I know weekends are supposed to be restful, but I am happy that it's Monday! This past weekend was a bit of a doozy with an end of the school year concert and dance recital. I found myself sitting on our deck yesterday afternoon as the sun was getting low, trying to relax, and thinking about how long it's been since I've painted…
Almost two weeks. It feels like it has been longer.
My first instinct was to feel disappointed. We've been busy, and even though I have had time here and there to paint in the less busy moments, I've turned to things that don't take as much mental and emotional energy.
As much as I preach that art and creating can and should be relaxing at times, it's different when it's your work, accompanied with the pressure to constantly produce. We all have on and off switches when it comes to work and how much we think about it, even in “off” hours (so maybe it's more like a dimmer?). And working at home, seeing my art space while I'm sitting on the couch at night? It can take over every waking moment, further blurring the line between work and personal time.
I needed rest in the midst of all the other stuff I had going on, but I still found myself tempted to make my rest more productive. Like, shouldn't I want to sit down and paint to feel more relaxed? Is it “bad” that I don't want to right now?
Creative FOMO is quite a thing.
I left the corporate world 7 years ago to find my own way of doing life, work, and creativity, and what I'm finding is the ebb and flow of creative energy is like an ocean tide. It’s constantly rising and falling in its own natural rhythm. And I'm still figuring out what my own creative rhythm is each day, in addition to learning about and navigating this ADHD journey.
Every tide has a purpose. At the present moment for me, it’s symbolically low and calm. Think about how it feels standing on a beach or shoreline at low tide; there’s space, stretching out in front of you, for what seems like miles and miles. And even though there's noise, it feels quiet in that moment.
When we feel overwhelmed and tired and cluttered, and like things have been relentlessly moving too fast…we need that span of time and space, especially in our brains and creative living, to rest, breathe, and lean into the expansiveness that is stretched out before us. This quiet, calm time in between the powerful rush and energy of the creative flow helps us gain fresh perspective and room to let go of what is not helping, working, or serving us.
That's why we need evenings, weekends, vacations, time away from work and change of scenery from our typical day to day environments. We need to let our minds rest and wander and play and imagine - like kids! There's a reason we might feel more inspired or have our best ideas after taking a relaxing shower, going on a trip, or maybe taking a long drive or walk outside. The noise, blocks, and walls that clutter the brain fall away and make room to plant the seeds for our next great ideas.
No one can operate at 100% all the time. That creates burnout. And it's simply not how we're built to exist. We can't rush the timing of the tides, the phases of the moon, the seasons of the year…even when we are hoping for these times to move at a faster pace, nature will continue cycling on as it always has.
So does the creative cycle. Because don't forget, we are nature, too.
Allow for the quiet and calm, the dark and still, the retreating and restful times. Learn to say no and set boundaries when you feel the energetic tide getting low.
Changing Tides, 18x24 acrylic on loose canvas.
Shannon Sorensen is a contemporary fine art painter, sharing her art, writing, and creative living ideas through this blog, her podcast Creative Happy Life, and her YouTube channel. She works out of her home art studio in Connecticut creating paintings that reflect her love of nature and growing up on a dirt road in the woods of coastal New England.