How to relax into your creativity when it has gone missing for a while

Sometimes when you don’t know what to do in your creative practice, you must do the opposite of what you think you “must” do. For example, if you think that you really “should” start painting on your big pile of stretched canvas, but something inside you stops you, maybe you shouldn’t. Instead maybe you should paint a couple of collage papers, as a warm up. Maybe color mixing, play and a total disregard of any important outcomes is what you need? Maybe, just maybe, you need to relax into your creativity…

I have written extensively about allowing yourself to play and experiment, especially when you’re back at your desk after a period of being away (for what ever reason it might be, there are always so many reasons…). Maybe you’ve enjoyed the summer mostly outside or away on holiday, but now you’re ready to get back to “work”. But creative work is not an on-and-off thing. It needs to be nudged and nurtured gently along the way, just like a relationship.

Do something creative daily they say

I love “daily creativity” because, in truth, it is the best tool to stay creative! A lot of people preach it and say they live by it religiously, but my life has never-ever made that kind of commitment possible. I can not even do that one thing every day for an entire week without hiccups. And it’s not about my lack of determination or that I give up too easily, instead it is about how life actually plays out. Life is messy, hard and unpredictable. I admire anyone who says they get to their “thing” daily, but I can’t. I have written about this before so it’s nothing new. And you might ask: “But if you love creativity so much Hanna, how come you don’t do it daily or semi-daily… Is it not your first priority?” Great question, thanks.

Sometimes I feel blue and have a hard time getting started with anything. Or I can work 10 hours on a creative project and then totally loose my focus the next day, because I am exhausted. Sometimes I have a night of almost no sleep. I get sick and lay lethargic in my bed for almost two weeks, not even checking my emails. I get busy outside of my home and when I get back I am so tired I can hardly choose what show to watch for an hour before I fall asleep. These days reading a book for pleasure, being social, writing, blogging, sharing and much more gets paused and has to await another day when I have more energy. And unfortunately my creativity is one of those things that needs energy, time and prioritizing before the evening slump settles over me. My creative work might be the thing that I miss the most when I don’t do it, but I do need my rest and eating food more.

I miss the energy creativity gives me, but if I can’t get myself started on any of my projects, I simply must allow myself to lay down and rest instead.

I will not force myself to do creative work when I feel unable to. It must feel joyful to be any good to me/fun to do. No matter how many articles I read about “opening your sketchbook daily is a must for your creativity”, “make it a daily habit” or “journaling daily will help your mental health immensely”, it is not possible around here.

Imagine creativity as your super-cute little pet. It follows you everywhere until you stop petting it, then it hides under the couch and won’t come out until you gently coax and call it, and probably offer it a treat. Your creativity wants to stay near you, be your partner in life, and always stay your best friend… So when you ignore it for a few days, or a few months (when you get really busy or sick), then it is hard to get in touch with it again. I have written a lot about this struggle before. How I wish I could “do more” but sometimes I need to do less. How I want to be creative daily, but sometimes a week passes and I do nothing but computer work, read, sleep or rest.

“I am creatively blocked” is only a bad excuse

Maybe a writer’s block, or any creative block, really is this feeling but you also try to force something good to come out on the paper in front of you, be it a poem or a painting. It just doesn’t come, and it feels painful. Like how? Why? Why have my creativity abandoned me? LOL. We don’t recognize ourselves and we panic. But listen to me, it is okay. All you need to do is breath, slow down, and do something creative that is not your main focus or a “must do” creatively. May I suggest you try to create some “painted papers” – it’s one of my personal favorites. I can always use them in book binding, collage, art journaling or other art projects, so it’s not a waste of time either. It’s just joyful to bring out some fun colors and create marks on different substrates (discarded prints, newspaper, book pages from previous projects, patterned paper you don’t love anymore, tissue paper, brown paper). Painted papers are endless fun, to me.

