They’re letting us take over the airwaves!!?
Feelings Fleet! Graham here.
This issue, Honor has some big news to share (eep!). But first, we have a milestone to mark.
This here issue is number 26 of the Big Feels Newsletter. “So what?!” you ask?
Well, 26 fortnightly issues means that somehow this wee feelings ship has stayed afloat for an entire year.
It’s our feelings birthday!
One year of sensitive cat time is like 7 years for your average chiller. So like, that’s a long time y’know?
To mark the occasion, we thought we’d give you an inside look at what’s been happening at Big Feels HQ (which is still my couch, but we cleaned all the dog fur off it and it’s looking pretty spiffy you guys!).
First it’s me, then hear from Honor down below with the big news about that (worryingly major) thing we have in the works...
Feelings travel fast
When I first started writing this newsletter, we had a handful of readers and a simple (if vague) aim: To write stuff about feelings that didn’t make you feel like a loser for reading it.
Thanks to the magic of social media (mostly sharing this article) we got 1000 sign ups in our first month. NO PRESSURE YOU GUYS.
Since then, the gentler magic of good ol’ word-of-mouth has seen us grow to 2000 community members. Some of y’all read every newsletter. Some pop in every now and then for an occasional feelings boost.
You’re in Australia, Aotearoa, the US, Germany, South Africa, South Korea…These feelings travel fast!
We feel like we’ve stumbled across something special - a fledgling community of sensitive cats, all looking for a new way of talking about the messy stuff of being human.
I’m really just talking about myself
People often message me to tell me what this fortnightly email means to them. I think my favourite description was, 'it’s like a big hug or a warm blanket.'
Someone else described it as a kind of safety net. Whether they read it or not, it’s nice to know it’s there.
And the thing I’ve heard the most? ‘It’s like you’re in my head, reading my thoughts.’
To which I of course say ‘I AM IN YOUR HEAD MUWHAHAHAHAHA!’
To which 9 out of 10 people never reply. But that 1 who does? They sometimes laugh back. Politely.
The thing is, in all this stuff, I’m just writing about myself. Whether it’s the pickle jars I get stuck in, or the drawbacks of trying to label my big feelings, or why analysing my fears can make them worse, or the eternal question of whether to push myself or take it easy.
But the responses I get have shown me something. They’ve shown me that even in my deepest weirdness, I am, in fact, fairly typical.
And when others have taken the writing reins, the response has been the same. People have seen themselves in Honor, describing how the mean voice in her head is like a world-class entertainer (who hates her). Or Sarah, unpacking the complicated feelings + drinking equation. Or Gareth, on what to do when life feels unliveable.
Just how typical are we? I don’t know. Maybe the 2000 of us are some incredibly niche cross-section of our species. But I don’t think so. I think there’s many more of us out there, who want a different way of talking about this stuff. Which brings me to...
Help us grow this thing?
I have no idea what form this newsletter will take a year from now. Maybe it’ll be a blog. (Do people still blog?) Maybe it will be a dog-feelings newsletter written by Bodie.
I have a lot of feelings guys
Whatever this thing might become, I’d love to see it travel even further. So here’s my proposition to you. If these words help you in some meaningful way, if getting this thing in your inbox gives you the kind of encouragement you think other sensitive cats should get, consider sharing this newsletter with someone you know.
If you’re game, you could post a link to our website on social media, with a note about why you like this thing. Or juuuust as helpfully, you could forward your favourite issue to someone you think would get something out of it.
Thank you for being part of year one.
Over to Honor.
The scarily big thing we have coming
Hello lovely feelings folks! Honor here, out from behind the looking glass :)
Three months ago, after a sleepless night, I found myself sitting at my computer, loading up skype. I was about to do something very odd: tell a group of total strangers about how sometimes my feelings get so loud I feel like I am going to die.
These weren’t just any old strangers. They were some of the most important people in Australian media.
Why would anyone do this?
This video interview was the last step in 5-month process of pitching the ABC (Australia’s national broadcaster) to make a podcast about my own experiences of navigating the mental health system and making sense of big feelings.
After the interview, I spent an hour or so thinking I was going to throw up. I'd never done something like that before. I was completely sure I had cocked it up.
But the thing is, they liked my pitch. They loved it in fact. From over 1200 pitches they greenlit just two, one of which was lil ol’ me. So now Graham and I are knee-deep in making this thing! (eeep!!)
Us with Alice and Joel from the ABC, after a great but gruelling writing sesh. All feeling deeply unsettled by the weird fox guy who insisted on joining the photo.
More on this soon, but, we just wanted you all to be the first to know, coz, HOLY SHIT YOU GUYIZ!!?!
Will it be a raging success? Will it open up a more nuanced conversation around life’s messy moments? Will I completely ruin my future career prospects in the process? (my most pervasive of fears) STAY TUNED!
Book Club Chapter One is almost full!
Three days ago we officially launched our global book club for feelings. And yowzer!
We have just a handful of spots left at first the real-life meet up in Melbourne, and over 100 of y’all already in the private FB group ready for kick off later this month (showing encouragingly strong gif game already people. Respect).
To get involved, and to make sure you’re first to hear about what’s happening, sign up to the book club emails here. (If you haven't got an email from us recently with the subject line "You're in the book club!", you’re not signed up.)
