Filling the Creative Well by Pam Asberry
Left to its own devices, her mind is a fat hummingbird flitting through leafy trees of anxiety, apology, sorrow, excuses, and dreams of grandeur, dreams of humiliation. Sometimes she watches it run off, and it makes her laugh and shake her head. It’s like a video game. Bright fast blips of worry and anger come at her, and after fending them off, she’s attacked by the huge lumbering Czechoslovakian blobs of tiredness and broken-spiritedness which breaks into small, faster missiles of regret when she fires at them. “What a half-baked species we are,” she thinks, and does what she can to make her insides more habitable.
~ From Joe Jones by Anne Lamott
It started with a scathing contest critique and it hasn’t ended yet: a mildly depressive state rather like an oncoming flu in which nothing feels quite right, nothing tastes quite right, and sleep is elusive. I spent a few days beating my head against my laptop and considered giving up writing altogether, but fueled by the support of my friends and followers, I decided instead that I would take a few weeks off and let the bruises heal and look for ways to refill my parched creative well. This is what has worked for me so far.
- Take care of my physical needs.
Get plenty of rest every night. Eat healthy food. Exercise. I know these seem obvious, but when I am busy and stressed these are the first things to go, even though they are most important to my physical and emotional health. So I am making it a point to get at least seven hours of sleep every night, fuel my body with wholesome foods – whole grains and plenty of fruits and vegetables – and get to the gym at least three or four times a week.
- Spend time with people who support me in my dreams.
During the past couple of month I have reunited with some of my closest high school pals, enjoyed a fabulous birthday celebration with family and friends, accepted condolences from fellow writers at the monthly meeting of Georgia Romance Writers, and spent a weekend in Ellijay with my scrapbooking buddies. By the same token, I am avoiding negative, whiny, time-sucking types like the plague. You know exactly what I am talking about.
- Try new things.
Inspired by Julia Cameron and The Artist’s Way, I am making a daily “artist date” with myself. On my 52nd birthday, I vowed to try something new every day for a year and blog about it. Click HERE to see what I have done so far.
So far, so good; little by little, I feel my confidence returning. How do you fight feelings of discouragement? What do you do to keep your creative well from running dry?
