

I started playing in October 2025 with zero experience in sports in general because I was looking for a hobby that would keep me grounded and in contact with reality, and I’m getting better step by step.

It’s such a difficult sport, but with time it really gives you a lot of satisfaction.

There’s nothing like playing on a sunny day on the court in my town, surrounded by big trees, fully present in the moment.

Readings

I’m currently diving into Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

It’s my very first “Russian brick,” and I’m totally hooked even if the names are nearly impossible to keep track of!

For those who don’t know the plot, it’s deceptively simple: the protagonist commits a murder, and the story follows the psychological aftermath.

If you’re looking for something gripping and deeply unsettling, this is it. It’s not a “mystery” in the traditional sense, but the vibe is definitely there.

Here are a few passages that have really stayed with me so far:

Watching

I finally started the first season of The Walking Dead.

I’ve been on the fence for a while because I loved The Last of Us, but I was worried it might be too “horror” for my taste. A friend who’s obsessed with it finally convinced me, and I’m so glad he did!

I’m generally not a fan of horror at all, but the beauty of these post-apocalyptic zombie shows is the deeper reflection they trigger.

It’s never really the zombies that are terrifying, it’s how humans behave when society collapses into anarchy.

It’s intense and definitely not a comfort, chill show you watch to relax. (I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but this girl likes to reflect on difficult topics.)

The characters are so fascinating and constantly put in really difficult situations, and the plot is so intriguing that it keeps you glued to the screen.

I’m limiting myself to two episodes a day because I don’t want to finish it too soon.

People say it goes downhill in later seasons, but honestly? Right now (I’m at season 2), it’s 100% worth it.

Listening

I stumbled upon this playlist on Spotify and now I’m officially obsessed.

It’s the perfect mix of relaxing and rhythmic, it has become my go-to soundtrack whenever I’m in the kitchen cooking.

If you want to romanticize your life a little more, this is one of the easiest ways to start: put on music and let ordinary moments feel intentional.

Tools

I’ve already mentioned it here on Substack, but one app that has truly added value to my phone is DailyArt.

Every day, it shows you a new painting along with its story. It’s a small thing, but it shifts your perspective. You start your day with beauty, curiosity, and something to reflect on.

I’ve discovered so many artists and artworks I would have never come across otherwise.

Here I shared my absolute favorite this month

Made by a Swedish artist, very famous in the 1900s, whom I didn’t know.

By looking for other paintings of his, something I highly recommend doing, you can see his incredible technique for painting water and I was completely captivated by it.

For work this month I tested a tool that totally blew my mind is Manus AI.

I loved it at work so I also experimented with it to rethink my content strategy here on Substack and it was a lifesaver. Unlike ChatGPT, Manus is more like a digital assistant that uses its own “virtual computer” to actually do the boring work for you. (Analysis, sheets and technical things)

I set it loose to research my audience and what’s buzzing in my niche. It saved me so much time because it went through my subscribers’ profiles one by one and handed me a document with all the data I needed to figure out exactly what topics to focus on next.

If you need a hand with research, I’d highly recommend giving it a go!

That’s it for this month.

I’m starting to realize that building a more intentional life it’s about filling your days with things that make you feel present and letting that shape everything else.

I’d love to know what kept you present this month too, the small things or anything that pulled you out of autopilot and back into real life.

Feel free to share them in the comments, let’s start a conversation about it.

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Here I’m documenting my journey on slowly building a life that feels more real and intentional to me.

Every Monday and Friday, I’ll share with you the behind-the-scenes, the raw data, the mindset blocks, and the real-time process of building a dream life from scratch.

If you’re trying to do the same, you’re in the right place.

Subscribe to keep up with what’s next.

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As always,

Hope this helps,

Lux

Some of the links above are affiliate links: if you’re planning to follow one of my recommendations or buy something I’ve mentioned, using those links is a wonderful way to support my work on Substack at no extra cost to you.

Feeling Pink is an independent publication, written with love from a small seaside town in Sicily 🇮🇹.

If you enjoy content like this and want to keep reading, you can support my work and help it grow by upgrading.

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At the beginning of this week I shared the note-taking strategy behind my Substack growth since I started this journey almost 4 months ago!

