I’d like to preface this blog with I am not a mental health professional, if you are feeling in any way genuine depression or thoughts of harm, please seek out professional help.
Often the vibe of the environment we find ourselves in can drive our creativity. Some of the most beautiful music written came out of incredibly dire circumstances whether personal or societal. The 1960’s produced some of the greatest pop music in history with war and all kinds of societal change and upheaval driving it. Great music has also come out of people working through stuff. I grew up in the 90’s, so I know this (Apparently a great economy and world peace caused great angst.).
However, a lot of times a constant low level anxiety can lead to a kind of nefarious paralysis where it’s just difficult to get anything done. Here we find ourselves, with an election already underway, that’s supposed to end on Tuesday November 5, that we kind of know won’t, and everyone seems to be paralyzed by the unknown. So what do we do?
If you live in one of the lucky states, there are these things called edibles (joking, maybe?).
In all seriousness, the mental bombardment we have been under has been wilting, and I don’t even live in a swing state. I recently visited my sister in Arizona, and thought I may have to explain what a whole host of adult issues are to my four year old simply because he was in the room while I watched a football game. Even if you manage to not watch TV or go on social media, if you have a phone that receives text messages, there’s no escape. There’s no escape from either side trying to scare the crap out of you, and while what they’re trying to scare us about may be legitimate, it’s not healthy to be reminded of it two to three times an hour when you’re trying to get other things done. This isn’t the kind of upheaval that tends to spur bouts of creativity. This is the kind of upheaval that makes you want to crawl into a hole until it’s over, but frankly, life is too short for that, and I don’t want to let the political consultants win.
In service of creativity, here are some practices that I’ve compiled from both my personal life and an informal poll of creatives in my circle that I recently pinged about how they’re pushing through this miserable election season.
Morning Pages
Morning pages is a practice that I’ve used, still use, and unsurprisingly, a lot of people in my circle use, since this book has been passed around between us. The book where this comes from is called, “The Artist’s Way, A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity” by Julia Cameron. I’ll be honest, the first time I encountered this book, I cringed, because it seemed very hippie dippie, but I’m very happy I went into it with an open mind.
Morning pages are sort of like keeping a journal, but not really. Basically, it’s writing three pages of stream of consciousness first thing in the morning. There’s no wrong way to do this, and you’re not trying to create anything. If your brain is telling you to write the phrase 'conjunction junction' over and over again, do it. All you need to do is write down what you’re thinking until you’ve reached the end of page three, then do it again tomorrow.
These pages are for your eyes only, so go to town (And if you want, then burn them--but you may be burning art in its infancy!). This kind of brain dump often turns into a way of provoking creative thought, clarifying a jumbled idea, or seemingly doing nothing but clearing your head. However, the practice will turn into something. Not to sound crass, but it’s kind of like taking a mental #2. I do not know anyone who is serious about this practice that doesn’t get anything out of it, and a random idea jotted down in the morning often turns into something creative with form later in the day.
Take Care of your Body
One of the more interesting evolutions in live music performance is how performers now behave on tour. The days of the 80’s cocaine fests while on tour seem to mostly be over, and it may be due to a lot of those folks being dead due to their cocaine fests. Even the survivors of this era now take care of themselves.
Taylor Swift’s physical training for the Eras tour is nearly that of a professional athlete. The members of Rufus Du Sol go from stage to a three minute ice bath after every show. Lady Gaga and Harry Styles also tour with ice baths. All major tours go on the road with a chef, and they’re not pastry chefs, they’re feeding their acts good whole foods.
Everyone kind of intrinsically knows that mental and physical health are tied to each other, and they affect each other. For example, depression often leads to weight gain, which leads to more depression. There’s a diabolical cycle of how these things can enhance each other and spiral, but the same practices that can spiral down, can also spiral up.
I don’t want to come off as a reductionist, but one of the biggest initial acts that can cascade either good or bad is the first thing we decide to put in our mouths. If it’s a doughnut, it’s going to taste good while you’re eating it, but after, you’re not going to want to work out, you’re not going to want to follow it up with some kale, and you’re not going to be satiated (you'll probably want another doughnut)–-you can see where this cascade is going. However, if the first thing you eat is a hard boiled egg, you can see where that goes.
Bottom line, healthy physical decisions usually lead to a more healthy mind, and healthy minds lead to sustained creativity. A healthy mind in a creative headspace, even in a temporary state of sorrow is going to produce just as good music as wallowing in it. We don't have to be in constant emotional distress to create good art.
Social Media, Screens and Sleep
A couple of the most successful people I know, one who created a well known movie franchise, and another who is a multiple Emmy winner, are completely off social media. While that may not be realistic for a lot of us, it does speak to the healthy practice of everything in moderation. It’s pretty much conventional wisdom and widely accepted that social media isn’t that great for our mental health, so any limits placed upon this can only be beneficial.
However, it’s not only social media. News apps are also designed to curate and keep you engaged, which usually means trying to freak you out. Doomscrolling is a thing, and ironically, it’s often when we’re trying to find news to assure us, is where we find our big ole bowl of anxiety. I’m not suggesting that we ignore the news, but we don’t need to dwell in it, especially when it’s just reinforcing stuff we already know. If you do feel you need to do something about what you’re reading in the news, reading more about it will not do anything, get involved in the material plane or disengage.
Now onto screens, since this is the delivery device for most of the above. Unhealthy screen hygiene is a massive impediment to healthy sleeping habits. It’s not only the stuff we’re doomscrolling before bed, but simply staring at a light, regardless of whether it’s blue or not, messes up our cortisol levels which makes it hard to fall asleep. When speaking with my circle of successful creatives, they have all struggled with sleep, but all had to make peace with it, which is, actually sleeping. A few of my circle of creatives have gone as far as moving their phone chargers out of their rooms, to eliminate the temptation of looking at a screen in bed.
Meditate
I highly recommend a variation of meditation that suits you. Here’s a Cleveland Clinic primer, since they explain it better than I can.
Conclusions
This is just the tip of the iceberg on healthy practices to not only keep us in a decent headspace, but keep us creative, and not in a pit of production paralysis as we wait for the world to end. Regardless of what happens Tuesday, the world won’t end, we’ll just have a new set of things to overcome (or hopefully not).
And there’s still edibles (joking).
