3 tips for Keeping Your Creative Practice Alive during a busy {holiday} season
Keeping a Creative Practice active and alive during the holiday season (or any busy or Full time) can be tricky and stressful, to say the least.
We each may have different reasons for this... packed schedules and more get-togethers, travel, hosting, grief, loneliness, family dynamics, gift-giving efforts, bearing and acclimating to changes in relationships, or things like illness on top of all of that... to name a few obvious reasons.
These next couple of months can be a joyful season for some, and for others a desperately hard time. It is often somehow both, each year carrying its own mix of bitter and sweet.
If I'm honest, my anxiety usually begins to rise mid-October as the Christmas marketing overlaps with Halloween. ugh.
If you're anything like me - introverted or highly-sensitive, perhaps - the stimulation, routine disruption, expectation and pressure of it all can make you achy and tired just thinking about it. Even if you can't wait to see your loved ones, or share in the warmth and joy of celebrations.
While I DO love the essence, message and hope of the holiday season, I feel the disconnect/tension strongly... between what the world, society or outdated/extraneous traditions say it should look or feel like, and what it means to actually slow down, be present, and deepen in love+attention to our blessings and relationships.
There is also a holy, sacred rhythm to the nature of this darker season that calls us closer together, closer within ourselves, and into a posture of gratitude, waiting, and faith in the Light that is to come. Yes - more of that, please.
As I've healed some of my own familial trauma and patterns over the years (and continue to do so), I've become more accepting of this tension I'm in tune with, and more allowing of what I actually need during this season to not burn out, de-rail or wind up sick when all is said and done.
I've become more conscious about what it is in relational and family dynamics that triggers me and why - and how to set boundaries and self-care in place, preemptively - so that I can be as loving and present as possible in relationships and experiences... while honoring my own well-being, needs and truth.
A conscious posture+intention has helped greatly in reducing the anxiety, stress and people-pleasing passiveness that has plagued me in the past.
You might have picked up that this is not really just about the holidays… but aren’t the holidays like the front-lines of applying and integrating our healing work, faith and new perspectives, right in the beautiful+blessed mess of family relationships and life?
Keeping in touch with my Creative Practice, and little mindset shifts, have been a HUUUUGE part of this in-process change and growth for me. Even if I’m not making full-on, finished ‘art', touching in with that part of me is everything.
Creative Practice is a lifeline of sorts for some of us, a way to stay connected and open to what truly matters in the holy heart of things. To our human being-ness. I can't explain why that is, just that this is how I was made, how I’ve come to be... and I know some of you can relate, in your unique way.
For years, I was so desperate to *not* lose my center or Creative Practice connection at the holidays, that I would set unreasonable intentions for keeping my Creative Practice during the season (while traveling, mind you). You know, like packing WAAAY too many supplies and options.
Then, I would inevitably “let myself down” and hardly keep my practice going at all in those months... even though that's exactly the anchor I wanted and needed to stay true and centered.
Because my Creative Practice is a way to rest and re-fill, in the in between moments.
I would end the season exhausted, dry, sad, feeling off, sometimes even physically sick, and struggle several weeks into the new year to get back to my self-care and creative routines and practices.
I’ve learned from those years of trial and error, though, and made adjustments in my approach that have made it all lighter and do-able.
I spend just a little time preparing and considering intentions+approaches that actually help me keep my practice ongoing in nourishing ways... so that it can hold and keep me closer to Creative Spirit amidst the day-to-day holiday buzz.
We may not be able to slow things down as much as we’d like in these next couple of months, but we can love ourselves just enough to make a little room for simple touch-in practices that inspire, heal and give us respite.
There are 3 mindset tips that will help you find your own do-able holiday season Creative Practice at the end of this post.
In my mini-workshop, KEEPER, I share what I've learned and the approach I use with my own Creative Practice this time of year.
KEEPER is an 8-day, short, sweet and deep mini-workshop to encourage and help you prepare your Creative Practice for the upcoming season.
I invite you to become a more conscious KEEPER of your own Creative Practice, perspectives and relationships as you move into the season this year... whether you need your practice to carry what is most challenging or heavy for you, or just to be a place and way to capture some of the joy in a life that never stops changing... or maybe a little bit of both.
You can now join the KEEPER mini-workshop RIGHT HERE.
3 MINDSET TIPS FOR YOU:
Here are 3 heart-centering, soulful mindset tips for keeping a Creative Practice that will keep+carry you through a busy, full or difficult season:
SIMPLIFY with Trust, going in :: Keep your intentions, supplies so so simple, do a little prep, and let go of expectations. We dive into some ideas around this in KEEPER.
Bring PRESENCE & INTENTION with Grace, during :: In the midst of the days, Ask for what you need, offer what you can. AND make & take a little time, every day or two, to Be Present to You and your Creative Spirit, within your Creative Practice(s). Again, we dive deeper into setting ourselves up for this one in KEEPER.
UNWIND & DEBRIEF with Love, coming out :: Once the season has shifted into next iterations, the clock doesn’t stop, I know… but do make just a little space and time to give thanks, decompress and process the season you just moved through, with a trusted person, perhaps - or right your quiet Creative Practice itself.
If you’d like to explore these tips (and a few more), as I guide you through a gentle preparation to tend and keep your Creative Practice in the midst of a full+real life this holiday season, I hope you’ll join KEEPER.
KEEPER details…
WHAT :: KEEPER is a short, sweet & deep 8-lesson mini-course to help you prepare your Creative Practice, perspective, and relationship-posture for the holiday season
WHEN :: Now self-paced with immediate access
HOW :: video, audio, prompts & reflections, plus peeks at some of my holiday Creative Practice pages from years past
WHERE :: in my private Creative Practice Way network!
EXPECT :: 1) To simplify & prep your Creative Practice "Kit" and pages to carry you through the holiday season; 2) meaningful reflections with short prompts to help you get clear on your needs and intentions in your relationships and self-care for the season; 3) encouragement for connection with your sense of Creative Spirit + Truth in this rich season. Short. Sweet. Deep.
However you tend & share your creative heart+life over the next few months…
May Creative Spirit open the eyes of your heART to your own Wholeness, to the Belovedness of those you encounter, and to full Presence in the season that is to come...
with joy+gratitude,
hali