Reflecting on how I got to this point, I realized there were a few internal and external shifts I had to make. These changes not only made me a better creator but also made my entire workflow feel so much smoother and more natural.

So today, I want to share the most important mindset and workflow shifts that completely changed the game for me.

1. Start writing from my phone

We often romanticize the idea of sitting at a clean desk with a laptop and a cup of coffee to write. I love that Carrie Bradshaw aesthetic and I definitely tried to.

I remember setting up on my terrace, with the sun shining and the sea right in front of me. I made myself comfortable, put on the perfect background music and opened my laptop.

But despite the aesthetic, something still felt off. The ideas just wouldn’t flow, and even when I had a spark of inspiration, I struggled immensely to actually put the words down on the screen.

The solution came from a habit I developed years ago: when I first started journaling as a teenager, I used an app on my phone because I really needed to start doing it but sitting with a notebook back then felt extremely difficult.

I quickly realized that my thumbs could actually keep up with the rapid, chaotic pace of my thoughts. Typing on that small screen allowed me to capture a raw stream of consciousness, which was incredibly therapeutic for me at the time.

That habit stuck and when it came to writing for Substack, picking up my phone felt infinitely more natural. Now, my first drafts are entirely written on my phone. Once that raw material is there, I move to the computer to edit, reorganize, and take the work more seriously. But that initial, crucial spark? It happens on the screen I hold in my hand.

Maybe it’s because I’m a digital native and using a smartphone feels just more natural. Of course, it doesn’t have to be the phone for everyone.

The core lesson here is this: you need to feel relaxed while creating. The words that pour out of your mind need to be spontaneous.

Whatever you need to do to feel at your best: just do it. Romanticizing your writing space is great, but not if it ends up ruining your actual creative flow.

2. Slowing down in life to make room for creativity

I will be the first to admit that I am someone who constantly wants to improve herself. I love feeling productive, achieving more, and doing more for my own growth. But every time I pushed too hard, I just ended up burnt out, so I discovered a massive paradox: the right path to actually doing more is to slow down.

It is about slowing down to actually do the things you genuinely love. When I made this shift, these activities started to color my days in a completely different way and beautifully enough, that same color ended up bleeding into my work and my writing, too.

To do this, I had to make a conscious choice to audit how I was “feeding” my brain.

The turning point was noticing the physical and mental difference between types of consumption. After an hour of mindless scrolling? I felt drained. After an hour of reading a book? I felt calm, and nourished.

I started protecting my downtime and choosing activities that actually give back.

Beyond reading, movement became my non-negotiable.

I started taking long walks, sometimes with music, but also in silence, to soak in my surroundings and the life of my little town: strangers’ conversations, the bustle of the outdoor markets, the sound of the sea, and the birds. Just the sounds of real life.

And then there’s tennis. Playing outdoors, running from one side of the court to the other, and chasing the ball feeds my “inner child” in a way nothing else does. It’s playful, it’s physical, and it clears the mental clutter.

Even going to the gym, taking lessons, or cooking a good meal has helped.

Just do what you like and what makes you feel alive, it doesn’t need to be productive.

These activities stimulate my brain without saturating it. When your mind isn’t crowded with digital noise, it finally has the space to wander, observe, and connect the dots.

My best ideas come when my mind is well-fed and relaxed.

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3. Treating it like my actual job

The biggest shift happened when I started treating my Substack like my real job.

Listen, if you want a project to become your career, you have to give it that level of professional respect from day one.

Even though writing is a beautiful creative process for me, I am extremely serious about it.

I don’t just “write whatever it comes to my mind.” (I might do it but not for my publication!) I’ve used my background in marketing to step into the shoes of a real Publication Editor.

This means I don’t just focus on the words; I work on everything behind the scenes:

Strategic positioning: I study how my newsletter fits into the landscape and what unique value I can offer.

Audience Research: I constantly ask myself: What does my audience need? What is truly useful to them?

Consistency: I set deadlines. I publish weekly on Monday and Friday. My audience knows when to expect me and I respect that commitment.

Curation & Design: I spend time creating my graphics and researching my Notes carefully. I want every notes to provide that spark of motivation someone might need while scrolling through their feed.

