Finding Joy
As an artist I feel the pressure of creation. But as an artist I also feel the overwhelming heaviness of being present and focusing energy! I highly encourage my art friends to take a much needed ‘TIME OUT’ when they feel this way. Rather than expend your energies outward, focus them inward and onto yourself.
Profile Sketch #1
So let’s say you are a photographer! Feeling stuck? Unable to create? Don’t want to even look at Instagram? Take a while to yourself and have an enjoyable photoshoot somewhere special, or during a time of day that you normally are too busy to shoot in….Just be in yourself for a while. Take it slowly. Enjoy a cup of coffee while you do it. Turn off your phone for a week, if you have to.
Profile Sketch #2
What happens when we do this is we open up the pathways that allow us to make. We get rid of obstacles and stressors and pressures.
In fact, use Sundays as actual days of rest LITERALLY, and not just as a token. Don’t make food, don’t go out, don’t work. Just rest. Noodle. And enjoy. Don’t burn yourself out.
This notion doesn’t just reflect on creative types, even though that’s the angle I approached this topic from. It can be applied to all sorts of people from all walks of life — the takeaway is really just to have the mindfulness to evaluate a situation and decide if an intervention of self-care is required.
Self-care is a dangerous word to use: it’s a buzz word. There are people out there who hop on the ‘self-care’ train because they want to be cool like “that influencer” or do what they think they SHOULD be doing, since they saw someone else doing it. They want to show others how blessed they are. If your happiness comes from being envied… that’s not self-care — that’s being self-toxic. Do something because it genuinely makes you happy… not because someone else told you it would make you happy.
So be very realistically aware if you truly need to step back in a reflection of self-care. Analyze what part of you is hurting. Try to find what is gumming you up, and strategize how to be free of it. Don’t just ‘go for a pedicure’ and expect it to free you from your troubles. I challenge you to be deep. People can spend their entire lives unhappy, trying to fill their pit of unhappiness with things and food and trips. They think a diamond necklace will make them happy. They think a trip to Thailand will enlighten them. But if you don’t stop to really look inward and identify what is troubling you — and realizing what is getting in your way of being happy? You won’t be happy.
For me? I love every aspect of being a creator! It’s such a blessing. But I also create out of joy, and when I feel that joy being threatened, I know it’s time to look inward and evaluate where the energy I have is being spent. Lately instead of sitting down in my studio and creating, I was organizing aspects of other people’s lives because they are incapable or unmotivated to do it themselves. While it is kind, it can also be toxic — and thusly, I have ‘taken the week off’ and it’s been exactly what I needed.
I will be sharing more of the sketches (as above) over on my Instagram and Twitter… drop a follow over on those platforms if you want to stay connected!
I’ll leave you with this.
I always tell people to just ‘create’ something if they are feeling stuck. Because usually, that’s the problem — we get gummed up. Gummed up in life, or work, or relationships… whatever! Creating brings us something new. It’s a disruption to the mundane. But I forget that some people don’t remember how to do that… that’s why they are stuck in the first place! And so I encourage you to step outside of the situation. Carve a new bubble. Heal in there. Take the time you need.
Thank you for listening xx
- Andrea
