I’ve been following Karla McLaren, M.Ed for a short while now and am loving her work. Her recent blog “Learning to flow with your emotions means learning to flow with yourself” spoke of creativity and how emotions play into it as well as some creative self care suggestions I wanted to share with you.
“Your emotions are also where most of your creativity and motivation come from, but as we’ve seen, the emotional exhaustion many of us have dealt with during this time of loss and upheaval have reduced our creative imagination.
One way to revive your creative imagination is to nourish yourself so that you can emote, respond, and act from a point of choice, rather than from a point of exhaustion or burnout.
Some suggestions for creative self-care in troubled times:
– Take silence breaks where your mind is able to roam. Often, your most creative thoughts can occur when your mind is allowed to be free.
– Rest during the day if you can, and get as much sleep as you can. Sleep is vital for your emotional and physical health.
– Replace noisy and emotionally manipulative media with long-form, sober journalism. Depth is an important part of creative thought and action.
– Take time to cry, grieve, and mourn when you need to.
– Monitor the quality of your relationships and focus on people who are nourishing, loving, funny, brave, and emotionally well-regulated.
– Engage with art, music, drama, and literature that remind you of the best of human nature.
– Reach out to groups doing the work to protect people, organizations, justice, and human rights – and support them in whatever way you can. It helps to know you’re not alone, and that there are people already working creatively on serious problems.
– Get out in nature, or if you can’t, gaze at the sky and let your eyes take in the expanse.
– Be with animals if you’re an animal person.
– Get out and walk, run, dance, or simply move at your desk.
– Listen to your emotions and learn how to work with them. Their genius can lead you into creative responses, even in the most exhausting times.”
You can view her full blog here https://mailchi.mp/karlamclaren/how-to-emoflow?e=3be0d9eb53
This has been a great reminder for me
Kx