Creative Headspace

How do you celebrate holidays?

Being in the arts and entertainment industry my whole adult life, holidays isn’t usually something we celebrate, it’s more a case of something that we brace ourselves for.

The amount of important events, parties and weddings I have missed because I’ve been working is ridiculous. Especially when I ran my travelling mobile cinema. That pretty much ensured that I was working every Friday and Saturday night throughout the warmer months. However as an introvert I didn’t mind too much. And I’d often still get to events at the end of the night, just in time to make a an appearance before everyone took off.

This wouldn’t be the case for all thriving artists however. I suppose it depends how thriving the artist is. For me I was heavily involved in the cinema industry and now I run my own cafe/art gallery. So if there is an event, or a holiday celebration, I’m almost certain to miss it.

So given that I don’t get regular ‘holiday’ breaks, I think it’s especially important to create other breaks, not that I do but maybe it’s something that I can work on. Because I think that always being busy isn’t good for your creativity, in fact I think it kills your creativity. My most creative times are when I step out of the busy life and take the dog for a walk somewhere in nature, have a relaxing bath or basically anything that gets you away from the busyness and distractions of life.

It’s weird but I used to be a regular listener of podcasts while cleaning the house and doing the dishes. But lately I’ve opted for silence and stopped filling my head continuously with things. Instead I use the time to think about what I’m doing with my own work and use it as creative time that helps distracts me from the pain of cleaning and tidying. I actually think it’s an important part of the creative process to get a little bored sometimes.