Writers and artists have struggled with this issue for centuries. It looks like we’re daydreaming, goofing off, slacking, doing absolutely nothing, but that is not the case. Often there is massive work going on inside. Inspiration and “aha” moments, creativity and problem solving, are going on inside. An entire world is whirling and moving and becoming inside the artist who appears to be randomly doodling, idly loitering, or watching a marathon on their favorite TV show. To be fair, there are times when we’re goofing off and loitering as a means of avoidance, but that’s another story for another time….also writing can be so grueling that it makes house cleaning seem like fun. I do luv a good vacuum. 🙂
Everyone goes through these times periodically. It feels like we’re slacking. We’re unmotivated, our bodies just don’t want to go anywhere or do anything, we just want to sit and read or watch TV or take naps or lay around in the sun and do nothing all day. And not just for a day or for a weekend, but for a week or weekend after weekend after weekend. It’s not that we’re depressed, it’s not that we’re sick, we just lack motivation or interest to do anything else and letting gravity take hold of us feels like bliss. Well, it is. It’s not a sign of something wrong, it’s a sign of something right and of a deep process in the works.
We can’t constantly be doing because that’s out of balance. Except for cancer or virus and we don’t get along with either of those so don’t emulate them. After a prolonged period of doing we need to stop and regroup. We need to turn inward and get caught up on ourselves. We need to sort through the experiences and sort what worked from what didn’t, what we’re keeping and what we’re leaving behind, who we were vs. who we are now. And that takes a lot of effort. Not necessarily conscious effort, because the mind is a problem solver and there’s no problem here to solve. The body and the emotions and the soul are quite capable of handling this, thank you very much. But the mind does need to listen. When a time out is called, we need to obey that directive. Stop doing, sit down and taken your tv marathon like the adult you someday hope to be. Don’t argue! Relax, dangit! You have a lot of work to do, so stop doing and get to work. 🙂