how can one not be burnt out after pouring their everything into a creative frenzy that may last a few days ?... ya know, those days when you are so focused you don't eat much, rest much (you maybe smoke too much) and you even say to yourself "I just need to finish this section" even though you have had to really pee for the last half hour... oy !
so the following burnout may look like: eating ice cream sandwiches for breakfast with your coffee... binging on northern exposure (the german DVDs with all the original music, of course) or doc martin... my chaotic brain often needs the familiar (and there just ins't that much good tv out there, to be honest) so I go back, again and again... esp to northern exposure... it's practically like a religion to me- it has eveything - life, death, love, loss, art, music, poetry, humor <3
I think if northern exposure was on today, they would be asking you to use some of your music in it, for sure. :)
The Northern Exposure reference made me smile. Such special memories of that show. It had such a magical quality to the writing and the topics - without ever taking itself too seriously.
As a recently diagnosed ADHD-er I relate deeply to the cycle you describe. It is key to step back and spot patterns, as you note. I have recently gotten better about being kinder to myself and accepting that the “crash” periods (which involve more scrolling than I’d care to admit) are part of the ride. In turn, those dill pickle popcorn hours have become more *actually* restorative and a bit less prolonged because I’m not beating myself up in my head the whole time. It took a long time to get here.
Just finished your book last night and this is a wonderful coda. Look forward to seeing where your vision takes you with the album cover.
I know that you were happy just to be nominated for the album art award, and I honor your humility, but I have to say that the Middle Cyclone cover is WAY better and WAY more creative than that computer generated image of a house on the cover for the David Byrne album. David Byrne and Eno are both very cool, and your deference to them is deserved, but that album art is not inspiring at all. Your cover is creative, hand-made, inspiring, shows strength and action, and is just generally kick-ass. The other one is a picture of a house. Just my opinion, and an un-asked for one at that, but I felt it needed to be said.
I've always loved the artwork on your album covers. It's fun to hear that's a great creative opportunity for you.
Burnout- one of the biggest successes I feel like I have learned as I have gotten older is learning how to do nothing but chill, read, maybe watch a movie. When I was younger, my ADHD self was happiest in creative craziness and deadlines and lots of things occurring at once. It really still is happiest that way but I've finally gotten to that point that downtime to recover doesn't make me feel guilty or anxious that I am going nothing. I now know it's something I need. Woods walks always help the downtime to calm my brain's urge to kick back in too much.
When I finished reading your book, I couldn't stop thinking about my mom, and how lucky I was to have her - how loving and caring she was despite her issues with addiction.
Anyway, it inspired me to write an essay about her, which is something I have never done before. Writing something for no reason other than the thoughts wouldn't leave me until I got them out felt good.
Thank you for that.
Also, exhaustion is where I live an awful lot these days. Tired and hungry pretty much all the time. Between work, family, the outside world drama, and perimenopause - I've got all I can handle on my plate. We all need to take care of ourselves where and when we can. Popcorn and sleep seems perfectly reasonable to me.
The last 2 days were spent on the couch with weighted furry blankets (dogs) trying to recover or at least reclassify my burnout. Next I need a walk in the Bosque or to plant some dahlias and a peony. Hands in dirt are a great remedy.
Been thinking of the chandelier all day. I’m jealous. How restorative and magical bouncing reflections and shadows are. Changing my above answer which is treatment for every day anxiety. Deep burnout is treated by light and binge watching TV shows about firemen.
It's funny to remember that my brother used to make "albums" when he was little (Tony and the Ants -- we didn't know about Adam Ant yet, being preschoolers), which meant drawing the album art and making up the name of the tracks. He's almost 49 and you still can't read his writing, and I doubt he got far beyond stick-figures, but those "albums" were so cute. I hope my mom saved them somewhere.
I was in a prolonged state of burnout from autumn 2020 until this past autumn. Mostly what I did is watch the documentary series The Vow (about the NXIVM cult) over and over again. I'm not sure why I needed that disturbing content, but now that I'm back to my old self again, I haven't thought about watching it at all.
Burnout, or being in over my head, used to manifest itself with shuddering breaths and/or doing the easy known task at hand and/or daydreaming about the past. Once I was able to identify those traits it was much easier to be proactive rather than reactive … most of the time. Now, retired, those scenarios are much rarer.
Interestingly, we are on holiday with no timelines or expectations. Almost 3 weeks in and have not looked at a 📺 once! We both have commented on how tired we are and wonder if this is just a “letting go” of the world for a bit.
