When you find yourself in a creative career, you soon realise that your job is to constantly create – and if you don’t, you won’t get paid and bills won’t get taken care of. Therefore we push ourselves, work harder, work faster, and creatively mass produce.
With creating and creatively expressing ourselves, we pour out not only creatively but emotionally as well. It can be exhausting and if we are not careful we can very easily burn out creatively and lack the much-needed inspiration to fuel our creativity. Therefore we need to nurture ourselves as a whole, in order to look after our creative side.
Nurture yourself creatively
Is your creative quest draining you, and causing you to lack the inspiration that you need? If the answer is yes, maybe it’s time to do the following:
1. Get outdoors
Breaking routine by getting outdoors and slowing down intentionally will refresh you mentally, emotionally, and physically. Being outdoors or going for a walk is relaxing, it forces you to breathe, and to slow down, which in turn will inspire you creatively.
2. Express yourself differently
Do something creative that refreshes you, just for you, and just because. I’m a freelance writer, so naturally I want to write all of the time. So when I need refreshing I do something different – I will read, or I will take photos as a means of doing something fun creatively. What can you do for fun that will refresh and inspire you?
3. Journal
Because creating can be both emotionally and mentally exhausting, we don’t realise that we need to process those emotions and thoughts. Writing it down helps us to see clearly, to understand, and process our thoughts and emotions more effectively. Journaling is a great way of sifting through and lifting a burden. Journaling makes us feel more in touch with who we are. Often when we feel clouded mentally and emotionally, we then struggle to express ourselves creatively and everything becomes blocked, which in turn stifles our creativity. Why not take a moment to write and reflect on where you are at mentally and emotionally, and see what thoughts come to mind.
4. Start a conversation
Have you ever paused for a moment to have a conversation either with a friend, loved one, or with a stranger without the need of rushing off? When we make time to listen, to give of our time and attention to others, we feel emotionally and mentally more present with those that we are spending time with. Connecting, conversing, and laughing with others is a great way to feel refreshed.
5. Exercise
This area I am still working on, if I had to be honest with you. But I am slowly learning that exercise helps me to de-stress, which in turn sifts out all the tension and leaves me feeling uplifted and powered up with happy hormones.
These are just a few ways in which you can press pause and refresh. If you allow yourself and create the much-needed time and space to nurture yourself and your creativity, you will soon start to feel inspired all over again.