Be Gentle With Yourself and Just Write What Comes to Mind
Reading this filled my heart with so much gratitude, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles

I recently had a new Medium ‘milestone’ — I let the entire month of July pass by without a single published article. Yes, I got sick with COVID and the rest of my family in mid-July. But the other primary reason for not publishing articles was that I got overwhelmed by my fear of not being perfect.
I hated my poor grammar and worried too much about whether I was being insightful enough for my readers.
Then I got crushed by the guilt of not submitting my articles on time as one of the authors of an upcoming book that’s going to be published by Dancing Elephants Press. When I finally submitted a long overdue article, I chatted with Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, one of this publication's editors, and confided in her about my fears.
“So please go ahead, be gentle with yourself and just write what comes to heart, and … submit.”
Vidya’s messages in this Whatsapp conversation made my heart swell with gratitude. It truly felt like an energetic transmission of loving-kindness. She melted away my crippling perfectionism and gently reminded me of what I want to transmit through my articles — gentle, loving energies.
Thank you, Vidya, for the kindness you radiate so effortlessly with your presence and words.
I feel so blessed to know and connect with you through Medium-verse!
I’d love to share one of Vidya’s articles that she contributed as part of our publication’s 31 Days of Gentleness series in Dec 2021.
I’d love to thank Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) for her recent Kindness prompt too. Do check out her prompt if you’d like to join in.
