Are You Clawing Through the Foggy Depths to Find Words to Entertain, Enchant, Delight? by LA Bourgeois

Let’s welcome back LA Bourgeois as she shares with us “Are You Clawing Through the Foggy Depths to Find Words to Entertain, Enchant, Delight?” Enjoy!

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The cursor flashes on the blank screen. Maybe handwriting will help. Scribbles fill a page, wasting it with garbled complaints and musings on the weather.

The last vapors from the creative well got used up yesterday. Today, flick the inspiration lighter until your thumb hurts; nothing’s going to happen. Burnout lurks, its grasping fingers brushing your elbow.

A lot of people recommend pressing forward through exhaustion, hard choices, and those moments that make you want to surrender.

And I want to be perfectly clear. I am not asking you to give up.

I am asking you to take a break.

Let’s imagine we’re new hikers climbing a mountain. Alone, we walk as fast as we can up that steep hill. Within fifteen minutes, we’re gasping for air, our heart pounds against our chest, and we feel like we might throw up.

Is rolling back down the hill an option? Our dog gives us side-eye. We hobble back to the trailhead, climb in our car and drive home, defeated.

When we go up that same mountain with a more experienced hiker, we notice that they walk slower, take pauses, and look at the views while sipping from their ever-present water bottle.

When moving at a manageable pace, we come to the end of the trail and discover that we feel less like we’re going to die and more like “That was hard, but so much fun!” And the next time we climb the mountain, we’re a little stronger and more able to bear any potential setbacks.

That’s the difference between taking a break and giving up.

Taking breaks in creative work time gives us the same sort of ability to persevere with our writing projects. They support our creativity by stuffing our minds and spirits with ideas, sounds, smells, experiences, sights, and tastes. They give inspiration room to strike.

Taking a break, no matter how necessary, can be scary. Questions arise:

• Am I wasting time?
• Am I betraying my muse by devoting my usual writing time to something else?
• If I stop, will I ever start again?

That’s normal, especially if we are feeling that desperate flail for creativity each time we confront our writing.

The truth is that you’ve just exhausted your creativity with the constant exhale of work and no inhalations of inspiration. Given time, space and inspiration, your imagination will show up again.

So, how can you take this magical break and let your reservoir of creativity refill?

Focus on the Physical

Our bodies hold the tension of our despair and anxiety. Rest your body and give it ample nourishment in the form of good food and healthy exercise. These actions make space for your creativity to return.

1. Chop Wood, Carry Water: Focus on simple acts and do them to the best of your ability. No more. No less.
2. Tubing: Just like riding an inner tube down a river, limit your time performing anything strenuous– mentally, emotionally, or creatively. Look for ways to have fun during the workday. But keep your butt from dragging on the rocks! Do what you must to keep out of trouble.
3. Take a Nap: Resting your body with ample sleep, naps and meditation repairs and renews your whole being.
4. Nourish Your Body & Soul: Rejoice in your body’s movements. Enjoy every single bite of food, whether it is a bowl of carrots or ice cream. Small moments of attention actively nourish your body and soul, allowing the joy and beauty of the experience to seep into our fuel tank of inspiration.

Play With Your Creativity

Once you’ve made space, inspiration seeps in. These next suggestions actively refill that reservoir while battling burnout.

1. Giggle: Laughter releases stress, prevents and heals burnout, and makes you feel better. This action is so good for us that our bodies evolved so that even if we PRETEND to laugh, the release still occurs. Laughter also opens us up to absorb those inspiring ideas.
2. Get Curious: Curiosity is our primary source of inspiration rejuvenation. Gather new ideas, sights, experiences, tastes, smells, and sounds to fuel your creativity and inspiration. Research, gather materials, test outcomes. Let your inner nerd out to play!
3. Connect: When your creative well drains, you tend to isolate yourself. Humans, even introverts, require connection with each other. When they’re good, these connections feed our souls and add complex experiences and feelings to our creative well. They ground us in ourselves and our history, as well as giving us inspiration for new creations.
4. Play: Activity combined with imagination is essential to our humanity. Embrace whimsy and test boundaries. Integrate the idea of play into anything you do, from taking out the garbage with a swing and a shout of “Two Points!” to joining your child for a game of hopscotch.

Let’s take a break to heal and fill that creative well. Revel in the sunshine, dance with fireflies, and absorb beauty and joy.

The opposite of burnout isn’t rest. It’s inspiration!

But first, let’s take a nap.

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ABOUT LA BOURGEOIS

LA (as in tra-la-la) Bourgeois is a Kaizen-Muse Certified Creativity Coach and author who helps clients embrace the joy of their creative work and thrive while doing it.

Get more of her creativity ideas and techniques by subscribing to her newsletter at https://subscribepage.io/unlockyourcreativity.