What is Creative Rest?
Little Mother; Ink on paper, 18" X 24," 2021
This past month I took some way overdue vacation. It was likely my last vacation for a while because I've got some big changes coming this summer (more on this soon).
I'll be completely honest — vacation is hard for me. While I enjoy a good beach-y cocktail in my PJs as much as the next lady, I'm someone who struggles with "resting." Sitting still for too long is HARD. I'm working on it.
Recently I came across this thoughtful piece, The 7 types of rest that every person needs (thank you Recomendo newsletter for this read!). One type of rest that the author, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, mentions is creative rest. She writes:
"This type of rest is especially important for anyone who must solve problems or brainstorm new ideas. Creative rest reawakens the awe and wonder inside each of us ... Allowing yourself to take in the beauty of the outdoors — even if it’s at a local park or in your backyard — provides you with creative rest."
This got me thinking about my own definition of creative rest.
While taking in some beauty is definitely important, for me, creative rest is about much more than taking a scenic hike or enjoying some art — it's about how we let those experiences serve us.
Let's say we need some fuel and we decide to check out an art exhibit. After we see the show, our response is often to take a follow-up action on that experience. We share it on social media, send it to a friend, or try to make meaning out of it right away. We don't give ourselves room to let things marinate. We often try to synthesize or produce meaning from our experiences immediately, which can inadvertently drain us rather than make us feel rested.
This leads me to my own definition of creative rest:
True creative rest is about taking an intentional break from synthesizing, producing, or solving of any kind.
OK. Here's how I think about these modes:
Synthesizing
Synthesizing is about making sense of complex ideas and understanding what those ideas mean to you. We use this mindset to apply abstract concepts, to read social situations, and to learn new skills. When you synthesize you're usually working to come up with a conclusion or insight around something. If you love a self-reflection exercise (guilty!) you love to synthesize.
Producing
Producing is when you take those synthesized ideas and make something from them - a piece of art, a blog post, or a work email. We are constantly producing these days - texts, emails, IG posts from synthesized ideas. This is, of course, exhausting.
Solving
This one is the trickiest. Let's say you take your creative rest and you're like, OK, I won't synthesize and I won't produce anything. But you might still be taxed by a "solving mindset." Making your grocery list = solving. Planning a vacation = solving.
Deciding how you will move that huge piece of furniture = solving. You with me?
So how the eff do we take time off from any of these things?
Well, maybe we can't completely. But we can be aware that we're doing them. My current approach is to have one day a week where there is no synthesizing, no producing, and no solving. If I read, it's just for fun. If I see art, I don't try to come up with a P.O.V. immediately. If I go shopping, I don't have a particular agenda. Even after only one day of this kind of rest, I feel pretty good.
So, if you feel exhausted and your creative energy is very "meh," just start small. One day per week of true creative rest feels like a fucking miracle these days. I wish it for us all.
Medusa Tangle; Ink on paper, 18" X 24," 2021
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