Your Creativity & Art Will Not Go Away If You Take A Little Break

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sunset
Photo by: Sonyo Estavillo

Creative souls desperately yearn to create as often as possible. We are sensitive and often in touch with more emotions that others choose to bury. Some creative people are naturally prone to a little melancholy, as I touched upon in a previous post Pursing The Art: Depression & Creative Minds.

One of the biggest hurdles I find is that any free time that I have, I feel as if I should be creating something. I need to be writing, taking photos, videos, updating a blog, reading other bloggers and commenting. I have to be creating comments or reflecting on an edit I need to for a manuscript revision. No one places this pressure on me but me.

The drive to write is as natural as needing food to sustain my body. I bet some of you writers and artist can understand that hunger. If we’re not creating, we don’t feel like ourselves. If we’re not spending our free time producing our art, then we feel like we’re wasting it.

However, we can’t be “on” all the time. If we try to remain at our zenith, without taking time to do other things, it can lead to an unhealthy unbalance. As I wrote in my last post, balance is hard to find but it’s necessary, especially for us sensitive artist types. We need to rest assure that taking a walk outside without distraction is not wasted time. Reading a good book, setting time daily to do so is vital for writers to become better at our craft. And spending time on vacation exploring our world is more fodder for our canvas we wish to paint with words, a camera, our brush, or whatever instrument of our choice.

I often feel guilty even when taking time to read. Immediately, a tiny nagging voice reminds me of my word count that I could be accomplishing instead. However, without diving into the rich texture of another writer’s perspective and learning the craft of story telling we can’t mature as a writer. I can be a fast writer and crank through pages, but I’m now investing time in reading more books and allowing myself to enjoy days when I’m off my laptop.

The Bottom Line:

Don’t feel guilty when you’re not writing or creating your art 24/7. You can, and it does happen, that artists get burned out. Even the best artists, writers, musicians, animators, actors—notice when they’ve “burned the candle at both ends.” Not to say that there aren’t some of us that successfully push ourselves to manic levels and complete massive volumes of beautiful work without a challenge.

Personally, I don’t think manically working around the clock is healthy. I’m all about balance these days and I must remind myself, as some of you do as well, that we’re not slacking when we take a little break. It’s okay to have a life outside of our writing and art. It will never leave us and the passion will never die. It will only get stronger with renewed strength.

P.S. This is my anniversary weekend, a mini-vacation in San Francisco with my family. So, sorry if I don’t respond right away. I try to stay up on reading blogger posts and commenting (I follow many). ❤ My apology in advance, I’m trying to take my own advice and take a mini-break (as I write this in my hotel.) 🙂

Gary Hume

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25 thoughts on “Your Creativity & Art Will Not Go Away If You Take A Little Break”

    Lee said:
    April 22, 2017 at 7:50 AM

    Thanks for posting this I needed to read it. I often feel like I’m being unproductive or letting my talent go to waste if I go a day without reading or writing. I get upset with myself if I haven’t been able to come up with a good post for the day, or even if I haven’t had time to read everyone else’s and comment. When we take a break, it doesn’t have to be a very long one, we’re able to experience more in life and will in return have more things to express through our creativity✨

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
      Sonyo Estavillo said:
      April 22, 2017 at 9:57 AM

      I know what you mean. I think I finally realized that I need to take a break and enjoy life. I have to not feel guilty for doing so. My art will always be there, you know? And you’re right, the break doesn’t have to be very long. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
    marymichaelschmidt said:
    April 22, 2017 at 8:07 AM

    So positive!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
      Sonyo Estavillo said:
      April 22, 2017 at 9:55 AM

      I surely hope so, I try to stay positive and can often get discouraged. I know many people do too, so I try to share a little bit of hope and love. ❤

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
    marymichaelschmidt said:
    April 22, 2017 at 8:08 AM

    Reblogged this on When Angels Fly.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    Michael said:
    April 23, 2017 at 3:26 PM

    Such a great post, Sonya.☺️I feel much of the same enjoyment and self-imposed pressure you experience with blogging. I love to create and write and have so much I want to do. But, I also want to respect the work of others and engage in their journey as they do in mine. It creates a fun circle. Blogging can be lonely, when the comments aren’t flowing. There just isn’t enough time, right?😛I limit my comments to those that return the energy and engage in my work as well. Other than that, I can trade “likes” with the best of them and that saves time. Hope you have a great vacation😊

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
      Sonyo Estavillo said:
      April 23, 2017 at 9:20 PM

      Awe, thanks Michael and I do try to comment on blogger posts. Sorry if I haven’t commented on your show enough. I will though.

      I know what you mean about that pressure. I try to always stay productive which usually means creating and writing. Though balance is important and reading other writers material is so key to growing. Hope you have had a great weekend too! ❤️

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
        Michael said:
        April 24, 2017 at 4:29 PM

        Sonya, so sorry if I made you feel guilty…that wasn’t might intent. I actually think you do a great job with that from my perspective. I can tell that you are thoughtful about it. Hope your battery charges full over vacation and you are bursting with creativity when you return☺️😘

        Like

    Michael said:
    April 24, 2017 at 4:32 PM

    Sorry about writing “Sonya” instead of “Sonyo”. Sonyo is a name I’ve never seen before…very pretty.💖

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    Samantha said:
    April 26, 2017 at 6:06 AM

    You are very right, Sonyo! I always feel like I’ve wasted time when I take time off, but funnily enough it’s that time off that enables me to be productive when I need to.

    Also: happy anniversary! I hope you’ll have a great time in San Francisco 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
      Sonyo Estavillo said:
      April 26, 2017 at 12:35 PM

      We think and function in the same way. Thank you so much! We had fun, but I prefer to not live so close to high-rise buildings. It feels like I’m being smothered by the concrete jungle. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
    Ipuna Black said:
    April 28, 2017 at 9:59 AM

    I agree that I think we need to take time out for ourselves. We forget that. It’s nice to hear someone else say that. The creative process takes time, and we need to be patient with it.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
      Ipuna Black said:
      April 28, 2017 at 9:59 AM

      Fantastic shot by the way!!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      Sonyo Estavillo said:
      April 28, 2017 at 10:49 AM

      Yes, being patient is not my strength. I tend to like immediate results. That’s most of us, I think. Especially with art, we have to carve out personal time. It’s not always easy. I almost find myself having to schedule personal time. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
        Ipuna Black said:
        April 28, 2017 at 7:26 PM

        Yes. I find myself having to schedule personal time too!

        Like

    Suzanne said:
    May 1, 2017 at 12:20 AM

    Thank you for this post. Before I started reading your post I told myself that I should go write something afterwards (because it feels like wasting time), but now I realised that I should take some me time without expressing creativiy. Thanks.

    Like

    Reply
    stacilys said:
    May 2, 2017 at 12:26 PM

    Hi Sonyo. You are right. It’s all about balance. Oftentimes, we creative types will end up isolating ourselves all for the sake of art. I am finding lately that I have so much more of a need to be around others in community/relationship. I know that inspiration will come again and I’ll get the ‘urge’ to hyper focus on a piece. It’s like you said, ‘balance’. Balance is the key. So hard for humans to accomplish, but possible.
    Hope you are well Sonyo.
    🙂 ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
      Sonyo Estavillo said:
      May 2, 2017 at 7:00 PM

      Thank you Staci, I’m an avid believer that balance is necessary. But it is very hard. It is not easy though for example I just got a full-time job. Now, I’m finding it hard to get back in the gym. I’m trying to adjust to my new schedule.

      I hope you have a great time balancing your life. You seem so free spirited and already on the right course. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

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