10 Healthy habits for artists
On my last entry I talked about the good ol’ ‘burning out’ situation and shared a bit of what I went through. I mentioned this week I would share some tips that will hopefully help you out if you’re feeling close to a burnout. Without further ado, here they are!
1. Take a break to work on yourself
Tying it up with my last entry, if you feel you need to take a break and it’s within your economic possibilities DO IT. When you are already burned out you will get nowhere pushing yourself. Ideas flow better with a healthy mind, and taking a break to work on yourself will do wonders and help you feel more confident over the next decisions you have to make on your career. Breaking the cycle of your current ‘toxic’ routine will help you look around and see things in a different perspective. At times I would think ‘oh, when I hit my limit I will take a break’, but the scary thing is that sometimes that’s not how it works. There will be no limit in the amount of damage you can take from pushing yourself too hard. Trust me, the hole goes deeper. Don’t be in a situation where you realize that you’ve been six feet under the ground for quite a while because by that time you might already be facing some serious health issues. Take a break, don’t forget the world needs you and you’ll be able to do more and better things when you’re in better shape.
2. Time to warm up and time to cool down
Everybody's working process is different, but something that works well for me is allowing some time to warm up before starting a project and to cool down before transitioning to another activity. If you’re a big procrastinator like me, I think you’ll find that the best way to get you started is to kind of sneak up on the tasks you have to start. Before I start working I start visualizing what I have to do before putting it to action. On a good day suddenly I’ll have an idea spark in my head, and my train of thoughts will lead me to want to start working immediately. I remember when I had to sit and practice piano several hours a day. Performing has never been the thing in the world I love the most, but composing is. So before studying the repertoire, I gave myself a few minutes to just enjoy improvising on whatever music idea came to me at that moment. Eventually I would feel like playing what I actually needed to practice with a better attitude.
Likewise, give yourself time to cool down when you’re done. If you have multiple projects in one day, it’s important to go into the new one with a fresh mind and to disconnect from what you were working on previously. Go grab a snack, read a book, take a walk, play a game, watch cat videos on Facebook, whatever works for you! This mini-break will do wonders for your efficiency. I’m usually a night-owl kinda gal that works best at late hours, and I find that this cool down process before going to bed is essential. Otherwise I’ll probably have a hard time trying to sleep, because my mind will still be working on whatever I was doing before.
This advice will allow you to have several mini breaks during the day, and trust me, you deserve those breaks!
3. #inotonlymakemusic
I use this hashtag whenever I post something I’m doing that’s unrelated to my profession. I first did it as an inside joke, but I soon realized how important it is to do something that is unrelated to your work. Hobbies are truly important in our schedule, especially because you’re doing them without the pressure of delivering like a pro. You’re doing this for fun and with no expectations. Sure, some hobbies evolve to become something more serious, for example having a side business. But in the meantime diversifying your activities helps you develop new skills, gain new knowledge, and relax. This could be done in a group environment or individually, your pick! As long as you invest a bit of time on something that is not your work. For years it bothered me that people would only think of me as ‘the musician’. A person is more than just what they do for a living, so pay attention to those other sides of you. So do something else and have fun!
4. ...Do what you usually do, but have fun!
When you have a professional commitment or even in your personal projects, there comes a time when you probably suffocate your own creativity by looking for the perfect idea. This is the perfect recipe for self-inducing a creative block. Remember to have fun. Fool around once in a while. When you allow yourself to not take yourself so seriously, you remove a ton of pressure off your shoulders. I remember composer Lucas Vidal telling us interns to have fun writing music, because otherwise what’s the point? Yes, our craft requires huge amounts of work and discipline, but maybe it’s not a bad idea to incorporate fun in our creative process, right?
5. Be kind to yourself by knowing yourself
I know, you’ve heard this one before, but I promise it will help you achieve a healthy lifestyle. Being kind to yourself will let you say to yourself ‘I’m doing my best’ with confidence, and it will help you feel proud when you achieve even the tiniest goal. You will also be able to move forward more easily when something doesn’t go well. The thing that maybe no one will mention is that when you start being kind to yourself, you start being kinder to others too. Every struggle comes with a dose of self-loathing and blame, and when you become aware of this with yourself, you gain this new level of empathy when you see others struggling. We artists tend to be really bad at this one, but with this new insight you may be able to make others connect better with your art.
6. The clichés
You know, ‘eat healthy, do exercise…’. But before you scroll past this one!!!... allow me to hopefully offer you a fresh perspective.
