If you aren’t writing, try this

A couple years ago, I got an idea for an essay: “Parenting as an Introvert.”

I wrote a bunch of ideas down, and I kept adding to the document… but I couldn’t quite get it to gel, and I couldn’t quite figure out what I was trying to say. 

Then a few months later, I went away for my new annual tradition: a solo reading vacation.

(Doesn’t that sound sooo luscious???)

I booked a local hotel on credit card points, packed a stack of books, and went away by myself for two nights.

I arrived on a Thursday evening around 5pm. I did literally nothing the whole night: I read, I ate dinner in my room, I watched some TV on my laptop, I went to bed. 

I could not. believe. how rested. I felt.

I realized just how much energy a normal evening with my kids requires: making dinner (or putting food on plates). Cleaning up. Supervising my son’s reading homework. Bathing them. Bedtime routine. 

I love being a mom. And also I am tired a lot of the time.

Back to the hotel…

I woke up on Friday morning after a very long sleep. I opened my laptop. And I wrote, in one go, the “Parenting as an Introvert” essay.

That’s when I remembered that REST IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS.

And the more I rest, the more creative I become.

I invite you to block off some time in the next week to rest. Don’t binge TV. Don’t scroll on your phone. Instead, take a walk, take a nap, read a book, or stare out the window.

Don’t expect a creative idea to occur to you, but welcome it if it does.

Rest, create, repeat.