5 steps for instant self-care for creators(or anyone)

Being a creator is rewarding. You do what you love for a living and provide value. But it can also come with constant one-upping yourself and feeling burned-out. On the quest to create more, you have forgotten to take care of yourself.

With the onset of COVID and work-from-home, this is a truth that extends far beyond creators. There is no office, no cafes to find inspiration, no coffee breaks outside. Everyone’s too busy to take any time off.

But creativity needs room to breathe. You need to be emotionally well to create. And practicing self-care is a form of self-respect.

In this article, I will take you through 7 simple self-care steps that you can begin implementing right away.

1. Sleep your way to inspiration

If you find yourself stressed most of the time and are not able to create something peacefully, there is a possibility that you are not getting enough sleep.

According to a study by the American Psychological Association, adults who sleep fewer than 8 hours a night report higher stress levels than those who sleep at least 8 hours a night. A lack of sleep can make you agitated, irritated, and deprived of any creative energy.

Sleeping well can help you mentally restructure the information learned, resulting in new and insightful responses. Thus, in a way, you can wake up inspired after 8 hours of sleep.

So, early to bed and early to rise. But that isn’t the be-all, end-all. Not in a pandemic, anyway.

2. Set Strong Boundaries

Even after sleeping like a baby, I felt burned out. I woke up and thought about work. I took a break, I thought about work. Even right before sleeping, I thought about work.

I love what I do, but I knew there was a problem that I couldn’t put my finger on. I found the problem was with my routine was that I didn’t have one. So, I made a calendar. Set working hours. Followed through on those healthy boundaries.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t schedule inspiration. But I divided my day into broad chunks. I set up my own office hours aligned with my personal life. It took a while to adjust, but it was worth it.

It can be easy to fall into this burnout hole when you are a creator. But a separation will only contribute to your creation. Many artists, like Pablo Picasso and Haruki Murakami, established strict routines around their creative pursuits.

I also took it a step further by establishing a stricter boundary between my creator life and personal life: I literally created a boundary by differentiating my working-space and resting-space.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, this work-from-home (aka sleep-at-office) is a problem for many. A physical boundary establishes a mental one that truly aids in keeping office thoughts at the office.

Don’t worry. You don’t need to go all big and burn a hole in your pocket for self-care. Just create an itsy-bitsy home office. I took help from this article for creating my workspace.

Yet, the frequent breaks and boundaries I had incorporated into my schedule weren’t enough.

3. Take Screen-Free Breaks

You work at a screen. You talk to your family and friends from another screen. You rest using another screen. It has become a way of life. But screens have an overwhelming impact on your mental well being.

According to this and a few other studies, side effects of too much screen time include damage to our capacity to empathize, and be compassionate, loss of communication within the brain, and impairment with cognitive tasks.

So, make your breaks screen-free. Read a book, play board games, talk to a loved one.

But the best one? Exercise!

4. Shake That Booty

Millions of years of evolution have wired your brain in a way that you feel better instantly when you move your body.

A 2014 study at Stanford University showed that walking significantly improves certain types of cognitive efforts involved in creativity, specifically the ability to come up with solutions to a problem, and the ability to conceive original ideas.

Now, I know you keep busy sometimes. You can’t do a full exercise routine, you just don’t have the time. For those days, try this quickie:

Stand up and stretch your body. Try to stretch as many muscles as you can. When you stretch, your body releases chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins trigger a positive feeling in the body, a “high” if you will. Do this after every hour of working to see lasting effects on your mood and creativity.

Sometimes self-care is Netflix, but most times it is taking care of your body and moving that booty.

And for the days that everything is too much, turn into a monk.

5. Wake Up The Inner Monk

In this video, a Buddhist monk uses the analogy of a monkey mind. Just like a monkey hops from one place to another, your mind also jumps from one thought to another. But when you ask the monkey mind to focus on the breath, the chatter stops.

Plus mindfulness, which is a type of meditation, helps boost creativity. Danny Penman, in his book Mindfulness for Creativity, argues that meditation opens up your mind to new ideas, improves attention, and nurtures courage, and resilience.

I can’t stress this enough, I have had so many benefits from meditation. I got calmer. I handled my bad days better.

But these benefits didn’t show in a few sessions.

For the first few days, your mind will wander in all directions but that will set up the groundwork towards an unwavering focus.

Do the simple practice of focusing on the breath for a month, 10 minutes, two times a day. You will notice the change in yourself. Thank me later.

Bottom Line

You will find even more ways of caring for yourself on the internet. However, all of them might not work for you.

So you must experiment with yourself and learn what works for you and what doesn’t.

What is your self-care ritual? Mention them in the comments below!