Remember when we all thought 2020 was going to be a great year? Our year? Sadly, COVID-19 ripped that away from us and things are looking a bit bleak right now. My plan for this post originally had been to talk about finding inspiration when you are feeling uninspired. However, I realised that was very similar to a post I've already written. So, with the world and life being a bit blue at the moment, I thought I'd spread some positivity and tips on how to find inspiration right now.
Inspiration and Positivity During the Current Situation
As I've already said, it feels hard right now to find anything good in life. We're currently living through a pandemic, we could or might have already lost loved ones, the shops are a barren wasteland and many elements of our day to day lives (school, work, etc) are closing. I think a key step towards feeling normal and more positive about this situation is to acknowledge that you are sad and give yourself time to feel "normal" again. For me, I was going to go travelling this summer with a friend, I was hoping to get some work experience before I graduate next summer and finish my second year of university. Suddenly, these every day plans have been taken away from me. I am nowhere near back to feeling normal, but I have come to accept the reality of my situation in a healthy way. When all of this was announced and I suddenly found myself packing up my life, I took the time to feel sad and accept that this was not where I wanted to be. I think taking those steps have helped me overcome the first hurdle. I will still have bad days throughout the coming months, but by taking the time ti acknowledge that I am actually really upset about how this is effecting me is a normal thing to do.
Something else I have decided to do to make it more bearable is to try and find a routine in all of this chaos. I suddenly have a lot of free time on my hands, and while I still have commitments (all my university deadlines sadly), I don't know what to do with myself. One of the first things I did when I moved back to my parents house, was to sit down and make a "get it done lockdown list". I split this into three categories- university, creative and personal. I then made my own calendar and wrote down tasks I wanted to complete on each of those days. I have planned the rest of this month and I have made plans for most of April. Up until mid-May, my life is taken up with making sure I meet my deadlines. I am planning on working on university commitments during the weekdays and then at weekends, I can have time off or I can help my parents with various tasks. It's not quite the same as having to go to lectures and making time to hang out with my housemates, but it means that the time won't feel quite as stretched as it could do.
Once all my deadlines are over, I have the foreseeable future available to fill. It's quite daunting to have months available to do whatever and personally, I don't cope well during the large breaks between uni. So I have decided to use this time to do things I wouldn't normally have the time to do. As I've mentioned in the previous paragraph, I made a list of things I want to get done during this lockdown. On my creative list, I want to spend the time learning new things. I was planning on trying to relearn the very little I knew about playing the piano, and now I have more free time, I want to do that. I also want to develop other skills such as learning to knit properly and picking up French again. Obviously, I still want to read and watch as much as I possibly can, and will be making a very long list of books, films and tv series I need to catch up on. Instead of filling up my summer with an internship, I can fill it up with working on a long term creative project. I feel that picking up a few different things to do will be more creatively inspiring than just sticking at one thing. On my personal list, I now have the time to finish decorating and designing my new rooms at my parents new house. We moved house back in November, but due to the fact I spend most of my time away from home, I have a bedroom and office that don't feel finished, so I have time to make them feel like home. I do just want to end this paragraph by saying that you don't have to fill this free time super productively. You can just use it to relax. I've seen a lot of people playing the new Animal Crossing game and am very tempted to join them.
General Inspiration and Positivity
I figured that I could also include what I was going to write in my original blog post in the second half of this post. I've written a few posts on creative burnouts and feeling drained as a creative, so I thought I'd share some of the new things I've started to do when it comes to finding inspiration.
One of the key ways I find inspiration is through current content available. That can be from books, film, tv and many other forms of content. I am someone who if I find something I love, I will latch onto it. Often, my ideas are inspired by the content I am consuming. It's usually because I enjoy something so much that I want to create something that others can enjoy.
This links to my next point which is to make what you want to see. Although I make stuff because I want others to enjoy it, I also make stuff because they are things that I want to consume. I think that as a creative if you don't want to see your idea come to fruition, then you are working on the wrong idea. It is about finding the balance between wanting to create something for others but also wanting to create something for yourself.
My last point has become a bit redundant in the current climate, but something I like to do is to take inspiration from every day life. I take inspiration from the usually embarrassing or funny things that happen to me. I like to try and include them in the projects that I am working on.
I hope that this post brought some inspiration and positivity into your life, especially during this dark time.
Carenza :) x
