Something I have been struggling with recently is feeling burnt out. I've been feeling disconnected from my creative side and uninspired to do things that are creative. This has become apparent, especially when it comes to my social media, especially with my blog.
Compared to this time last year, I am incredibly busy. I feel like I have a never ending to do list and there is always something I should be working on. It doesn't help that the second year of any degree is fairly intense, plus I am now working on the student magazine, I have some minor part time jobs, I'm working on my blog and trying to balance all of this with having a normal life. You can see how all of this piled on top of me has lead to a creative burn out.
Normally when it comes to my blog, I write the posts a week in advance. I write one a day as a way of spreading the work out and not feeling overwhelmed. Well for the last two weeks, I have been writing three blog posts in one day. I haven't been pre-writing and am feel a pressure to keep on top of this amount of work. I also have been struggling with my new commitment to the student magazine. I have a lot of articles to write and I put them off until I have to work on them.
With my blog, I have noticed that I don't feel inspired in the same way when I started working on it back in September. Three posts a week is a lot. Coming up with around 15 ideas a month is difficult. All of this work has lead to a burn out. I feel uninspired and uninterested. I don't want to do anything that is vaguely creative. Sitting in bed all day, watching TV feels right. Yet, it also feels wrong. There is a more deep-seated issue here, but that's for another blog post.
I'm trying to feel inspired to work on my blog and my other creative projects. But I definitely stuck in a rut. Everything I try to work on feels unoriginal and lacklustre. I want to be creative but right now I don't have it in me. The smartest thing to do right now would be to step away and take some time to work on my problem. But that feels like giving up to me. So I'm trying to push my way through it. This probably isn't the healthiest way of coping with my problems, but I don't know what else to do.
When your whole life revolves around writing and being creative, it isn't hard to drive yourself towards a burnout. I think this is the first time in my life where I've actively been able to spot that I'm stuck in a burnout. I think that my way out of it is to spot that I am stuck in a burnout and to acknowledge that I have a problem. If this is something that I love doing, then it shouldn't feel like a chore. My problem is is that I am approaching it like I job. It is something that I am doing for fun.
It will take time to work on this. My problems won't be fixed overnight. But to anyone else who is feeling burnt out, it isn't the end of the world and eventually you won't feel like this. Feeling burnt out is a totally normal part of the creative process. If we functioned at 100% all the time, then we wouldn't be a well rounded person. I may have to take some time away to work on my problem but at least I know that, through writing this, I have taken the first step to fixing it.
Carenza x
