How do you keep writing, creating, and being yourself when it feels like everything is falling apart? How do you prioritize your creative side?
We all have things that go on in our lives that make it hard for us to be ourselves and express ourselves. It could be that being busyness, stress, exhaustion, etc. from working or looking to find work (if you know anyone hiring remotely looking for someone with a fair degree of customer service and management/supervision experience, please let me know, it has been a long year of looking) have you too tired or distracted to spend time pursing your creative interests. It could be personal things going on, such as medical and mental health concerns (I myself frequently struggle with my Depression, Anxiety, and ADHD) or relationship issues, or any number of other things have you not in the right mindset to pursue your passions. It could taking a look at the world around you, and the events that are happening to it, are feeling overwhelming and what is even the point of creating art, or pursuing other things that interest you, outside of just surviving. How do you keep going?
This is something that I have struggled with for my entire time attempting to work as a writer, dating all the way back to the summer of 2007 (how has it been 17 years, I mean seriously), I have struggled with balancing and prioritizing my writing. At first it was the demands of being a Junior/Senior/Graduate Student and things involving just life getting the better of me, whether that be too much stress from work, or too many house projects I have procrastinated on, or anything else. At the core of the issue has been my Mental Health. I have talked about it a number of times in this blog, and on my YouTube Channel (please check it out, you can search for Jon’s Writing Space, and subscribing would be awesome and really help me out), I have struggled most of my life with Depression, which only in the last year have I really been coming to terms with how persistent and severe it has been, Anxiety, and ADHD, also a diagnosis that is about a year old, and has led me to working on developing new coping mechanisms, and also realizing how much it has impacted my life. Depression has stopped me from writing, quite frequently, as it leads to a strong lack of motivation to do anything at all, never mind something that would actually make me happy. Anxiety makes me worry that no one will read my writing, that I am a fraud, that my writing isn’t worth while and putting it out there will just lead nowhere. This is blended with my depression too, but a lot of that is a feeling of anxiety. Finally, ADHD, plays a role in that while I love creating, I have dozens of stories in various stages of planning out in my head, but actually sitting down and writing can, at times, be tedious. Don’t even get me started on editing. This is hard for someone with ADHD, because things that our brains find boring, we tend to procrastinate and/or avoid it completely. This is what has led to my EXTREMELY sporadic writing/self-promotion/editing/etc. progress and why I have rarely worked to try and advertise myself and get my name out into the world.
With all of that going on, and with the worrying state of the world and feeling like nothing we do individually matters much, and no one will notice us, how do we keep on going? One thing that I am working on is making sure that I am not beating myself up for not writing or keeping to a schedule. Not following through on something like that with yourself is a moment to re-evaluate how one has planned out the work and what you are using to remind yourself and keep yourself on track. Beating oneself up over things like that is NOT something that is helpful and will often only accentuate the feelings that led to the lack of follow through in the first place.
Another thing that I am increasingly realizing and trying to keep in mind, is that doing what we love IS important. There are many forces in the world, including some in our own brains, that want us to just be cogs in a machine, not so much living as just existing from one day to the next. Doing what we love, expressing ourselves, being creative or artistic in whatever form that takes, is a large part of what makes us human. I am increasingly convinced of this. It also stops what is going on in the world from taking root in our heads. There are many things that can limit us or rule over us or control us in the outside world, but (at least until my dogs finish their contracted telepathy work) there is no way to control someone else’s mind. It can be influenced, and that is what keeps many people from being themselves, is they have been influenced into try to ‘fit in’ with society, and that can be hard to overcome, but it is important that we all stay true to ourselves.
This has been a revelation that I have had in the last couple of days, that the greatest defiance of all the forces, both internal and external, that want to keep us in our place is to be ourselves in whatever way that takes. That is what has motivated me to do more work and greatly improve the flow and structure of my website this week and make plans to more regularly get into writing and finding ways to connect with others and put myself out there.
I will end by saying that my challenge for all of you, is to Keep Writing, Keep Creating and Keep Being Yourself. The world is a hard and scary place, and for a lot of people the events of this week have dialed that up to 11, however I encourage everyone to keep being themselves and doing what you love. Whether that be expressing and being open and proud about however you identify, whether that be speaking out and advocating for others, and whether that be expressing your artistic and creative side that is how we show the world who we really are, and make the world sit up and listen, and hear us, and respect us. Being ourselves, expressing ourselves, and doing things that we enjoy is how we win. Even if the only thing it feels like you have won, is peace and freedom inside your own head, that is still a victory over the many things that try to stop us from doing just that.
It would mean a lot if you were leave a comment, subscribe to my website and socials (linked below), and check out my books! I will not stop supporting and not stop advocating for those that are now at risk and I am going to make sure that I am being my creative self and doing whatever I can to make the world a better places and I hope you all do the same.
I hope you all have a chance to do or experience something creative, and that you have an amazing day.
-Jon
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