Are you breathing?

We are currently in Maine where the weather is finally turning warm enough to spend time outside and I’ve noticed a dramatic uptick in my own mood.

A year of COVID lockdowns has gotten to most people and I’ve certainly noticed it in myself and my students.  Throughout the winter and especially the past month or two I’ve gotten frank emails and calls about health issues and depression in particular.  My response is almost universally that students should take care of themselves, ensure they are resting, getting outside, and that if there is any doubt if they should reach out for help they should 100% reach out and get some professional help.

And yet I find myself not following my own advice.  I’ve let anxiety and isolation and overwork all combine to significantly impact my health, my productivity, and my creativity.

In an earlier career I was a school librarian and in that role I was taken by the Pam Allyn quote “Reading is like breathing in, and writing is like breathing out.”  Her message was about children but it applies to everyone, and especially creatives.  Are you remembering to breath?

This year has been a challenge for me and I’ll be as frank as my students, I was not remembering to breath.  I was overwhelmed and exhausted and trying to push out as much as I could and forgetting that in order to breath out we need to breath in.

In the end I needed to force the issue, but also to do so in smaller chunks.  Instead of sitting down to read a novel I instead downloaded some audio books to listen to while I was walking, instead of sitting down with a complicated set of materials in the evening instead I purchased several of the “Best American 2020” anthologies.  The Best American Food Writing, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Essays to be specific.  They demonstrated good writing and allowed me to breath in.

Much of art and creativity is experiential, we visit the museum or gallery, we attend the play or concert, and now with the pandemic weighing in on us much of that has been taken for too long and we are seeing it’s effects.

This lack of art in many forms has been as damaging as the lack of social contact.  It impacts our health both physical and mental and just as it’s important to force ourselves out of our chairs and to go for a walk it is important for us to force ourselves to seek out art and beauty more intentionally at these times.

If you are a creative or an aspiring creative remembering Pam Allyn’s concept of breathing in and out is key.  And while in the best of times it comes naturally for us when it doesn’t we still have to do it if we want our creativity, and in large part our sanity to survive.