Creative Ways To Rest When You Experience Creative Burnout

Today’s post wasn’t one I was planning to write about, but more so a topic that came from a place of necessity. And since I shared about it on Instagram and received so many responses from you sharing that you could relate, I thought it would be a good opportunity to open up the conversation further.

June was a really busy month for me. Besides sharing here on our blog and our YouTube channel, I also work as a freelance graphic designer. As the freelance life goes, some months are quieter and some are busier, and the only predictable thing about it is that it will always be unpredictable. As such, I have to take the work when it comes and that means that my priorities have to shift on a month-by-month basis. June was a month that required a lot of my attention to be on my business, which inevitably meant that I had to let a lot of the other balls drop.

I love working in design, but as a creative field, it can be easy to experience creative burnout. I have always desired a really strong work/life balance and work really hard to set boundaries in my business that allow that. However, many of my personal hobbies and joys come from doing other creative work, such as sharing here, working on home projects, making videos, editing videos, making art, and pretty well crafting anything with my hands. When you monetize your creativity, like by being a graphic designer, it can be really easy to convince yourself that anything you create could be sellable, marketable, or should bring some form of value to your family if you are putting so much time and effort into it. It’s easy for the focus of your creating to move from something you do to find pleasure and enjoyment to something you have to sustain. And this type of thinking can dig you straight into a creative rut.

Which is exactly where I find myself now.

Being creative is something that very truly brings me joy. I love seeing what my hands can build and love pushing myself to learn and grow in the process. I also love being able to share about it so that others can feel inspired to push themselves in that way too. But existing in this digital space is a tricky thing - a classic case of too much of a good thing. Being so seemingly connected to others all the time, seeing what others are constantly creating, feeling the pull to maintain consistency, and never allowing yourself to take a break - these things are damaging. These things take the pleasure out of creating. And these things ultimately burn you out. When I sat down a couple of years ago and made a clear plan for the Little Reesor House, what values I wanted to guide me, and what, when, and how I wanted to share here online, I decided that authenticity is one of the most important things to me. I never want to create things for the sake of shareable content. I always want to remain authentic to who I am and what I care about. I want to create projects for my home, posts for my blog, and videos for my channel because of the authentic and genuine joy I find in them.

I also always want to be honest and authentic about what I am feeling and when I am feeling it. And so with that, I need to admit that the pressures of this digital space are creeping up on me. I feel like I have unintentionally let my priorities shift and like I am forcing myself creatively, when what I actually need is to force myself to reprioritize rest.

I have decided to take a step back from Instagram for a while. At this point, I don’t know how long for, but I’m sure I’ll be back. I will continue writing here on the blog twice a week and will share videos on our channel as I am able to make them. I think that intentionally finding some peace and quiet outside of the digital world, even in this limited way, will help me reorient my priorities again.

And most excitedly, I have decided to start a small personal creative project to help me find some rest. I am a goal-oriented person, so even in my resting, I need some form of structure or finish line in order to feel like I have done something well. However, in this case, I wanted to find a project that could not bring me any sense of fulfillment other than the true rest and enjoyment I’m after in taking it on. I want it to result in something physical that involves using my hands to create it, but I have to be careful that it isn’t something I could easily flip around and make into something marketable, even in the form of content or something I could display in my house. This one had to be entirely for me - purposeless and unimpressive.

So what is my project? I purchased a colour-by-numbers colouring book and a marker set of 36 colours so I can colour-by-numbers my way through the entire book. I chose a book theme that felt interesting and fun, but not something I would try to hang in my home after. I wanted this project to be easy and accessible - something I could put 10 minutes into one night and an hour into another. The goal is to complete the book, but there is no timeline on this one. It’s going to be fairly mindless and unimpressive (since I’m literally just following a colour guide), yet deeply satisfying and enjoyable. And you are probably never going to hear about it again. Because this project is just for me.

As a final note, I wanted to share with you the many wonderful ideas that you guys shared with me when I reached out about this topic. The project that I settled on was a combination of some of your great ideas. I put out a call for creative hobbies or projects that could be completely personal, with little emphasis on the final product and more emphasis on the enjoyment that comes from the process. Here is what you had to say:

• knitting (I got lots of these! I love the repetition in knitting, but definitely feel more pulled to it in the winter months)

• paper making from pulp (so fun and cool!)

• carving

• working with clay (this one reminded me of how relaxing it has been to play with play dough with Mabel)

• paint-by-numbers (I seriously considered this, but figured I wouldn’t find it as enjoyable if I have to pull out and put away the supplies all the time. But it definitely inspired my colour-by-numbers choice)

• adult colouring books (obviously also inspired my choice)

• adult connect-the-dots

• puzzles

• walking and/or hiking

• yoga

• baking

Do you find yourself experiencing creative burnout? As a creative person, how do you find rest in those seasons? Share any additional ideas you may have down below! Until next time -