I know exactly what Feeling Pink is: a publication where I share my growth journey on Substack with real data and document how I’m building my dream life in real time, providing a roadmap for my readers to start building their own.

This is the core concept behind everything I do and every single task, from the deep-dive articles to the quickest Note, revolves around this mission.

Having a strategic positioning is fundamental to finding a clear ‘why’ behind your work and treating your platform with professional respect. This is how you stop being just a casual user and start becoming the founder of your own media space.

It might sound abstract, but treating it like a job is the only way to make it one.

When you invest that much time, energy, and seriousness into something, it inevitably grows.

It’s not my full-time job yet, but I treat it like one every single day. And that shift in mindset is what made the growth possible.

4. Believing in it myself, first

This is perhaps the hardest shift, but the most crucial one.

In the beginning, I used to think about how much I’d love to turn this into my actual career, to earn a living from my writing and run a professional publication.

I thought it would be nice, but I didn’t truly believe it was possible for me.

I had to do so much inner work to change that mindset, I started looking at other creators on the platform, the Substack Bestsellers who have already made it, convincing myself that if it’s possible for them, there is absolutely no reason why it should be impossible for me.

This mental shift made everything clearer. I decided that I’m going to work for it, no matter how long it takes. I’m not being delusional; I’m fully aware that this requires massive amounts of time, energy, and consistency. But I’m willing to do the work, I love the process, and I know I will get there.

That’s a thing that works for everything you’re trying to build: you have to be your own first and biggest advocate.

If you don’t take your vision seriously, why should anyone else? You have to back yourself up before the rest of the world can follow suit, because if you don’t believe it’s possible for you, it never will be.

These were the four fundamental shifts that brought me to where I am today. They were personal battles I had to win on my own, but the beauty of building a space like this is that this is a journey we’re walking together.

Every Monday and Friday, I’m here to show you the behind-the-scenes, the raw data, the mindset blocks, and the real-time process of building a dream life from scratch.

If you’re ready to stop being a casual user and start building something real, don’t do it alone.

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I’d love to know: Which of these 4 shifts is the hardest for you right now? Let’s talk in the comments.

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hope this helps,

Lux

Feeling Pink is an independent publication, written with love from a small seaside town in Sicily 🇮🇹.

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And look, it’s not wrong.

I hit 2,500 subscribers in 90 days, and while consistency played a part, the real needle-movers were far more specific than the usual platitudes.

Here’s how my growth looks since the start. As I’m writing this, I’ve reached 2,558 subscribers and 2,967 followers. Later in this post, we’ll take a deep dive into the analysis of this chart.

I joined Substack at the end of December 2025. At first, I was just a fly on the wall, reading constantly, trying to decode the “rhythm” of the platform, and figuring out what kind of writing actually lands.

Eventually, I stumbled across a creator whose work I genuinely loved. She had around 10k subscribers back then (now she has around 20k), but here’s the kicker: she had only started a few months prior, around September 2025, and only had about five articles to her name.

Seeing her go from zero to 10k+ with such a small body of work was a lightbulb moment. It was proof of concept: if she could do it, so could I.

So, I began a deep dive. I scrolled to the very bottom of her profile and worked my way up.

I wanted to see her “Day One” her first Notes, her first articles, and how she positioned herself before she had the big numbers.

I took those early patterns and adapted them to my own voice and expertise.

In this article, I’ve distilled everything I learned and executed over the last three months into a single, actionable guide.

Consider this the roadmap I wish I’d had when I started, a way to skip the guesswork and go straight to what works.

Inside this post, you’ll find:

1. A look at my notes strategy with the stats and screenshots behind my subscriber growth.

2. A breakdown of my growth chart

3. Personal reflections on the results I’ve achieved.

4. My best advice to help you grow yours.

Let’s go deeper into what my research actually revealed.

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1. My Notes Strategy

Let’s dive into the specific note that triggered my first growth spike.

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We see people on social media posting brunches, workouts, vacations, even their heartbreaks. Chasing that dopamine hit from strangers’ thumbs-up.

Here’s a reality check: You must learn to enjoy life without needing an audience to see that you’re enjoying it.

Social media didn’t just change how we share, it rewired how we experience.

A quiet coffee in the morning? It’s not a personal moment anymore.

