A Seasonal Pause
When the heat and the busyness of the summer months fade away, I not only want to make pots of soup, bake and hide under the blanket with a book or a knitting project but I also have this urge to look at my creative practice to see what progress I made and what has worked for me in the past year.
Personally, I find September to be a perfect month to dive in and examine “under the microscope” what has worked and what hasn’t in my practice in the past year (I usually start my year in September and finish in July when the kids finish school).
Taking stock, reviewing and analysing my creative practice helps me keep my creative practice sustainable over the long haul.
To be totally honest with you for years I didn’t want to “waste” time to reflect on my creative practice, as I was a doer. That was a massive mistake because I spent years cultivating the same useless practices that kept me spinning around my own orbit for example: I kept posting on Twitter even though I knew it didn’t work, I kept leaving and going back to Instagram even though I knew I didn’t want to put a lot of work into Instagram content creation.
Having run my creative practice since 2004 I’ve learned that it’s better to address issue as soon as possible rather than waiting and hoping it will magically resolve itself.
This year I started my Creative Autumn Audit with an early morning swim, a cup of green tea, and a video from one of my favourite travelling duos on YouTube. Those three activities allowed me to have enough breathing space to invite reflection. I realised that in order to keep going sustainably, I need to stop publishing both a Substack and YouTube video every week. From now on, I’ll alternate between the two. This feels like the right choice for my creative practice right now.
My creative practice needs to support my current life circumstances, energy levels and all the other activities outside of my creative practice.
Creative Autumn Audit
Before you start answering these questions engage in a joyful activity that feels kind and soothing to your senses. Also make sure you are not interrupted as this is your time for you and your creative practice.
- What worked well in your creative practice over the past year, season, month?
- What do you feel is not working any longer?
- Are there any activities, routines or even habits that feel draining?
- Is there anything you have outgrown that doesn’t suit you and your creative practice any longer?
- What feelings and practices do you want to take with you into the winter season?
- Can your creative practice carry on the way it is and still bring you joy and satisfaction in the coming season, year?
- What do you need to leave behind in order to move forward?
Gentle, joyful activities
I usually try to choose activities that are free of charge or require very little spending as my fun and joyful activities before I need to do deep reflective work. During those activities I also don’t watch or listen to anything as it’s distracting.
Activities that make me relaxed and happy in the autumn:
- making an autumn soup, (so many vegetables to choose from)
- baking a cake, (I do have a sweet tooth)
- walking through the park with a good cup of tea or coffee,
- tending to my balcony garden,
- knitting something simple that keeps my hands moving, while my mind wanders.
I feel that in the context of building a sustainable creative practice devoting time to activities that relax us, will lead to focused deep reflective work, which is a beautiful way of honouring our creative practice and the time we commit to growing that practice.
Reflection also allows the much-needed time to be with yourself and your creative practice, as this kind of inner work makes room for the physical work that leads to creation of projects.
Hence, I often put a lot of emphasis on creating lists of activities that bring us joy, are creative and relaxing. Because in a busy and unpredictable world being able to access quickly and easily activities that put us in a different state of mind is priceless.
I truly hope the Creative Autumn Audit will allow you to move your practice forward and don’t forget to share your discoveries, findings and reflections in the comments below.
Happy Creating,
You Might Also Be Interested In:
How to Evaluate Your Creative Practice in the Context of Slow and Sustainable Creativity?
Leave a Reply