How do you find time to for your creative outlet?
For me it has become a necessity. Painting has disproportionate results in my life so I give it significant space and time. Perhaps painting, dance classes, writing workshops feel luxurious or too expensive. Well guess what? Getting cancer is really expensive! (Oi! Let's not talk about all the bills!) Being on medication for depression, relationships falling apart, quitting your job ...all very expensive! Suddenly your creative outlet sounds affordable-doesn't it?
Why not spend the time, space, money up front to relieve stress, step into your
joy, and live a more full life...now. Sometimes retreating into creativity feels selfish to me...and yet the restoration it gives me empowers me to 'return' to the rest of my life to my responsibilities with a peace and joy that is very difficult for me to access otherwise.
People often ask me 'how do I make time for painting' etc. Well, I use facebook less. I watch shows less. I am raising my kids (now 7/5) to do more chores than their peers. I rarely clean when the kids are out of house or asleep. And because as Elizabeth Gilbert put it "Because I knew what I wanted to do (write) and I knew how I wanted to do it (with joyful energy)...and so many, many things had to be let go." And so I say no (or not now). To many things.
In some ways I don't effort at making time for painting. I run towards painting. It is my reprieve, My joy. It is not a burden I have to compel myself to do. It speaks to the well known quote from Confucious "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life." In other ways, I effort at it regularly. I have carved out painting time and then I must defend it with my life. Everything threatens this time that I commit to creativity. Meeting up with friends, doing chores, getting extra work done, stray dogs that need catching, you name it!
A friend told me about a writer who was also a full-time engineer. She made a whole career out of writing by writing 15 minutes every morning. This inspired me deeply. It isn't the large chunks of time that we find, but the repetition of small chunks. Or as my dear friend Lori Odhner, a creative genius herself, says she is creative during "the cracks of motherhood." There was a time recently when I would paint between bedtime snack and bedtime. So while the kids got jammies on and brushed their teeth (this was a solid 20-30 minute endeavor) I would paint. That was my crack in motherhood. I'm willing to pick up my brush even if I don't have much time. As the kids get older, I am finding more time.
I also do a lot of the chores related to painting (they don't feel like chores to me) with the kids. Building/stretching/prepping a canvas, researching and exploring in nature for inspiration these are all things I do with my kids (see pic above!). And I lean into the confidence that by showing them what it looks like to integrate creativity into ordinary life I am giving them a gift of sorts.
Now what is a much greater struggle for me, is how to find time to grocery shop.
"Wherever you are is the entry point." Kabir
How will you enter into your creativity today?