I just remembered: in high school, my nickname was Burnt. The fallow times are important. We need to recharge, reflect, and yes, obsess. Wear your Burnt like a badge. I know it feels wrong to do nothing, especially with the world burning all around you.
But you have phoenix blood. You need to burn to reinvent.
For me, I know I’ve hit creative burnout when I start the “everything I do sucks” phase! That’s when it’s time to step away. It’s a cliche, but it works. Just taking some time away from the process gives useful perspective. I don’t subscribe to the belief that you should just power through it, because sometimes your creative muscle just needs to eat a whole bag of chips!
Learning to manage burnout is something I’m still working on. I was so excited to finally let my creativity breathe air in the world that my collaborative projects were so big they destroyed me for weeks after they were installed. These days I try to get my nature walks in daily and I find chopping vegetables, sometimes to very loud music, sometimes in silence helps. Otherwise, sinking into the couch and binging tv.
As much as I don’t want anyone else to feel burned out it’s reassuring to know I’m not the only one, and that it seems to be part of the creative process on some level, which honestly makes sense. Creating is bringing something to life and birthing anything is exhausting.
”I was going to clean the house last night but instead I ate TWO bags of dill pickle popcorn for dinner.” 😂😂😂❤️
Burnout for me = migraines 😫 last Friday I went to bed 6pm, woke up at midnight to take medicine because migraine and slept til 9am. Stayed functional for a while and then felt migraine coming back…repeat. Sunday was a repeat of Saturday. I’m fine now. And I can’t blame burnout 100% because I get a lot of migraines in the spring time when there’s more light after winter.
LOVE the chandelier! And cannot wait to see your artwork!
My niece is in artschool now and I am living vigorously through her.
My burnout looks (sounds) like yours-- dial tone. There's nothing I can do but just wait for the ideas to start flowing again. I find it frustrating that my inspirations are so shy, but conversely, when conditions are correct they reliably arise every morning, like a spring of water.
how can one not be burnt out after pouring their everything into a creative frenzy that may last a few days ?... ya know, those days when you are so focused you don't eat much, rest much (you maybe smoke too much) and you even say to yourself "I just need to finish this section" even though you have had to really pee for the last half hour... oy !
so the following burnout may look like: eating ice cream sandwiches for breakfast with your coffee... binging on northern exposure (the german DVDs with all the original music, of course) or doc martin... my chaotic brain often needs the familiar (and there just ins't that much good tv out there, to be honest) so I go back, again and again... esp to northern exposure... it's practically like a religion to me- it has eveything - life, death, love, loss, art, music, poetry, humor <3
I think if northern exposure was on today, they would be asking you to use some of your music in it, for sure. :)
The Northern Exposure reference made me smile. Such special memories of that show. It had such a magical quality to the writing and the topics - without ever taking itself too seriously.
As a recently diagnosed ADHD-er I relate deeply to the cycle you describe. It is key to step back and spot patterns, as you note. I have recently gotten better about being kinder to myself and accepting that the “crash” periods (which involve more scrolling than I’d care to admit) are part of the ride. In turn, those dill pickle popcorn hours have become more *actually* restorative and a bit less prolonged because I’m not beating myself up in my head the whole time. It took a long time to get here.
Just finished your book last night and this is a wonderful coda. Look forward to seeing where your vision takes you with the album cover.
I love the chandelier, and I can’t wait to see the new album art!
My burnout usually looks like having a very hard time getting out of my bed. Which is where I am right now. Trying to muddle through.
I know that you were happy just to be nominated for the album art award, and I honor your humility, but I have to say that the Middle Cyclone cover is WAY better and WAY more creative than that computer generated image of a house on the cover for the David Byrne album. David Byrne and Eno are both very cool, and your deference to them is deserved, but that album art is not inspiring at all. Your cover is creative, hand-made, inspiring, shows strength and action, and is just generally kick-ass. The other one is a picture of a house. Just my opinion, and an un-asked for one at that, but I felt it needed to be said.
I was just about to say…
I loved that cover. I think that it was intended to look computer generated and generic, but it's got a lot going on the longer you look at it.
I've always loved the artwork on your album covers. It's fun to hear that's a great creative opportunity for you.
Burnout- one of the biggest successes I feel like I have learned as I have gotten older is learning how to do nothing but chill, read, maybe watch a movie. When I was younger, my ADHD self was happiest in creative craziness and deadlines and lots of things occurring at once. It really still is happiest that way but I've finally gotten to that point that downtime to recover doesn't make me feel guilty or anxious that I am going nothing. I now know it's something I need. Woods walks always help the downtime to calm my brain's urge to kick back in too much.
