When we slip, we gotta breathe (and then get right back up!)

By Jan Gutowski, Creativity Coach
March 7, 2021

Okay, this has been a week… One which felt like the camel’s back finally broke; and which all the rocket fuel which has gotten me this far, finally just sputtered and dissipated, leaving me running on fumes. Yes, I shed MANY tears, and felt like I was not my best self. Not by a long shot! I mean, I totally wanted to shut down, retreat into a corner in the fetal position, and suck my thumb. Today, though, I took several steps back, and decided to make a goal to just breathe! And that is what I did – breathe in, breathe out, repeat, repeat, repeat.

When I finally felt the hamster dismount the wheel in my brain, I realized that I had not been practicing self-care for a long time, and now, I was pouring from an empty cup. It became clear that I needed to create a complete mental disconnect from the chaos, right now, in order start untying all the knots and get into a clearer headspace. I found an important reminder which kicked me back into the game and gave me the mental course correction that I needed:

Funny how these little reminders find you when you really need it!
Every experience, good or bad, comes with a takeaway. My takeaway this week was a well-learned lesson in what can happen if I go too long without taking care of my mental well-being. Sure, I gave myself several opportunities over the course of the past 6 months or so to leverage creativity in order to achieve balance in The Force; but more often than not, the creative time I spent felt like borrowed time, since my mental workload was high, and I was always obsessing about falling behind. De-prioritizing our self-care is, by far, the biggest disservice we can do to ourselves. If we always make the goals of our employer the highest priority, then we have chosen to always place all of the important “me” things on the back burner. And, if we carry on like this for too long, we will most definitely crack! I am not suggesting that we should blow off our work responsibilities; but when we start to feel the burn, we should learn to recognize that we cannot be at our best if we let it go too far. This past week was my lesson in knowing when to get off the treadmill to take a breather; and to remember these simple affirmations: I do my best, I add value and I am enough.

Beating ourselves into the ground will not achieve better results, but it will make us feel beaten; and nothing kills creativity more than a heart which feels defeated. Commit to taking back your “me” time, putting up some healthy boundaries, and taking care of yourself! You deserve it!

-jg