(no subject)
Talked to my therapist this week about "the zone" and the following crash when I do art. She wisely likened it to exercising. There's a damn good reason you should stretch before and after working out, so you don't shock your system and hurt yourself. You NEED to wind up and back down or Things Go Badly. The brain is the same way. So now next time I know it'll be a long workday I'm going to "stretch" first. The initial stretching is easy - I normally do a daily sketch anyway that kind of gets me in the right headspace. Though some days I need to do a bit more than that to get there, that's fine. Easy enough. But "stretching" AFTER? That's where I need to find a good method. I've heard a lot of great suggestions... some made sense, like sketching more, but usually I'm so artistically exhausted that this might be a bad idea. Others made a lot of sense - hot shower or bath, video games, TV (either mindless or engaging, both have been argued for)... basically a distraction that is either mentally stimulating in different ways than The Zone (video game, engaging TV), or slowly calming (bath)... I'm willing to try things. Other suggestions included "take breaks"... which... okay MOST of the time that's manageable, I can take breaks. But seriously in the moment, I DO NOT WANT TO, and if the break is too long I'll crash anyway and not be able to get back. So I'd have to be careful there.
But yeah I don't want to give up hitting that place. Some suggestions were just outright "don't get in the zone" because of the risks. Which... I don't know, I get it? But fuck that, I'll just learn how to do it correctly rather than avoiding it altogether.
But yeah I don't want to give up hitting that place. Some suggestions were just outright "don't get in the zone" because of the risks. Which... I don't know, I get it? But fuck that, I'll just learn how to do it correctly rather than avoiding it altogether.