We’ve turned joy into a performance, happiness into content. And in the process, we’ve lost the raw, unfiltered thrill of living for ourselves.

Scroll through your feed. Every highlight reel screams: “Look at me thriving!”

But behind the gloss? Exhaustion. Comparison. The constant itch to one-up the algorithm. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok thrive on our FOMO. They turned personal milestones, promotions, relationships, solo adventures, into validation currency.

Studies show we post for approval, not memory. A 2023 Pew Research report found 81% of users feel pressure to curate “perfect” lives.

Result? We live half-in, half-posting, diluting every moment.

Worse: Sharing invites the trolls. That family dinner photo? Now fodder for unsolicited opinions. Your new job announcement? Envy-fueled comments. Public exposure drains the magic, exposing what we cherish to judgment, theft, or sabotage.

What if you pulled the plug? What if privacy became your superpower?

Hold your treasures close. A private life isn’t hiding, it’s reclaiming. When you stop broadcasting, joy intensifies. No filters, no edits: just you, savoring.

Your relationship? Free from armchair critics dissecting every story. Your happy moments? Free from the judgments of others. Privacy shields from negativity. No energy vampires debating your choices. No copycats jacking your vibe.

As author Mark Manson puts it: “The less you share, the more you own.” Science backs it: A 2024 study in Journal of Personality linked lower social media sharing to higher life satisfaction. Private people report deeper fulfillment because their happiness isn’t performative.

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If you are ready to quit the validation rat race, here’s a guide for you. Start small, build unbreakable self-reliance.

5 Steps to Ditch the Audience and Own Your Joy

1. Delete apps for a week. Notice how experiences sharpen without the “Should I post?” nag. Replace scrolling with a no-phone ritual, like journaling wins privately.

2. Create a “Private Joy List”: 3 things daily that light you up, no shares required. Coffee in silence. A killer book. Validate yourself first, say it out loud: “This rocks, and it’s mine.”

3. Curate Your Circle Share only with 3-5 trusted souls. Offline texts or calls beat public posts. Build a vault of real confidants who celebrate without screens.

4. Embrace the “Invisible Flex” Live boldly, quietly. Buy the dress for you. Cook the feast for the taste. Success unspoken? It’s purer, pressure-free.

5. Track the Glow-Up After 30 days private, journal: Am I happier? Lighter? Probably yes, because you’re living, not performing.

Imagine a world where your richest moments stay sacred.

No audience required.

Just you, fully alive.

Society says “share or it didn’t happen.” but trust me, The best stories are the ones only you tell yourself.

Stop performing. Start living.

Your joy deserves the front row-solo.

Hope this helps,

Lux

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Feeling Pink is an independent publication, written with love from a small seaside town in Sicily 🇮🇹.

If you enjoy reflections like this and want to keep reading, you can support my work and help it grow by upgrading.

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It’s not just nerves; it’s this full-body destabilization, like your inner world got yanked out of orbit. Lonely, scary, disorienting, whispers of doubt everywhere. I’ve felt it deep, and thought it was reserved for the big leagues. Turns out? It crashes parties in every corner of life, big or tiny.

Recently I moved to a new house and I didn’t expect to feel this way because in the past I overcame way bigger changes, moving abroad alone for example, so I asked myself why it comes so intense, every time?

It’s your brain’s ancient wiring at play, tuned for survival in the known territory. Step out, and it floods you with stress signals, hormones spiking to shout “threat ahead!” A holdover from caveman days. But here’s where it gets exciting: this happens everywhere, in every arena. Your system isn’t broken; it’s just protesting the upgrade. But that protest is always temporary, a quick storm that passes, leaving clearer skies.

Living smack in the middle of it feels raw: the gut knot twisting tighter, mental loops spinning “why on earth did I choose this?”, a fog that blurs your usual confidence. Yet, pushing right through that? That’s the alchemical moment. Evolution doesn’t happen in cozy stasis; it sparks in the friction of adaptation.

Your brain literally reshapes, new pathways form, resilience hardens, capacities stretch. Stay huddled in comfort, and you flatline. Lean into the edge, and you expand into someone bigger, bolder, more alive. It’s the hidden mechanism: discomfort delivers the raw data your growth craves, turning potential into power. Studies on neuroplasticity nail it, these jolts accelerate rewiring, building you out faster than any smooth sail ever could.

