Have you lost your creativity and wonder when it will come back? Stress, boredom, and cold winter months can seriously zap our creative spark.
I’m not feeling very creative lately.
There are lots of potential contributing factors to my lost creativity. I’ve started a new role at work. Learning the ropes is challenging. This is not a bad thing, but it’s certainly not leaving me much energy to feel creative.
The first few months of the year – February and January before it – are cold, dark months here in the north. It’s hard to feel creative when your body is screaming at you to hibernate. I may not be a bear in a den, but I certainly find myself cozying up in bed for as long as I can justify. Sometimes I even take naps because I’m cold. Not tired, just cold!
#PandemicProblems
There’s also the whole “it’s a pandemic!” thing. In terms of my lost creativity that’s probably the biggest factor of all. Navigating the world is different now, and that’s zapped a lot of my creative juices; along with my energy. I’m not as stressed about Covid-19 as I was those first few months, since our territory’s restrictions are working. But I am still taking precautions, as are friends and family, and those differences in my lifestyle are felt.
Travel, or lack thereof, in particular, has been difficult. My travel adventures are how I recharge my creative batteries. How I put fish back in my pond, to borrow a phrase from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. It’s been more than a year and change since I last travelled. I even dream frequently of travel… of whales and oceans and things I miss.
I also miss being creative! Right now, I just can’t tap into the spark. I feel like I am the husk of an orange right now, squeezed and wrung dry. My creativity is not really gone or lost, and I know that. I’m reassured by that. It will just take time. And time I’ve got, at least, in spades.
