you know what’s wild is that all these crazy standards we hold ourselves to are things that we don’t even value in another person? like i’ve never been like “wow I love that this friend of mine is too proud to ask for help and never complains about their feelings” or “my favorite quality about this friend is that they get straight A’s and never get overwhelmed and has never told me about a problem” or “i love that this friend has never been wrong about anything or slipped up and said something embarrassing once in their life” and yet here we are, pushing ourselves past our limits for and beating ourselves up over slipups of things that our friends probably wouldn’t even rank in the top 50 reasons they like us
You need a rest. You need empty moments in which you tolerate your anxiety and circling thoughts until they slow down and stop circling. You need slow, quiet activities that ground you and remind you to accept yourself in spite of huge obstacles and bad thoughts. You need to put solutions out of your mind for now, and engage in activities that have nothing to do with your ego. You need habits that strengthen your patience and focus, but also feel real and not arbitrary. You need to abandon your glorious future and build your imperfect present instead.
Learning to believe in yourself won’t always be easy. There’s no simple cure to self-doubt—that voice inside you that says “I will never be good enough.” That is why you should take care of your doubt—hold its hand in the rain and remind it that you are a human being and it’s okay for you not to be perfect. It’s okay for you to take longer than others. It’s okay for you to fail, it’s okay for you to learn and it’s okay for you to try again.
Juansen Dizon, Be Your Own Kind of Magic (via juansendizon)
Sometimes you don’t start your day until 2pm. Sometimes you have to put on a pair of jeans and a nice shirt instead of sweatpants in order to feel good about yourself. Sometimes it’s really fucking hard to get up and take a shower or brush your teeth. Sometimes it’s really fucking hard to take care of yourself and it’s okay. That is okay. Simple things aren’t always easy and simple things being hard doesn’t make you weak, you are doing the best you can and some days there are things you just can’t do and that’s okay. You are healing. You are trying. Do what you need to do to feel good.
About a week ago, I got this ask about how to stay creative when you have mental illness and fall into periods of low energy. I gave a short answer then, but some time has passed and I wanted to dedicate some more attention to the issue.
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll know I have depression and anxiety. I’ve gotten a lot better and both are at a manageable state now, but I still suffer from periods of low energy…but I’m also a writer, so how does that work out?
These are some of the tips and tricks that work for me. They might not work for you. That’s okay. Everyone’s mental health and personal work style are different.
1. Take Some Time Off
I know. It sounds counterproductive to take time off from writing, but really, you call off work/school when you’re sick. Writing is the one job you have where you are self-employed and your own boss. If your brain is too sick one day to get any writing done, just take the day off. You’re allowed to do that.
That “real writers write everyday” mantra is a lie. Everyone takes time off. If you don’t feel well, the quality of your writing isn’t going to be to your regular standard and that might end up making you feel worse. Not to mention that trying to force an already exhausted brain to do more work when you can be giving it a break could just make matters worse. So take a deep breath and walk away for a little bit.
2. Are You Taking Care Of Yourself?
I know this is a ridiculous question, but honestly, have you been taking care of yourself? Are you making sure to take your medicines and vitamins? Going to therapy? Are you getting enough sleep? Eating well? Exercising? Look at some of the things in your life from the past week and see if maybe something small like that could be negatively affecting you now. If you realize that maybe you’ve been eating too much junk food or going to bed at irregular hours, try eating in and regulating your sleep schedule. I know that sounds like lame NT advice, but small things like that can really trigger mental health episodes. Take care of yourself before your OCs, yeah?
3. Work On Something Else
Maybe your main WIP is just too much right now. Find something to distract yourself with. Maybe you want to do more art instead of writing. Maybe you want to try a silly AU or do some prompts. Do you like to write music? Go write some music. Play with your cat. Build a birdhouse. Bake some delicious cookies. Just take a step away and do something that makes you happy. You can return to your WIP once you’ve given your brain a little break.
4. Ease Back Into It
Maybe you’ve done everything above already and you feel better but you’ve gotten out of the habit of writing and you’re frustrated. Don’t be. You can’t go from writing 2k words a day to zero and back to 2k. That’s like a marathon runner taking a month off from running and trying to run a marathon again. It won’t work. You have to ease back into it. So start off with a few hundred words and work your way back up. I know it’s annoying not to be at where you before you lost your energy, but you’ll build yourself up faster this way and you won’t feel as frustrated with yourself.
I hope some of this helped. If there are points you want clarified or if you have tricks that work for you, send me an ask! Take care of yourselves, writeblr.
Saying it louder for the people too broken at the moment to process.
The Last Good Bar 
You must be logged in to post a comment.