Just a comment about inspiration...
When I finished reading your book, I couldn't stop thinking about my mom, and how lucky I was to have her - how loving and caring she was despite her issues with addiction.
Anyway, it inspired me to write an essay about her, which is something I have never done before. Writing something for no reason other than the thoughts wouldn't leave me until I got them out felt good.
Thank you for that.
Also, exhaustion is where I live an awful lot these days. Tired and hungry pretty much all the time. Between work, family, the outside world drama, and perimenopause - I've got all I can handle on my plate. We all need to take care of ourselves where and when we can. Popcorn and sleep seems perfectly reasonable to me.
The last 2 days were spent on the couch with weighted furry blankets (dogs) trying to recover or at least reclassify my burnout. Next I need a walk in the Bosque or to plant some dahlias and a peony. Hands in dirt are a great remedy.
Been thinking of the chandelier all day. I’m jealous. How restorative and magical bouncing reflections and shadows are. Changing my above answer which is treatment for every day anxiety. Deep burnout is treated by light and binge watching TV shows about firemen.
It's funny to remember that my brother used to make "albums" when he was little (Tony and the Ants -- we didn't know about Adam Ant yet, being preschoolers), which meant drawing the album art and making up the name of the tracks. He's almost 49 and you still can't read his writing, and I doubt he got far beyond stick-figures, but those "albums" were so cute. I hope my mom saved them somewhere.
I was in a prolonged state of burnout from autumn 2020 until this past autumn. Mostly what I did is watch the documentary series The Vow (about the NXIVM cult) over and over again. I'm not sure why I needed that disturbing content, but now that I'm back to my old self again, I haven't thought about watching it at all.
Sometimes when we’re numb from burnout the disturbing things stir up emotions and remind us we’re human
Hi Neko,
Burnout, or being in over my head, used to manifest itself with shuddering breaths and/or doing the easy known task at hand and/or daydreaming about the past. Once I was able to identify those traits it was much easier to be proactive rather than reactive … most of the time. Now, retired, those scenarios are much rarer.
Interestingly, we are on holiday with no timelines or expectations. Almost 3 weeks in and have not looked at a 📺 once! We both have commented on how tired we are and wonder if this is just a “letting go” of the world for a bit.
Looking forward to the new music!
I just remembered: in high school, my nickname was Burnt. The fallow times are important. We need to recharge, reflect, and yes, obsess. Wear your Burnt like a badge. I know it feels wrong to do nothing, especially with the world burning all around you.
But you have phoenix blood. You need to burn to reinvent.
For me, I know I’ve hit creative burnout when I start the “everything I do sucks” phase! That’s when it’s time to step away. It’s a cliche, but it works. Just taking some time away from the process gives useful perspective. I don’t subscribe to the belief that you should just power through it, because sometimes your creative muscle just needs to eat a whole bag of chips!
Learning to manage burnout is something I’m still working on. I was so excited to finally let my creativity breathe air in the world that my collaborative projects were so big they destroyed me for weeks after they were installed. These days I try to get my nature walks in daily and I find chopping vegetables, sometimes to very loud music, sometimes in silence helps. Otherwise, sinking into the couch and binging tv.
As much as I don’t want anyone else to feel burned out it’s reassuring to know I’m not the only one, and that it seems to be part of the creative process on some level, which honestly makes sense. Creating is bringing something to life and birthing anything is exhausting.
Also, love the chandelier.
”I was going to clean the house last night but instead I ate TWO bags of dill pickle popcorn for dinner.” 😂😂😂❤️
Burnout for me = migraines 😫 last Friday I went to bed 6pm, woke up at midnight to take medicine because migraine and slept til 9am. Stayed functional for a while and then felt migraine coming back…repeat. Sunday was a repeat of Saturday. I’m fine now. And I can’t blame burnout 100% because I get a lot of migraines in the spring time when there’s more light after winter.
LOVE the chandelier! And cannot wait to see your artwork!
My niece is in artschool now and I am living vigorously through her.
Loved reading this! My burnout behaves/behaves similarly. Brain-retraining is my salve. Not for the faint if heart. 😬
My burnout looks (sounds) like yours-- dial tone. There's nothing I can do but just wait for the ideas to start flowing again. I find it frustrating that my inspirations are so shy, but conversely, when conditions are correct they reliably arise every morning, like a spring of water.
That chandelier is wondrously banging!
I absolutely LOVE everything about Middle Cyclone, including the album art. It’s a musical monument.