THIS is Part of the Creative Process too!

I've had a hangover that's going on day 11. It's not from an early holiday pub crawl or even a bachelorette weekend bender in Nashville. It's from a festival, VegFest London, that I was involved in organizing. While technically it's not a "hangover", hangover, it's the best way I can describe the zombie like tired trance I've been in. 

If you've ever planned an event, launched a course, birthed a book or tackled some other colossal creative project, than you're familiar with the feeling. It's impossible to avoid, even if leading up to it we're checking things off the self-care list like... extra sleep, check, baths, check, massage, check. 

In my zombie like state, I've realized how when we're rumbling with perfection, those pesky expectations it sets creep into everything, including REST. From what our rest "should" look like and what's a "reasonable" amount of time to rest. We want our rest to be another tidy box we check off, so we move one and dive into our next project....BUT that's not how it works.

Sometimes a day off and some extra sleep is sufficient and sometimes it takes longer...11 days longer. We forget that we can write ourselves permission slips to do necessary and essential things like extra rest. 

Fuelled by adrenaline from finishing one project and high on the hope and excitement of starting something new, it’s easy to suppress the feelings of being tired and skip rest altogether.

We fear that by taking a break from our creative project or outlet, that we'll loose our creativity altogether. We'll somehow regress or fall behind. BUT when we're resting, our creativity is just lying dormant. It's waiting for you. For the next time you'll be pulled because of inspiration, a desire or a craving, to make again (AND TRUST ME YOU WILL). 

Don't forget that rest is part of the creative process too. 

I'm curious to know what are you currently making and what stage of the creative process are you in? Are you hitting the snooze button like I am and in a season of rest? Share in the comments below.