Good afternoon 👋
How are you doing lately?
Whenever life gets a bit chaotic, I’ve noticed a pattern in myself: I start a new creative project. We’re going to take a little look at why I do this, what I hope to achieve by starting it and how the whole process works for me in managing stress.
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For years, I thought the goal was to finish every project that I started. If I didn’t, then that would classify as a failure, wouldn’t it?
Over the last couple of years, I’ve realised something important: I wasn’t quite right. It isn’t the starting or finishing of a project that matters; it’s the mental space that it gives me.
Whenever I’m stressed, I find myself looking for something I can pour all my focus, attention, feelings, and thoughts into. I create these new worlds, with characters and environments that sometimes mirror the challenges I’m facing in real life, and it genuinely helps me make more sense of everything.
Whether they help me solve the situation I’m in, or simply give me somewhere to manage my stress and comfort levels, I honestly don’t know where I’d be without them. Over the years, I’ve created these mental versions of every kind of media, from poems to books, musicals to thought experiments, and I wouldn’t change any of them.
I think there’s something freeing and quite poetic in that – giving ourselves permission to create without pressure, without deadlines, without the need for a perfect ending. Sometimes, starting something is enough. Sometimes the act of imagining, building, or writing is the very thing that helps us stay grounded.
I might start sharing some of the ideas I’ve come up with in these moments with you all in the future. We’ll see 👀
That’s all for today’s blog. What do you think? Have you ever found yourself doing something like this? What’s one way you use to manage stress?
I’d love to hear you thoughts 😁
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day!
James
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