What if Creativity Were a Form of Rest

We talk a lot about how creativity is exhausting.

We paint for hours and need to lie down. We write for hours and need to zone out in front of the television. 

Our creative rhythm is: create, recover, create, recover. And truth be told, if we’re going to be anywhere near truly rested, we’d better err on the side of recovery.

Now it’s true, creativity requires every kind of energy from us: mental, physical, emotional, social, spiritual. It makes good sense that creating takes something out of us.

But if it takes EVERYTHING? Leaving us feeling like a dried out sponge? That’s not because creativity is essentially depleting. THAT’S because of HOW we are creating.

Consider this: What is actually depleting you when you create? 

Is it exploring your new creative idea? 

Or is it staving off the self-doubt that your idea is even any good? 

Is it writing your new song? 

Or is it the intensity with which you attack your verses, choruses, and bridge?

Is it the synergy of your new collaboration?

Or is it the pressure you put on yourself to have all the right answers?

And now consider this: How would creativity look if it was, itself, a form of rest?

This week I went to Jamaica to work with a wonderful singer/songwriter on her new batch of songs. For days we struggled. Every session turned into ruminating conversation about pressure, the creative process, and planning for success. We were exhausted and had nothing to show for it. I started thinking the most helpful thing I could do would be to step away altogether. 

Then our last night, lounging around while the sun set over the water, we accidentally started working on her song. Laughing and rolling around we tried rhymes, and chords, and doubling a chorus. 

We wrote a beautiful song and we felt restored to the bone. 

So yes, intersperse your creative bursts with rest. But also, question your conception that creativity is essentially depleting. Adjust your approach to creativity until you feel it restoring you in at least some small way. 

You — and your work — will be better for it.