Starling: Fallow Period
Replenish The Soil
Returning...
Sometimes, all artists need to be willing to take a fallow period. So I explain this and my own ideas about taking a break so that we may return renewed and refreshed.I'm rusty...and this episode is created as a first step in returning, so it may be a little shaky. The picture I included here is of my Mom...wasn't she beautiful?
Listen in to this episode to hear my take on fallow periods, and a bit about my own. Season 2 will be a work in progress...
Creative Brain Surge After Rest...
Paul Klee
Watercolors Klee Created In Tunisia
Fish Magic, 1925 - One of my favorite's by Klee
Vacations Of Famous Artists
Suggested Practices:
Lets talk about practices around allowing a fallow period and space for renewal in our creative practice. And these are just a jumping off point for letting go of the achievement mindset for a bit and recovering. You will know what your best methods are…
- Consider a time when you did take a break and how that changed things when you sort of returned? Returned to your day to day and returned to your creative practice. Can you think of advances you made in ways of thinking, creative ideation, philosophical understanding after allowing yourself to have a break?
- How does society’s busy pace affect you? Your understanding of goals, pacing, and even self worth, self esteem? Unplug for a bit. Give yourself permission to disconnect from the race for a while. It will still be there when you get back, promise.
- Reflect on your own natural rhythm and pacing. Do you have long preiods of creative output that may need longer periods for recovery? Or is your cycle more shorter bursts with quicker recovery times? Or maybe it alternates? Think about how your process has been historically. Do you make the choice on your own to take a break, or are you waiting for the universe to give you a one two punch where you have no choice but to rest?
- How has something someone else created given life to ideas in you? Take time to rediscover your own interests. Often we get so busy that we miss a chance to read a good book, really watch a movie (without your phone in hand), listen to good music, go out to the theater, or go for a hike. We have to remember there is an input and output cycle. If we are always only blowing bubbles and not replenishing the bubble solution…eventually we won’t have anything to make the bubbles out of…even if we have the breath to blow them. So look around and see what can capture your interests.
- In the book The Artist’s Way author Julie Cameron suggests weekly artist dates…a weekly time for doing something enchanting and engaging for yourself that can help keep you feel inspired, refreshed and connected. That seems to me a simple way to remember to invite play into your life so discovery will occur. This can be a trip to a museum, a matinee of a movie you might find inspiring, a walk in a garden…anything that may inspire you. And…doing this alone is a great way to connect with your self. Take yourself to dinner or for a cup of tea, skygaze at the night sky…find magic in your mundane.
- How do your relationships heal you and help you recover? We don’t need to do everything alone, make time for relationships…we only know ourselves through connection to others. Friends and family need us and we need them. Take time to catch up on phone calls, write some real letters, have a friend over for a home cooked meal and rediscover the people you care about.
- Can you stay in the moment and relax into it? I’m not talking about simple mindfulness or meditation. Can you be in each moment you are in, undistracted? Take a bubble bath and clear your mind, sit in silence and get comfortable, let yourself see the value in every mundane moment as well as the exciting ones.
- How are you in your body? Take time to reconnect to the physical. Many of us creative types live in an imaginary world, pulling thoughts and ideas into the physical through words and pictures, sounds and songs. But we are often disconnected from our physical self. Get back in your body for a while. GO dancing, take a yoga class, get on a bike. There is proof that alpha waves improve during physical activity. Reconnect and realign.
- Can you allow yourself the time you need? Don’t rush…you will know when you are ready to really get back to the studio. Take the time you need. You won’t regret it.
This Week's Playlist: Fallow Period
Starling's Online Community
Other Ways To Connect:
or find me on
Instagram @thestarlingcreative
Facebook @starlingcreativeliving
Twitter @artteacheramy