This weekend instead of having four days to attend various social events and tackle a long list of to dos, I came down with a cold. I thought that I was going to have fun and get caught up with my creative projects as well as chore around the house. Well, life had other plans this Thanksgiving weekend.
Once I could no longer deny that I was sick (sneezing, fever and general malaise), I cancelled my Thanksgiving dinner plans, got books and movies from the library, and camped out in my bedroom most of the weekend.
Granted I was disappointed at missing a feast with friends. Since I wasn’t hungry and felt like crap, that was easy to let go of. What I wasn’t okay with was not being able to work on or complete my creative projects and chores I had lined up. I had to rest. I had to take care of myself. I had to be still and just be. It felt weird, not being productive. I was so out of practice with this. What could I do while being sick so I won’t feel like a total slacker? What I did was journal about it.
Downtime. We all need it but how often do we give ourselves downtime? In a society that values multitasking and overachievers, downtime is viewed as being unproductive or unnecessary. When, in fact, studies have shown that downtime is essential to creativity. We need time to let our minds wander, to day dream, to tap into our muse and see what creative ideas are calling to us. If we are so busy doing, doing, doing, we can easily miss these creative inklings incubating inside us.
To be creative you need both reflection and action. It’s a dance between the two throughout the creative process. It takes time to observe, reflect and ruminate on life in order to capture and express it. There are no shortcuts. We need downtime to reflect and go deep into our inner landscape because that is where the treasures lie.
So instead of thinking that I am doing nothing when I am sick or have downtime, I now view it as doing something essential to my creative practice – waiting, observing, and listening. It’s part of replenishing my creative well.
With time to reflect this weekend, I realized that I had fallen off my 5-day-a-week meditation practice, thinking I did not need it. In my reading this weekend, Wired to Create by Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire, I was reminded about how meditation is helpful for intuition and creativity. Ha! My teachers always show up when I need them.
So now I have started to meditate again and have scheduled downtime in my calendar. I don’t have to wait for the next cold to have permission to just be.