How to calm your mind and nurture your creativity
Hello there. How are you doing?
Every day feels like a week at the moment and every week a month. I was remembering just now that I held a creative writing class in Manchester on 1 March. WHAT? Now that seems about as likely as walking on the moon.
Given that we are having to adapt to huge change very quickly, I want to talk about your attention and how, right now, as much as you love books and creativity and writing some of you may be finding it hard to get anything done because all you can focus on is the news. Let’s deal with this in two parts.
Part 1 – taking in too much information.
While it is important for us to know what we are dealing with, there comes a point where some of us will be watching the scroll of news and social media feeds feeling helpless and scared. I am as guilty of this as the next person, but I do know better. Sometimes. So the question I am trying to ask myself when I catch myself doing this is: Is it helping? Am I helping myself (and my immune system!), am I helping anyone else, am I helping the world by indulging my addiction to worry?
If you’re looking for important information that is going to help you solve a problem you have right now – like getting food or medicine to someone who needs it, volunteering, working out your financial situation or finding ways to relax and keep healthy, then awesome. But…let’s be honest. A lot of us aren’t online looking for solutions to problems we have. We’re looking for how to cope with problems we don’t have yet but are frightened that we might.
But Is it helping? It feels like it is soothing our worry, but actually, could it be that it is just giving our busy brains even more questions that we don’t yet have answers to?
A lot of you will relate to this because being creative tends to mean being sensitive and empathetic. It also means being able to predict about a thousand outcomes to each scenario and since writing stories usually means writing conflict, they’re not always happy ones, either. If you are particularly empathetic, you might also be picking up on anxiety that isn’t even yours.The best thing any of us can do right now is learn how to put boundaries in place so that we are looking after ourselves. We are no good to anyone if we are stressed out or ill. We are having to adapt to unprecedented change. Did you ever see that list of life stressors with each awarded points? Can you imagine how many points a pandemic would get?!
This brings me to Part 2: Whatever you are doing or not doing with your creativity right now is exactly right. Some people are throwing themselves into their creative projects, some haven’t written a word for weeks. Some are escaping into reading fiction or non fiction, others can’t keep their attention on a novel for more than a minute. Some have taken up knitting or jigsaws. Some have taken up Rioja and tooth grinding. All of that is fine. Whatever you feel like doing is fine. Because that’s just what you need to do in order to get through this time of great fear and change.
I’m amazed at how quickly people have themselves convinced they should be making the most of this time. There’s a fun meme going around that basically says: “IT IS OKAY NOT TO BE PRODUCTIVE DURING A PANDEMIC!” I mean, come on, we’re only a few weeks in, we are supposed to have written a sitcom already? Let’s all just get through this anyway we can, shall we? There’s plenty of time to get that masterpiece written, whether that’s now or later.
So if you’re dealing with all this by taking refuge in your creativity or the creative works of others, fabulous. And if you’re really, really not? Also fabulous. Just take it day by day. You, as a human being, are a work of art. How you decide to spend your time, where you put your energy and attention, those are all creative acts and artistic choices. You can’t separate the person from the art. We’re all made of the same magical stuff. So nurture yourself, celebrate yourself. And please, go easy on yourself. Nobody is handling this pandemic perfectly, whatever instagram will try to tell you.
We will get through this incredibly uncertain time, and the best part is we can use what we know about writing to help us. We don’t know how this whole thing is going to resolve itself, but if we bring our attention to what’s in front of us, take the next small step, show up every day with a good heart, and accept that we’re going to fuck up but carry on anyway, then soon enough we’ll find we are further on than we ever believed possible.
If you are writing, or you’re not but you’d like a kick of inspiration, over on the blog you can find some fabulous UNSTOPPABLE AUTHOR stories, where traditionally published writers let us know about a time they felt like giving up, and how they got past it. Find out how Rebecca Thornton stopped putting pressure on herself, how Anne Coates got past first draft despondency and how Sarah Tierney gets past the lure of the shiny new thing to ensure she completes a novel.
For those who have booked on or want to book onto writing classes, Teresa and I are looking into setting up some Zoom classes to replace the scheduled Manchester dates, which happily means they will be open to anyone, no matter where you live. More information when we have it.
Until then, take care and go easy on yourselves,
Nicola x
Yes, but is it helping?