Hibernation Mode
How to accept and embrace a pause in your creative work.
There are new cards in the shop and YES there are Valentine’s puns // I’m excited to be on the 100 Day Project podcast with
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Hello friends,
Here we are, February 1st. Feels like we’ve already had several years condensed into the span of the last few weeks. Today is Saint Brigid’s Day or Imbolc, the marker of the midway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. I had a really lovely conversation about this last year with
, which if you’re new here, you might enjoy reading.This newsletter is very often about shifts, transitions, and seasonal markers. They are useful—for creative practice and beyond—particularly in times when it feels like we need a tether. Taking note of the seasonal shifts challenges us to ask what the outside world is doing in this moment, and how that moment is reflected within us.
At the beginning of the year, I spent a few days at a hybrid creative retreat/friend gathering. I brought an assortment of cards (prompts, oracle, tarot) to pull from over coffee in the mornings. I like using these types of cards as an aide to creative process. The act of intentionally pulling a card, turning it over, and seeing what it invokes in you is a good practice of paying attention to what you’re feeling internally. A challenge to trust your intuition.
Over the course of those days, all the cards I pulled had something to do with letting go. There was a lot of fire/ash/phoenix energy. The message was clear, and yet, I wasn’t actually sure of what I needed to let go of.
A month into this year and I think I get it now. I’m deep in working on my book. It’s the first time in a very long time that I am not juggling an assortment of creative projects. My visual practice, and in particular papercutting, feels like it’s on pause. I’m feeling like while I don’t need to let it go entirely, I need to allow myself a little space from it.
This is not the sign that I’ve abandoned an entire arm of my creative practice. I remind myself that it is simply a new creative season. An expected ebb and flow that inevitably takes place if your job requires different elements.
We all have different seasons of our creative work.
Some projects demand more bandwidth than others. I don’t need to tell you that it is pretty much impossible to gracefully juggle all of those various project. Maybe for a bit we can achieve that sense of keeping it all afloat, but usually one thing (or two, or three) has to drop. Either that or we get very exhausted. Or worse: burned out.
Back in December
wrote about how to put a writing project into hibernation. Creative work deserves a pause once a while, no matter what season it is, and this framing is useful for writing and beyond, and I’ve been thinking about how to apply it to this current season of mine.Putting some of our work—even the work we love dearly—is what keeps us from burning out in the process of trying to juggle every single potential creative project all at once. Maybe you’re like me and need this right now. Something needs to be put on pause, let go of for a little bit. Or you need it six months from now.
It’s a good moment to consider what needs pausing. Lunar New Year was this past week, and we’ve stepped into the Year of the Snake. This is all about shedding, considering what we want to let go of.
Usual creative tips and tricks are centered around how to bring more of it into your life, and I love that too.
But maybe, just maybe, if you’re feeling a little weighed down right now by your own creative expectations and demands, then it might be time to consider what you can gently put to the side.
How do you put a creative project/practice into hibernation mode?
These are largely Caroline’s steps, but I’ve added some additional elements that are useful for people with a visual practice.
#1 Write yourself a letter about your work
Use the letter as the opportunity for a brain dump. You might be good about keeping all of your ideas in your sketchbook, but sometimes there’s a lot floating around in your head that hasn’t gotten down on paper yet. Use the letter as the space to do exactly that. As Caroline says:
“Think of future you as another worker who will be stepping into your shoes to take over the writing and give them a thorough overview of where you were.”
This is also an opportunity to tell yourself what you like about your work. Sometimes when I’ve spent time away from my practice, I can get very judgmental about that time away.
Embrace and honor what you’ve already done, celebrate what you like about your work, and what you’re excited to come back to.