Moving Forward after an Energy Leak

We all know that the life of any artist isn’t always smooth and easy. For example, our own energy can be sapped by leaks and drains we might not have been aware of right away. I’ve written here about energy leaks and drains, and how to identify them in our creative lives. Then came a post about ways we can repair those leaks (here’s that link).

What follow are a few questions to consider the next time you’ve addressed an energy leak or drain. You may be asking where you go now, or how you return to a forward path.

What are your energy sources?

Start with asking yourself what feeds your soul. What do you do / think / say when you know you need a boost? You might chat with a dear friend. Go for a run. Meditate. Make a cup of your favorite tea in a kind of ritual. Scrub the kitchen sink. Commune with your in-house animal(s). Practice some restorative breathing. Drink water. Speak some affirmations out loud. Review the folder of positive critical comments about your work. (You don’t have a folder like that? Consider starting one.) We’re all going to have different energy sources, so it’s important to assemble at least a short list of things that work for you. Refresh your list now and then, as our energy sources are likely to shift over time.

How do you recharge?
Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay

How do you get inspired?

When it’s time to start moving again, we can look around for inspiration. It comes in two flavors, I find. Do you think of inspiration as something that visits now and then? Or is it something you intentionally seek? I believe that both forms of inspiration are important, and that it’s helpful to welcome them both into your creative life.

The passive kind – when a whoosh of ideas, energy, direction, emotion, and inspiration manifests in your awareness unbidden – is powerful, and wonderful to experience. Everything you do with these leak repair practices will make the “whoosh” kind of inspiration want to visit. In effect, we’re putting out the welcome mat for it.

The more active kind, when you make up your mind to seek it out, is often less big, and also can be much more frequent. I believe in cultivating this kind. Assume that it doesn’t need to come from outside yourself. To access it, focus on something in your environment and really bring your senses to it. Hear, see, smell, touch, taste, intuit. 

Now might be a good time for some active inspiration. Want more ideas on how to get started? Try these journaling prompts.

Are emotions just the messengers?

Can your creative momentum be sidetracked by powerful feelings? Have you come to view your emotions as energy leaks? Consider a reframe.

As author and social science researcher Karla McLaren points out, emotions are messengers. If we know how to listen, we can be guided by them – all of them. “All emotion is useful,” McLaren explains.

A lot of us habitually sort emotions into two baskets – “positive” and “negative.” What if we consider all emotions to be positive, and useful, sources of input? What if we become curious about what our feelings have to tell us? Take anger, for example. As McLaren’s work suggests, anger, often dubbed a negative emotion, is the “honorable sentry” that alerts us when our boundaries are broken. When you perceive anger as an ally, you benefit from the message it sends.

Also, when anger is freed from the label of “negative emotion,” the energy of anger can be put to good use, for accomplishing tasks. Freed from its connotations, the energy doesn’t have to be anger AT something – it’s just energy. That energy can help you clean the studio, or pull the weeds, or draft the blog post.

Can you pause for ninety seconds?

Remember that an emotion can pass through us in 90 seconds unless we choose to hang on to it. Dr Jill Bolte Taylor popularized this idea. (Note that exceptions to the rule exist, especially around the idea of choice. For example, does a trauma survivor who perseverates or disassociates in the presence of a certain emotion ‘choose’ to linger there?) In the absence of considerations like those, however, it’s a useful nugget of information. Most of us, much of the time, can manage watching a minute and a half pass by. If, at the end of those seconds the emotion has worked its way through our neurobiochemical processes, we can shrug our shoulders, take a breath, and move along.

What works for you?

Are these considerations helpful for you? Next time you find yourself looking around for ways to dig in again after an energy leak repair, take a look at these ideas, and see if one or more helps you refocus and recommit to your creative practice. (And for even more ideas, check out this post I wrote all about figuring out what’s next.)

Keep at it. What you do matters.

~Anne