So, how do we navigate it without getting swamped? Here’s what I do.

First, pause and name it out loud: “Okay, this is the shock talking, it’s not forever.” This isn’t woo-woo, it’s neuroscience. When that panic hits, your amygdala (brain’s fear center) hijacks rational thinking. Saying it aloud activates your prefrontal cortex, the rational boss, creating distance between you and the feeling. It’s like hitting the emergency brake on emotional spiral. This simple act rewires your response from reactive to response-able.

Pair it with deep breaths, feet planted firm, letting the wave crest. Your body’s in fight-or-flight when that destabilization hits, shallow breathing keeps the stress loop spinning. Deep diaphragmatic breaths (4 seconds in, 6 out) flip your nervous system from sympathetic (panic mode) to parasympathetic (calm mode). Feet firm on the ground anchors you physically when everything feels shaky. Let the wave peak without fighting it, resistance makes it bigger, acceptance makes it pass quicker. This physiological reset creates the space for clear thinking to return.

Then take that first micro-step, unpack one thing, nod hello to someone new, wander just one block further. The shock paralyzes with overwhelm, so shrink the mountain to a molehill. One single action bypasses analysis paralysis and creates proof: “I can do this.” Momentum is magic, that first step releases dopamine, nature’s motivator, making the next one easier. Start stupidly small. That’s the secret.

Remember your deeper why: The shock makes you forget why you chose this. Reconnect to your big picture, that move meant independence, that new route means adventure, that skill means confidence.

Reach out to a friend, hop into a quick chat; their nods remind you it’s normal. Isolation amplifies the shock; connection normalizes it. That “I’m the only one feeling this” lie? Busted when someone says “Girl, I felt that for a WEEK after my move.” Their stories shrink your monster, plus oxytocin from connection counters cortisol from stress. You’re not crazy. You’re human. They’re right there with you.

And as it eases, mark the shift note how day one dragged while day three hummed electric. This is your victory lap and future proof. Journaling the transition creates tangible evidence: “Day 1: fog, Day 2: less fog, Day 3: electric.” Next time the shock hits, you have receipts, you know the arc, you trust the process. This meta-awareness turns you from change victim to change navigator. Every cycle strengthens your belief: “I’ve crossed this before, I’ll cross it again, better every time.”

Using these tools helps me overcome that bad vibes and that “wrong” feeling I fought transforms into “exactly where I’m meant to be” faster than you imagine. Your world gets richer, your confidence turns unbreakable.

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Have you ever felt that way going through changes? How do you handle these moments when change shakes you up? Drop your tips below, I’d love to hear what works for you!

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Hope this helps,

Lux

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Feeling Pink is an independent publication, written with love from a small seaside town in Sicily 🇮🇹.

If you enjoy reflections like this and want to keep reading, you can support my work and help it grow by upgrading.

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Do you remember that moment when an idea suddenly lights you up, like a clear vision of something that could really change things for you?

Maybe it’s starting a side project, reaching out to someone important, picking up a skill you’ve always wanted, or just shaking up your routine in a way that feels right. In that instant, everything seems possible, and you’re buzzing with energy, ready to dive in.

But then the familiar trap snaps shut. You pause. You think, “Hold on, let me figure this out first.” And just like that, you’re off to the races in your own head: listing reasons why now isn’t ideal, imagining every possible snag, or waiting for conditions to line up perfectly. Before long, the spark fades, the enthusiasm cools, and you’re left wondering why you didn’t move when it felt so alive.

I know that cycle intimately because I lived it for way too long. There were times I’d get this electric pull toward something, a new direction, a habit shift, whatever, and instead of riding the wave, I’d talk myself out of it. “Not enough time today,” I’d say. “I need to research the best way first.” Or the classic, “What if I mess it up?” It felt logical, even protective, but all it did was keep me spinning in place, watching days turn into weeks while that initial fire turned to embers.

We do this because our brains love comfort. Overthinking feels like preparation, but it’s really just procrastination dressed up as wisdom. The result? We miss the window when action feels effortless, and later, when we finally try, it’s uphill because the motivation isn’t there anymore.

