Life Lessons

Creative Coping

It’s paradoxical, but all my best creative ideas come to me when I’m too stressed or busy to pursue them. I remember being so confused by this during my first exam period, but excited too: I kept a notebook open next to my work and jotted down ideas all through my study day. It was a way to cope with my inevitable boredom at the long, monotonous hours of library drudgery. Two years later, and I’m still “blessed” with a surge of creativity right around the most stressful part of my year.

I know that many people work best under pressure, staying up all night to get an essay finished or cramming for an exam. I can’t work like that, personally: the mere idea of it stresses me out so much that it’s motivation to just get to work right now! That’s not to say that I don’t suffer from my fair share of procrastination. But I would much, much prefer to start as early as I can – that way I can try to stay healthy, and be able to take some time off, when I need to, so I don’t get burned out. And no, I’m not always able to do this, and yes, sometimes I have to stay up later than I’d like to finish things I didn’t start on time.

Last night, my brain wasn’t having any of it. I hadn’t cared for my body properly – I’d been eating strange meals, hadn’t gone for a run because it was pouring rain all day, hadn’t slept almost at all the previous night (probably also due to stress) – and so it was rebelling. I couldn’t concentrate, I was tired, bored, unfocused.. My sweet mama urged me to take a break, citing the oh-so-wise maxim: “an hour-and-a-half of solid work is worth 3 of half-hearted”. Amen, mama. So I decided to stop trying to force it.

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On Running

This Spring, I decided to get back into running. In high school and elementary school I did a lot of cross-country running, and even though I fiercely disliked race day I remember that I occasionally enjoyed running – or, at least, I enjoyed knowing I could run X number of kilometers. For the last few years, I’ve run maybe a handful of times, never really enjoying it, never really improving. In my first year of university I struggled with feeling insecure about running (seems funny now, but it was so real then) – I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, especially if I wasn’t very good or if I was slow. I went for maybe 2 runs that year. My second year wasn’t much better, since I never liked it and couldn’t come up with a good system to motivate me.

This year, it’s somehow different. I can’t say why exactly. Maybe it has something to do with coming out of a longterm relationship with a new perspective, and a new sense of individuality and autonomy – I’m focusing on myself more than ever. I am learning how to give myself permission to suck really badly or go really slowly. I’m trying my best to pay attention to my progress instead of worrying about how fast other runners are going or if civilians are watching me stumble along. Usually I just pretend they’re watching me run because they’re annoyed at themselves for not running lately! I’ve been reaching out to my running friends and getting advice and tips (thanks Patty + Kyle!) and slowly easing myself back into the running life.

I have to say, a lot of things are coming back to me and it is so much fun to watch myself slowly improve. I wanted to share a few things I’ve been doing to motivate myself to keep running.

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The Magic of Writing It Down

I was going to write a “love list” post today, because there are just oodles of things that I’m loving right now. My life is currently summery and lovely, and so many new things are making me happy (read: iced coffee), and I wanted to record them, for posterity’s sake. But then, as I sat down to write the list, this post decided it wanted to be written, and who am I to say no? So.

The magic of writing it down. I should probably put a disclaimer up front: I have no idea whether this “technique” will have the same effects for you as it does for me (and my Mom – hi Mom!). Second disclaimer: as a topic, this one is painfully obvious, so I’ll try to keep it short. Third disclaimer: I’m definitely not trying to re-invent the wheel here, I’ve just been recently noticing the beautiful, simple magic of writing things down.

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On Routines

Routine is despair’s sly assassin.

This is one of my momma’s favourite mantras. By extension (and repetition), it’s becoming one of mine too. Sure, it’s a little dramatic, but pretty effective in getting the point across. Without following my routines, I feel all discombobulated, unproductive and (my turn to be dramatic) chaotic. I know there are many who prefer to take each day as it comes, but structure is a very important part of my life.

Note: I actually wrote this, not just for this post. My real thoughts.

At this stage in my life, I’m constantly trying to develop new skills, improve, better myself, and experience new things. I find that without a plan/routine in place, these self-improvement goals for myself fall by the wayside. Yes, in the moment it can definitely be a little annoying to have to set aside time to write a novel/take a picture/exercise, but in the long run I am always, without fail happier if I’ve accomplished what I set out to accomplish. Seeing the Project365 collage grow or the checkmarks adding up on my exercise chart is enough to reinforce these habits for me.

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