When I describe my creative process, it seems easiest to compare it to things you’d see in nature. Most often, my creativity comes in waves. I’ll work on a project over the course of a few weeks: I’ll work on it for a few days, then take a few days off to work on something else. Unfortunately, though, it’s not always such a serene practice. Sometimes, I feel like I'm swirling in a tornado of ideas, not really able to latch onto anything in particular and getting wrapped up in feelings of frustration. Other times, it’s like a crack of lightning, where I get hit with some serious inspiration and focus for one specific thing, and I can finish whole poems or paintings all in one go. More recently, though, I’ve experienced a burst of creativity which can be only compared to a wildfire.
At first, it was awesome! I was working on multiple paintings, poems, videos, and articles all at once. Like many people adjusting to a work from home lifestyle, I felt able to cram more and more of my free time with ways to be creative, ways to channel my anxiety, and ways to produce things that would help others cope with the world as we move through the world. There was a feeling of accomplishment as I was able to finish projects and stay passionate about my work as I jumped onto another. I also felt encouraged by the other artists around the globe taking advantage of the extra time and energy they had to focus on building their portfolios. The thing about wildfires is that they can’t regulate themselves very well. As they continue to burn, eventually they will eat through all of their available kindling. Once that happens, they will be unable to go any further. They burn themselves out. Recently, I started feeling myself struggle to do anything creative, even though I still had the drive to make new things as I had been doing for the last couple months. At first I didn’t understand why it was it was hard for me to create anything when a week or two prior, I felt like I was on a creative streak. Looking back, however, it started making sense: I had just finished writing a series of new poems, finished two paintings, had multiple offers for projects outside of work, and on top of that, I was still working full time (even if my office is just a few yards away from where I sleep). And, like I always point out when talking about stress in 2020, the world around us isn’t exactly a comfortable, stress-free place to be at the moment. At the same time I was starting to feel the beginnings of my own burnout, I noticed articles from all over the web describing how so many creatives are going through the exact same thing. Just as a wildfire tends to eat up everything in sight, I was allowing my plate to get immensely full without thinking if I had room for everything to fit. There is only so long you can work at full capacity like that. The good thing about metaphors, in this case, is also the recognition that they can only explain so much of what they are being compared to. Unlike wildfires, we have the ability to recognize when we are approaching a creative burnout. And luckily, we can also find ways to slow down, take stock of how we’re feeling, and create strategies to help us navigate through, and hopefully avoid, total burnout. A little while ago, my colleague Mike Campbell and I created a workshop titled “5 Fun Ways to Beat Quarantine Creative Block,” which had some fun activities designed to take your mind off your block and try to inspire some new ideas. But it doesn’t always take being creative to avoid or heal from creative burnout. Sometimes it takes a good night’s rest, watching your favorite TV show, or going camping (currently working on doing all three). And while I feel comfort by getting back to a place where I can be creative as soon as I can, there isn’t a requirement to get back to being creative within a couple days, weeks, or even months, in some cases. So, if you are starting to feel frayed at the ends, or like the candle you’ve been burning at both ends is running out of wax, take a step back for a moment. Keep your expectations reasonable, take breaks as needed (extended ones if possible), and make sure you are staying connected to what your body needs from you in order to heal and move forward. Creativity will be there when you get back. - Jasmine Green, Center for Creativity Assistant. Find Jasmine's work here or follow her on Instagram.
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