Dealing With Burnout // BLOG POST

Hi lovely patrons! As you probably have noticed I’m not posting as many drawings lately. So I wanted to first and foremost thank you all for your support while I’m a little less active than usual, it means a lot to me! So I wanted to do something different and make a blog post about my experience with burnout and touching a little on my injury that’s been preventing me from drawing this month.

So I have been dealing with a condition called cubital tunnel syndrome for the past few years (it’s like carpal tunnel but in your elbow), and I first kind of discovered it two years ago and I had to takeoff a few months off work. My self-esteem plummeted because I wasn’t able to draw for several months and drawings is basically my life. When I got better, I adjusted the way I work to try to prevent it from happening again. When it happens now, it’s never as bad as the first time. So now when I occasionally get it, it lasts maybe for a couple weeks. Last month, both my elbow started to hurt, and with Covid, it sucks much harder than it would if life was normal. I am on the upper end of recovering, with only my left elbow feeling the pain, if I play my cards right it will only get better. So recently I’ve been trying to get back into drawing again, but I feel burnt out.

Burnout is an injury, you've overworked your creative muscle.

How can I feel burnt out when I’ve barely drawn all month? Shouldn’t I be ready to start drawing, especially now when I’m finally able to? Well it’s not that black-and-white. And especially during Covid, things are a lot more grey.

Things stress me out and overwhelmed me a lot more during the pandemic than it did before. And now that I don’t have as many things going on in my life, it’s definitely easier to feel like there’s too much happening all at the same time. It’s easy to say “oh you’re burnt out, just take a break and get back to drawing when you feel like it”. But my job requires me to be creative, which drains me. And then after work, there’s this pressure in the social media world to draw, and now I have a platform where I have people paying me for content (Patreon xoxo). So it’s not so easy to recharge by doing things you love- I love travelling and hanging out with friends but that’s not possible right now. So I have to find other ways to recharge in my home that’s not drawing. In a normal year, I would have taken weekend trips, a couple of weeks to visit another country, laid-back and hung out with a group of friends, barbecues, parties, etc- so many ways and an extravert like me can relax by doing other things but drawing.

So the way that I recover from burnout during Covid is honestly waiting for the muse to come back and then occasionally picking a pencil to see if something will happen. During burnout, I always force myself to try to draw something, because there are instances where you’re too lazy to draw and you forget how much you love it, which is not the same as burnout (but also something that I think we all deal with). Sometimes it’s good to just get a pencil moving, I try to draw things that don’t require any creative thinking like a draw this in your style challenge, or drawing a style frame from a movie, or drawing a self portrait.

I think once you finally let go of the urge, guilt, and pressure to draw, burnout becomes easier to overcome.

I still haven’t got over that phase, because I feel like I have so many responsibilities to draw. But, speaking from past experiences, once you let go of that, then you find your love for drawing once again.

It’s easy to say or to yourself, you shouldn’t be experiencing burnout when you’ve barely done anything, but would you tell a friend that? If a friend was going through a pandemic for a year, barely able to hang out with friends and changing their entire lifestyle, you would cut them some slack. I always treat myself like I would treat a friend in scenarios like this because often we are much kinder to our friends and to ourselves (and that goes for our problems in our lives).

So here are some practices I use when I'm trying to overcome burnout:

1. REST: your brain and body are obviously exhausted. This is time to reconnect with yourself. This means watching funny reels rather than scrolling through your art-filled feed. It's time to step away from the pencil.

2. RECHARGE: give yourself self-care, whatever that means for you. Spending (virtual) time with friends, taking a bath, going on a long walk. It’s time to shake things up and get out of the familiar routine and habits we've fallen into.

3. BE INSPIRED BY OTHERS: when you think you might start coming on the other end of burnout, maybe it's time to start looking at art again. You might not be inspired to draw again, but maybe you'll find a spark by looking at your favourite artist's work. Maybe it'll give you an idea to draw something new, or use a new medium.

4. TIME FOR A CONFIDENCE BOOST: time to be honest, a big reason why I haven't picked up a pencil is that I don't feel confident in my art right now. I look back at my work and I don't see anything new in it. I'm stuck and not sure how to grow. We are our own toughest critics. When you're down In the dumps it's time to take a look at your favourite art. Read comments that make you feel good, reread your emails where your boss is complimenting you, scroll through Instagram and find a period where you were proud of yourself.

5. BE CREATIVE (BUT DON’T DRAW!): do something creative that's not related to drawing, like knitting, making bracelets, baking, scrapbooking, journal. Just 'cause what you make other than drawing doesn't look good, doesn't mean it's not fun! You don't need to monetize your hobbies. The main goal is to be able to be creative without pressure.

6. THIS WILL PASS: if pushing through it doesn’t work, it’s best not to fight it. We’re led to believe that it’s unacceptable to have a creative rut. We’re not machines, it’s impossible to be ‘on’ all the time. Let the creative lull run its course, she won’t stay forever. Step back and look at your emotions- what led you to this point, what’s causing this, and setting limits for yourself for the future. Remember, you’re not alone- every artist goes through this and you will eventually get out of it.

I hope maybe I gave you some insight into how I deal with burnout, and I hope maybe it can help if you’re in the same situation. Let me know in the comments if you’re dealing with burnout and how you’re trying to deal with it! Once again, thanks for your support, y’all the real mvp :)