When the Winter months seem to go on forever, the days are darker, Christmas and all it’s excitement feels like a lifetime ago – it can be hard to muster up the creativity you associate with the promise of SPRING.
After the rush and energy expended throughout December and Christmas, many of us will be left physically and emotionally depleted.
Yet how often do we starting the year with the highest expectations of ourselves – yet have the lowest amount of energy?
During these potentially dreary months, here are a few things I have found to be helpful for continuing personal growth and creativity, without the heavy price tag of hustle.
1. Choose to stop thinking of your body as the enemy to your success.
When we consider our bodies as something to dominate and be in competition with, we are actually being deeply unkind to ourselves.
Yes, we have the capacity to make decisions to shape and develop our bodies, but acting as though our body is the enemy – when it is the outward expression of what is inside of us – is just plain mean, and is not going to bring us into deeper peace.
Regardless of body size, shape, health or capacity, our bodies are a gift to us, enabling us to enact and share our many talents and expressions of love and care. If we are down on our bodies, shaming ourselves for not living up to our (often unrealistic) expectations, trying to beat them into submission in some way, we will not find that our creativity flows.
Honestly, if we spoke to and about our friends and family the way many of us do of our bodies, it would be horrific – and the damage to our relationships would be huge.
Instead, choose to speak kindly to yourself about your body and whatever it can or cannot currently do. If you treat it with love rather than shame, it will respond better to all you are trying to do. AND IF IT CAN’T DO WHAT YOU HOPE RIGHT NOW – BEING RUDE ABOUT IT, WON’T CHANGE THAT. See and try to accept yourself for where you actually are now, not how you will be ‘when you are where you think you should be’.
2. Nurture Your Body & Soul
Given that we as humans don’t actually hibernate, we can still practice asking ourselves what we might need to feel more loved and nurtured. Some of these things can be as simple as asking
“Am I hungry, anxious, lonely or tired?”
Are you warm enough? – Do you need some new slippers, a blanket or a hot water bottle when sitting on the sofa? Or if you are too hot with the heating on, if so, can you either turn the thermostat down a little, or wear lightweight layers, that can be shed easily?
Are you sufficiently hydrated? – Getting enough water is vital to your body functioning properly, and particularly when you want your brain to fire and make connections well.
If you struggle to drink enough water, maybe try setting a reminder alarm at regular intervals, keeping a water bottle topped up nearby (AND ACTUALLY DRINKING FROM IT!), or filling a bigger glass to begin with.
Are you actually hungry? – If so, what are your favourite, seasonal, comfort foods? Can you make or eat more of them.
Yes food is fuel, but it is designed to be so much more than that. What foods make your body feel joy?
Learn to ask yourself on a case by case basis, what it is you actually want, rather than deciding based on an external set of criteria.
Maybe you really are craving chocolate – in which case eat it until you feel satisfied, and then stop.
Perhaps you want to eat a whole load of gloriously stir-fried, dark, leafy greens slathered in soy sauce, garlic, ginger and chilli – because your insides crave the strong, peppery flavour.
When we pay attention to our bodies and really listen in, they will often surprise us, by bringing to our minds EXACTLY what we need to satisfy them.
Do you need to rest or sleep more and just watch tv or listen to music? – So often, we will allow ourselves just one allocated slot of sanctioned ‘slobbing out time’.
However, perhaps we have had such a long and taxing season of emotional, mental or physical exertion, that we need an extended season of ‘doing nothing’.
Actually, this is not ‘doing nothing’, not even ‘doing nothing productive’ – but regenerative work that we desperately need, body and soul.
Do you need to see some friends? – So often we can find that lots of socialising will tire us out. Even those of us who are extroverts – like me. However, time spent with close friends who you trust, whose company always leaves you feeling more like yourself, is vital for feeling seen and valued.
Maybe schedule a walk out, or a movie night in with a good friend or two… it doesn’t have to be a big event, just time to connect.
3. Cultivate Stillness
If you cannot give yourself the space to hear your own thoughts, heart and soul – how are you going to hear the whispers of inspiration. If you don’t know where you leave off, how will you know where someone else (real or created) begins?
Take some time to be physically still (and as mentally still as possible). Maybe try a meditation, or breathing slowly and deeply. I find that lying on the floor for 20 minutes and staring up at the ceiling can really help ground me.
4. Get Moving
Can you go for a walk, dance about the living room, take a pilates class (at a gym or online from your own home), roll down your spine a couple of times before hopping into the shower in the morning, or before going to bed?
Can you climb a tree or climbing frame with your kids, or simply spin about or shake out your arms and legs – drama warm-up style? Movement gets the blood flowing, the heart beating, and the ideas firing, so whilst being able to cultivate stillness is very good for us, so is movement.
5. Get Outside
Whether or not you are able to get outside in order to move or exercise – simply getting outside where nothing but the sky is above your head, you are subject to the elements (with appropriate clothing of course – lol) and you are able to feel small in comparison to the rest of the world in a physical, rather than emotional sense, is another good thing for your creative soul.
You have the chance to see and experience the presence of all sorts of things that you wouldn’t see inside your home, and you never know what might inspire a new idea. Given how cold and dark the winter days can be, even just standing outside for five minutes can ground you enough to boost your mood.
6. Doodle and Dream
There is a time for planning and structuring things well, and when you need to or are in the thick of a project that needs some help taking shape – get to it.
But when you are tired, or lacking creativity, simply doodling (or the musical version – noodling) is a really valuable part of the creative process. Playing, sketching ideas; single lines; musical phrases; random shapes – are all part of honing our craft.
Just as sitting in a companionable silence, or in ‘parallel play’ with our friends and kids is good for the relationship and connection, so is messing about with our art for the sheer joy of being present with it. When there are no expectations and no limits for your dreaming, you can create and scrunch it up, make rubbish and enjoy the feeling of play without the burden of ‘productiveness’.
The irony being, that you may end up with an idea you can use, but that is simply a by-product.
Remember slow & steady does it
You are creative and you love that you get to use your work – but you are also allowed to be tired and to take some time to take care of yourself. Don’t get pulled into the lie of hustle culture which will tell you you should always be working, always be producing – go big or go home. It isn’t true.
Your humanity, like the land, rests and produces in seasons, so give yourself the grace to do the same.
The world will keep turning.
Meanwhile, be kind to yourself and enjoy the rest of January.
Cassie x
