Creativity For Tired People

Some days you wake up and feel as if you have never had any energy in your entire life. You drag yourself to the fridge and back like a rag doll before slumping into a pile of pillows with a peanut butter sandwich that looks like it was in a rush to leave for work.
Or something.

I try to be as creative and inspired and excited as possible every day, but some days I turn into a sluggish, drained skeleton whose only interests are easily accessible foods and pictures of cute baby animals. After years of practice, however, I have managed to find a collection of activities that improve my mood and my sense of mobility/consciousness, often whilst still allowing me to wallow in ghostish drowsiness. I'm sharing some of them in the hope that the next time some of you feel totally knackered you'll be more equipped to not get stressed out at yourself for not doing everything you wanted to (building a rocket with Zayn Malik, devising an incredible brownie recipe with Zayn Malik, etc).

Here are my coping/rousing methods.

inside one of my art drawers

1:  Organise your room.

I find that clearing, sorting, and organising a space makes my mind feel clearer, brighter, and ready to speed off into the universe. I try to fairly frequently minimise the amount of space everything takes up, as well as minimising the visibility of things around my home for a clutter-free environment. I usually leave things out that I'm using, but inevitably what I'm using cycles over time and at some point I have to do a tidy up. Clearing up everything to optimise space for whatever I need to do next is one of the most uplifting and easy things ever for me, and I really enjoy just sorting it all out, rearranging drawers and boxes, and getting rid of stuff that's used up or unneeded. Tidying up makes me more awake and ready to do something. Even just emptying out my bag can provide that sort of "everything is ready" feeling, that feeling that you've made everything exactly how you want it.

this is me all ready to go for a walk in breezy weather

2: Take a walk.

Okay, chances are that you would rather press your tongue firmly into a cactus than go for a walk right now, and that's fine, but sometimes taking a walk does this magical energising thing that makes you more alert and upbeat and stuff. I think it's a combination of the wind jostling your face and stimulating your eyelids to start paying attention to their job after a morning of impressive slacking, and the visual stimulation of seeing everything around you forcing your brain to wake up in order to identify local foliage/traffic/dogs. This can have drastic results on your body's alertness levels, and/or make your brain happy by reminding it that there is cool stuff outside like air and clouds. You can also do fun things like laughing at adverts or collecting weird stones on your walk.

cool bug painting

3. Cathartic painting.

This is something that I know can be stressful for people who aren't very comfortable with making art or being uncritically creative, but if you can conquer your over-critical inner voice it can be one of the most peaceful and rewarding experiences ever. I love to just grab some scrap paper, dump some paint onto my palette (I use a little piece of board but obviously you can use practically anything) and just make some shapes absolutely thoughtlessly for a while. The act of thoughtless movement seems to loosen up my mind whilst providing my body with something to do with itself. It's the right kind of relaxing but meaningful stimulation (which is really what everything on this list has in common). This can also be applied to drawing, scribbling, and many other forms of creativity. Just make sure you are not too concerned with what you are producing, only the process of it.

Those are my main methods of invigorating/appreciating myself and my environment when I'm feeling tired. Some others might be reading and commenting on blogs, watching a new TV show, taking a bath, or writing a letter, but I wanted to concentrate on the things I do that make me feel like I'm doing something useful (or that I don't need to be useful in specific ways all the time - because I don't want to measure my worth or enjoyment based on my levels of productivity, and I think most of us do that far too much). Please tell me your favourite ways of dealing with tiredness, or how well the things I've talked about work for you, and don't be too harsh on yourself when you're tired!

Listening to: 真弓倫子 - アイ・ハード・ア・ルーマー