We as mixed media artists and dabblers might have it easier than someone who has more of a focus on one task. An author for example, needs to write. If you can’t start writing on that book that you “must write” then what are you to do? You sit with what feels like writers block instead of writing a blog post, a letter, a list, a poem, taking a long walk with a notebook in your pocket (I could go on, there are so many other things you could try to get your brain going). So, if you feel like you really can’t paint big on a canvas, then you have a million options that you could play with instead. Painted, loose papers is just one of many examples. Some people keep an “ugly sketchbook” where they’re not even allowed to try to make something pretty. I have experimented with a “warm-up notebook” for collage, where I stay quick, minimal and just allow myself to start. You can absolutely say “just start, just do anything”, but that is not as helpful as having a plan for getting back to your creativity.

The plan: relax into your creativity

You can pick one thing and try it out for a while, or have an arsenal of exercisers that will help you find your way back to creativity. I’d suggest writing a list of your own methods of “relaxing back into creativity” and taping it up close to your workspace, and do it before you need it. Come up with a system for yourself, or try someone else’s system. I think you can come up with your own plan on “how to relax into your creativity”, or pick one of the tried and true methods provided by the creative community out there (or on my blog where I have plenty of “get started ideas“). Try the warm-up-notebook idea, the painted paper idea, the ugly sketching-idea or do some swatching out of paints or colored pencils to get you started.

If “starting the doing” feels too much, I sometimes will just sort through a drawer or box to get my hands moving. Sorting sounds like organizing or cleaning (blergh!), but that’s not what it is about. It is about looking for inspiration, sorting your material and exploring their resting potential. It doesn’t always work as the starting point, but at least it gives you a better understanding of what you own and what materials you have to work with. Because sometimes we “collect for the future”, and forget that we are allowed to use all these materials we’ve brought home, today. Right now. We can “waste them” making ugly sketches, experimental mark making, playing in the art journal or deciding we no longer want them to take up space in our homes (always de-stash your materials to your local thrift shop or a friend in need). If your creative space is anything like mine, you have plenty of little jars and boxes with materials you haven’t looked at for a while…

Where is the box of lace that you thrifted, and how could you use some of those today… Why is there a bag of vintage magazines (still) on the floor that you could cut up and file into a folder for later use… And how about that beautiful coloring book you got as a gift, could you play inside it while your favorite show is on?

Could you, with intention, try to create something that is not meant to be beautiful at all, something that is just… ugly?

Make ugly art as a practice

You can Make something bad on purpose to calm down: “Ugly Art removes the edit button on purpose. You are practicing staying with what appears, instead of fixing it.” I love that so much; “staying with what appears”. To me that’s always been what my art journaling and doodling has been about. Adding something, then continuing from that first mark, and onward.

Research on creative expression and mental health describes how creative activities can support emotion regulation, cognitive flexibility, and social connection, all of which can buffer stress.

– Maya Wynn

I don’t love the term “ugly art” personally, because the word ugly is judgemental from the beginning, and I try not to do that when I create. I do not set out to create “something beautiful” either, but simply “to create”. I want to stay as neutral as I possibly can while creating. The like or dislike of a piece can come afterwards, hopefully. But “ugly art” can be a good practice if you understand what the concept of “ugly art” is about, especially for your mental health.

I learned about the Buddhist way of thinking about “good and bad” when I was younger, and it stayed with me because I noticed how often I judged other’s and worked to stop my own thoughts from doing that.

The principle tenant of Buddhism is that craving leads to suffering. Either craving for something good to last or craving for something bad to end. One who does not crave, does not suffer – or so the idea goes. In meditation, the goal is not to judge the thoughts that come into your head, but to let them flow through your mind and watch them from a distance. Thoughts are not labelled as good or bad, nor are they held on to. They are let go.

– Adele Purdham (Good, bad, who’s to say?)

Another thing I love doing to relax into creativity is cutting out images from magazines for my glue books. It keeps me going, but has nothing to do with making artistic decisions when I already feel drained. It is relaxing and exciting at the same time, and sometimes it gets me in the mood to do a collage page or two.

All that to say that there are plenty of ways to “relax into creativity” when you do not feel that you are in touch with said creativity, when it feels hard or like it is missing entirely. It is not. You creative super power is just hiding under the couch, and all you need to do is offer it a little kindness and it will come jumping into your lap and carefully nudge its head along your soul. It is always there, most often close by, but sometimes hiding – while you are busy doing life. Just be gentle with it, and yourself, and keep going. You can do it.

xo