We talk a lot about burnout and not enough about creative suffocation.
The kind that doesn’t show up as exhaustion, but rather emptiness.
Blank screens. No spark. A fog we can’t quite name.
Research suggests that “our hurried, over-scheduled lives” is the cause.
Creative thinking has declined over the last decade.
Not because people aren’t creative, but because we rarely give creativity space to breathe.
Deadlines.
Distractions.
Doing all the things.
They can squeeze the oxygen right out of our imagination.
Creativity needs space and boredom to flourish.
My Story
This year, I’ve been busy.
Client work.
Projects.
Responsibilities.
Somewhere in all the hustle and bustle, my creative air got thin.
I kept trying to push through.
Create.
Write.
Plan.
But I wasn’t in the mood.
And I didn’t understand why.
Now I see that I had no oxygen.
No white space.
No room to play.
No place for ideas to seed and sprout.
Lately, I feel the air returning.
Two weeks ago, I started a junk journal.
Part vision board, part daydream catcher.
I set a “word for summer”.
Savor.
And my plan is to use the journal to capture all that unfolds.
I hope to savor space.
Savor sparks of creativity.
And savor all the fun pleasures that the summer season brings.
My Perspective
Our creativity needs oxygen.
We need to find the space between the doing.
We can’t manufacture magic on a full calendar.
We need to integrate play into our planner.
When our ideas feel stale or the spark feels dim, maybe it’s a sign we need air.
Your Turn
What’s the oxygen level of your creative life right now? Low, moderate, or full flow?
Does your life have the space it needs for creative ideas or is your schedule stifling?
What could you do this week to open a window and let some air in?