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Those stories we tell ourselves are universal, aren’t they? “I’m too busy right now, next week will be better.” “Let me get my ducks in a row first.” “Someone else is already doing it better.” They sound reasonable, but they’re thieves. They steal our momentum, the very thing that makes starting easy.

And here’s the thing we overlook: time isn’t infinite, but it expands for what we prioritize. When we’re genuinely lit up, we find hours we didn’t know we had. It’s not about carving out massive blocks. It’s about those first small moves that prove to ourselves we can do it.

Science even shows habits don’t form overnight. It takes repetition over weeks or months for something new to feel automatic, but the key is beginning while the energy is hot, not circling back when it’s lukewarm.

What changed for me was simple, almost stupidly so: I started treating that buzz like a now or never signal. No elaborate plans, no waiting for the stars to align. When the urge hit strongest, I’d just act, sign up, show up, make the call. Messy? Sure. Imperfect? Always. But that’s where the real growth hides. Suddenly, instead of endless mental rehearsals, I was in motion, and motion breeds more motion. Slips still happen. We’re human, after all. A day off, a doubt creeping back in. But because I’d jumped early, those dips didn’t derail me. They became part of the process. Our brains rewire through doing, not debating. One step leads to two, and before you know it, what felt like a stretch is just part of who we are.

It’s deeper than that, though. Acting on enthusiasm isn’t just practical. It’s how we build trust in ourselves. Every time we hesitate and lose the spark, we chip away at that quiet confidence that says, “I can handle this.” But every time we move forward, even clumsily, we stack proof: “See? I did it, and the world didn’t end.” We stop seeing ourselves as dreamers who never start and become the ones who just get it done. And it doesn’t have to be extreme. No one’s asking for all or nothing heroics. It’s the opposite: honoring that fresh energy with a single, doable step.

Book the class today. Send the email this afternoon. Lace up and go for that walk. Small wins compound, turning “what if” into “watch me.”

There’s real power in this shift, too, beyond just checking off goals. When we act on our sparks, we start noticing patterns in what truly excites us. Maybe it’s creative work, connecting with people, or building something tangible. Those insights shape our lives more than any five year plan ever could. We also free up mental space. Rumination is exhausting. It drains the energy we could use for actual progress. Once we break the habit of overthinking, decisions get quicker, confidence grows, and life feels lighter. We’re not battling ourselves anymore. We’re flowing with our own rhythm.

We’re all in the same boat here, wrestling with the same inner chatter. Life doesn’t pause for perfect timing. It rushes on, and the real regret isn’t in the messy attempts but in the chances we let slip because we overthought them. That spark we feel? It’s rare and precious, a nudge from our truest self saying, “This matters, go.”

So let’s grab it together, before it dims. Jump when it’s bright, adjust as we fly. We’re capable of so much more than our excuses allow, and the simplest way to prove it is to start, right in the heat of the moment.

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Hope this helps,

Lux

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Feeling Pink is an independent publication, written with love from a small seaside town in Sicily 🇮🇹.

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There’s a specific kind of silence that only exists in a childhood bedroom. It’s a quiet heavy with the ghosts of who you were at seventeen the posters you once loved and a version of yourself you thought you’d long outgrown.

For Ellen and me, the “Reverse Migration” led us from the relentless pulse of major cities back to our small hometowns in Italy.

At first, it felt like a vacuum. We looked around and wondered: Is there even room for the person l’ve become in this old place, or is this just a dead end?

When the GPS says you’ve arrived but your internal compass is still spinning, you realize moving back is a journey fought on two fronts: one in your head, and one in your daily reality.

This is a two-part collaboration exploring the messy, beautiful reality of moving back home.

In Part 1 (the true blur) Ellen dives into the Internal Architecture: the identity shifts, the FOMO trap, and the ego bruises that come with returning to a familiar landscape.

If you want the full picture of reverse migration, you absolutely have to check out her side of the story. It adds the inner layer to everything I talk about here.

You can read it here

In part 2 (this post): I focused on the external landscape: being visible again in a place that remembers you differently, letting go of the need to over-explain your growth, maintaining global ambitions from a small town, and facing old faces as the new version of yourself.

