Self-Care
“These past couple of years have been about learning to not sabotage myself in a subtler way - for instance, even just by putting moisturiser on when I get out of the shower. Learning to honour myself and believing that I’m worth taking care of.” Actor Maggie Gyllenhaal
Self-care can involve a wide range of ways to support our physical and emotional health, and enhance positive self regard. It can be a crucial aspect of how well we are able to realize our talents.
One form of support is to modulate criticism both from others, and even more importantly, from ourselves.
Step Jones - founder of the company Life Motivations - says in his article Love and Energy for your Plan of Life, “Be supportive of yourself, and if you don’t get support from the people around you, drop them. You may have to work with some people who are not supportive, and that’s okay. Just make sure you have a plan to move yourself forward. I know that even now I have people that I need to move forward from, because we don’t have the same values or understandings.”
Also see my article Being Creative and Self-critical
Forced sleep deprivation affects medical interns and film workers, among others. Film shoots often involve longer than 18 hour work days. Interviewed on the radio show Deadline L.A. on KPFK [August 5 2006], filmmakers Haskell Wexler and Lisa Leeman commented about their new documentary Who Needs Sleep? that research indicates sleep deprivation causes mental deficits that can be as detrimental as being drunk. The film reveals that fatal car accidents caused by sleep deprivation claimed the lives of several of Wexler’s close colleagues, and may have played a key role in the death of Oscar-winning cinematographer Conrad Hall (American Beauty, Road to Perdition).
Some artists have claimed sleep deprivation can induce creative consciousness. Maybe, under certain conditions. But even short of the extremes of car accidents, it can distort physical and mental functioning enough to impair creative expression.
Henry Rollins commented about staying healthy while doing road tours with his Rollins Band: “Eating well is becoming easier on the road as more places are health conscious. Gyms are easy to find anywhere there’s electricity and traffic.
“Time is the hard part, but I do my best and I learned a long time ago that without recuperative sleep, good nutrition and constant exercise, this high stress lifestyle of traveling, etc., quickly takes a toll. And how do I do it? I just see it as a very important thing and make sure I get it done.” [Washingtonpost.com January 11, 2006; photo from Henry Rollins.com]
Linda Dessau counsels and writes as “the Self-Care Coach” who “helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues,” and says that self-care is “the path to creative expression. By paying closer attention to your self-care, you can have easier access to your creativity, to your muse and to your inner strength and resilience.”
That is from her article Self-Care for Creative Artists
See a list of more of her articles.
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