Yes, don’t cue Rocky’s soundtrack and start an intense dieting/training montage because this will only motivate you for a couple of weeks. The best weapon you have is knowing yourself. You know your strengths and weaknesses, so my advice is that you explore a healthy lifestyle that works for you. Forget about google, influencers, etc. Only YOU know what’s the best way to take initiative and be disciplined. Let me give you an example. When I was young I used to be in all of my school’s team sports. I had lots of fun exercising. Then I became a high school student / part time music student. It became impossible to find the time to do a sport that I really liked doing, so I started doing...nothing at all. For years that was the case until I started struggling with mental health. I decided to go to the gym even though I hate it. I’m way too stubborn and proud, so I knew that if I asked for a personal trainer I would feel annoyed and drop out immediately. So I said “you know what? I’m going to go on my own terms”. I decided I would go just to walk on the treadmill three times a week. No weights, no workouts, just walking a few minutes and then go home. I felt this is something I could commit to, because it was not a lot of effort (yet better than doing nothing), it was quick, and I just put on Netflix on my phone while walking to pass the time. One morning I was particularly anxious. I put some music on my phone, and suddenly ‘One step closer’ by Linkin Park came up. Something clicked. I felt angry, I felt desperate, and motivated by that, I started running at my max speed throughout the song. Of course I almost collapsed when the song ended, but I discovered something. This was a way to vent. So little by little I started adding things to my workout under that philosophy, and this has made it easier for me to not miss a workout day. It was a slow process, but today even though it still bores me to death to exercise on my own, I can be disciplined.
In conclusion, find a way that works for you! Your goal doesn’t have to be fit, but to avoid the health risks of a sedentary life. Do whatever you can to squeeze in some sort of physical activity in your schedule.
Same goes for dieting. I’m almost certain that when you hear the word ‘diet’ you immediately think about a plan for losing weight, but a diet is just the food that a person usually eats. Learn how to balance your food, go to a specialist if you need to, and with that you’ll be able to make better choices and concessions when you eat. Stop thinking of eating healthy as something you’re temporarily doing to get in shape and start to realize that a balanced diet should be something normal in your daily life. In my personal opinion, slow and steady wins the race.
7. Build an inspiring creative space
It’s always nice to be reminded of the things that inspire you, and what better way to make your working space inspiring than surrounding yourself with those things. I’m a very visual person, so I like to create little moodboards by putting art postcards on my walls. I buy new ones each time I visit an art museum. I love having these tiny stories in front of me at all times, they awake something inside of me that reminds me why I chose ‘the art life’. I recommend you do something similar or at the very least make your working area a place you like to be in.
My home studio :)
8. Go back to your roots
Sometimes, especially when we’re students, we tend to forget what brought us here in the first place. As a music student I spent almost all my time listening to suggestions made by my professors, so that I reached a point when people asked me what music I was into and my responses didn’t feel genuine to me anymore. I was listening to music that I was studying, not necessarily what I felt like listening to. When I graduated I had to rediscover the music I loved that made me want to be in this business in the first place. Only then did it all make sense and I felt inspired again.
9. Vent
It’s as simple as that. When you’re getting sick of something, speak up! The great thing about venting is that you often realize people have felt the same way. I remember during midterms and finals at Berklee, the standard response you got from someone if you asked how they were doing, would be: I’m extremely tired, I have no social life, I miss home, too much work, no sleep, this assignment is killing me, etc etc etc. But weirdly enough, I liked that atmosphere in those months because it felt like everyone was at the same level of ‘misery’ and therefore everyone understood each other better. I even felt that we all looked out for each other; we got everyone’s back. I think there’s always a healthy amount of venting you can do, especially when you find the right people to do it with.
10. Therapy & meditation
These two things are not quite simple because you have to find the one type of therapy and/or meditation that feels right to you. It took me a while to find a counselor with whom I felt comfortable with, but once you find the right person, even a session every two weeks can do wonders for your overall mood. We artists are so in touch with our thoughts and emotions that for some it’s easy to get lost in the downward spiral and we need someone to pull us out.
If you are definitely not willing to try therapy, try doing a short daily meditation. There are so many different styles you can try and again once you find the one that works for you, it will help tremendously. When I tried it while I had anxiety peaks I could feel my thoughts flowing slower when I meditated. This allowed me to observe and put an order in the storm I had in my head. You can look for guided meditation sessions, but if that’s too much for you, meditation can be as simple as doing breathing exercises and observing your air flow.
I leave you with this…
I’d like to finish up this entry by sharing this quote by David Lynch (which by the way, is from his book ‘Catching the big fish’, and I highly recommend it!):
“Anger and depression and sorrow are beautiful things in a story, but they’re like poison to the filmmaker or artist. They’re like a vise grip on creativity. If you’re in that grip, you can hardly get out of bed, much less experience the flow of creativity and ideas. You must have clarity to create. You have to be able to catch ideas”
I hope you enjoyed today’s blogpost and if you do, share it with your friends and colleagues :) The world needs healthy artists! Take care and see you next time!
Monica Lyrae
Composer, Songwriter and Human Being trying her best