Together, these two perspectives aim to give a clearer idea of what to expect when you return and how to navigate reverse migration after traveling, evolving, and becoming a different version of yourself.

1. The Spotlight of Home

One of the first shocks is visibility.

In a big city, you’re anonymous. You blend in. Nobody cares what you’re doing. Back home, you’re noticed. You’re the one who left and came back. People see your car, your routine, your presence. You can almost feel the curiosity.

At the beginning, I felt a strange pressure to explain myself. To justify why I came back. To make sure it didn’t look like a failure.

I realized pretty quickly that most people aren’t actually looking for a deep explanation. They’re looking for a simple story that makes sense to them.

That was freeing.

You don’t have to narrate your growth to everyone. You don’t have to make your decisions understandable to people who aren’t invested in your happiness. A simple answer is often enough. The people who truly care will ask more and listen. The rest will form their own opinion regardless.

And that’s okay.

If someone wants to interpret your return as a step backward, they will.

If someone sees it as brave or strategic, they will. Neither interpretation changes the truth of why you’re here.

Letting go of the need to control how you’re perceived gives you back so much energy. Energy you can use to actually build the life you want.

2. Digital horizons

Another fear that creeps in is the career question.

You might look around and think, there’s nothing here for me. No big offices. No networking events every night. No obvious ladder to climb.

But the world doesn’t work like that anymore.

We live in a time where your laptop can be a portal. Not in a cliché way, but in a very practical one. Calls, collaborations, communities, clients, ideas they’re not tied to a physical place the way they used to be.

What changes is your mindset.

In a big city, you often assume opportunity is built into the environment. You expect to bump into it. In a smaller town, you have to reach for it more intentionally. You send the email. You join the call. You look for the community instead of waiting to stumble into it.

Strangely, that can make you sharper.

It makes you proactive instead of reactive. It forces you to decide what you want instead of absorbing whatever is around you.

And there’s something powerful about building something global while living somewhere quiet. Structuring your day on your terms. Designing a rhythm that doesn’t constantly overstimulate you.

The place might be small. Your vision doesn’t have to be.

3. Old Faces, New You

The hardest part, at least emotionally, is the relational side.

You will see people who knew you before you became who you are now. And sometimes, just being around them pulls you back into an older version of yourself. You might feel younger. Less confident. More self-conscious.

That feeling can be confusing.

But it’s important to remember that other people’s memories are static. They hold onto who you were. They don’t automatically update to who you’ve become.

You have.

And that’s what matters.

Not every relationship needs to continue at the same depth. Not every person needs access to your current life.

It’s okay to keep some interactions light.

It’s okay to protect your energy.

It’s okay to quietly let certain connections fade if you’ve genuinely outgrown them.

Coming home doesn’t mean reverting. It means facing your past with awareness and choosing, consciously, what still belongs in your present.

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The Homecoming Questions

If you’re in this phase or thinking about it, pause for a moment and ask yourself a few honest questions.

What gives you peace here that was impossible in the city?

Maybe it’s the sense of safety. The ability to walk alone without tension in your shoulders. The mental quiet that comes from not constantly scanning your surroundings.

Especially as a woman, that feeling of physical and emotional safety is not small. It changes how you move through your day. It changes how much energy you have left for yourself.

What has this place given you that the city couldn’t?

Maybe it’s a slower rhythm. More presence at family dinners. More space to think. More intentional time with yourself. Growth doesn’t only happen in high-speed environments. Sometimes it happens when things slow down enough for you to actually hear yourself.

What is the hardest truth you’ve had to face?

For me, it’s this: growth is not tied to geography. You don’t automatically evolve just because you’re far away. And you don’t automatically stagnate just because you’re back.

Sometimes the place you thought you needed to escape is the place where you integrate everything you’ve learned.

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Now, it’s your turn!

Have you ever experienced this “Reverse Migration,” or are you currently weighing the decision to head back?

What has been your biggest struggle with the hometown ego, and how did you answer those three questions for yourself?

Drop your thoughts in the comments let’s talk about the messy, beautiful reality of returning.

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Read Part 1 here

Feeling Pink is an independent publication, written with love from a small seaside town in Sicily 🇮🇹.

If you enjoy reflections like this and want to keep reading, you can support my work and help it grow by upgrading.

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