Rest is a creative act
You’ve been told building your dream is hard work.
It’s focused productivity. It's grinding sweat, blood, and tears into a paste spread too thin across days, weeks, months, even years.
But the truth is your expansion and creativity require space.
A turtle’s growth is limited to the size of its aquarium.
A plant’s size is defined by its pot.
And you, dear creator, will only expand as large as the space you give yourself.
If you prioritize doing, and get lost in a flurry of activity, you’ll suck the air out of the room, ideas will wither and fade, and you’ll contract.
When you release the pressure to create and focus on being in the here and now, you give your mind and body permission to imagine and wander.
Ideas are free-range entities, grass-fed.
They graze and grow in big, open, fertile fields.
They visit in dreams, in the shower, on walks, when you’re bored, open, and not trying to catch them, but allow them to catch you.
Yet, we’re taught that rest is lazy, that our worth is based on what we produce, and measured by stacked calendars.
All the juice is squeezed out of creativity in such tight spaces 🍊
When your creative mind is given an ever-growing list of tasks, it doesn’t have room to roam or explore.
Creativity needs space.
You need rest, breaks, and boredom.
According to John Eastwood, a psychologist and co-author of Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom:
When our brains and bodies are idle and still, divergent thinking kicks in.
“Boredom”, even in small doses, primes our brains to think outside of the box by releasing the stress and anxiety associated with “doing”.
Moments of rest and regeneration make way for ideas.
What if trusting more, worrying less, and kicking your feet up whenever you want is the gateway to an abundant creative life?
What if that’s the way to build?
And why not?
Sit back, relax, and see what opens up.
Stare at the clouds, lazily read pages of a book, nap in the grass.
See what emerges in this space.
FIELDWORK
✦ COACHING MOMENT ✦
How will you create space in your day?
Try using “The Eisenhower Matrix”, not as an effort to be more productive, but to create space for daydreaming, rest, ideas, and divergent thinking.
Create an emoji and/or color for ‘space’ in your calendar. Block time for it daily.
The Eisenhower Decision Matrix
✦ DOSE OF CREATIVITY ✦
Carve out time to rest.
What are your favorite ways of relaxing?
What daily ‘rest' rituals could you create?
✦ NOTE TO SELF ✦
You're just a nap away from the next big idea.
