Healthy Rhythms that Fuel Your Creativity

Honoring God with all of your life and pursuing excellence in your career both require healthy rhythms that fuel your creativity. Your life is a gift, a blessing, and an opportunity. If you are going to live passionately and create great art, you cannot allow unhealthy habits to push you further and further each day from the vitality you were meant to possess. You and I must set ourselves up to succeed, by establishing healthy rhythms. This includes more than just work and rest. Consider the words of Solomon as we seek to re-imagine what it means to have a healthy life:

“Seize life! Eat bread with gusto,
Drink wine with a robust heart.
Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure!
Dress festively every morning.
Don’t skimp on colors and scarves.
Relish life with the spouse you love
Each and every day of your precarious life.
Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get in exchange
For the hard work of staying alive.
Make the most of each one!
Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!
This is your last and only chance at it,
For there’s neither work to do nor thoughts to think
In the company of the dead, where you’re most certainly headed.”

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 (MSG)

Time to Work

Once we jettison the naïve, bohemian ideas about the artist, we begin to realize that work was designed by God to be dignifying. We don’t hear this often in a culture obsessed with the end results of gaining influence and retiring early. Work is a necessary evil to some. But this is not the Biblical perspective.

In the Garden of Eden, God commissioned us to take care of creation, and to develop culture as we multiplied and filled the earth. This was before The Fall. Work is not the result of sin. It is part of the Imago Dei, and part of what fulfills us as men and women made in the image of God. This is why it is so satisfying to finish a massive creative project, or to develop our skills to mastery after countless hours of honing our talent. There is no substitute for doing the work. All your talents, all your skills, and all your contacts are irrelevant if you don’t use them.

So, ensure that your weekly rhythm includes significant work and honor God by giving it your full attention and never shirking or ‘phoning it in.’ Your season of life will influence how many hours this may be. If you are parenting at home, it will be less. If you have the blessing of being able to put in full-time hours, then do it with all your heart! (Colossians 3:23)

Time to Play Creatively

In life and in your creative projects, you need time to play. It enhances your creativity as well as your mental health. I remember when I went into the studio to record an album years ago, and a sound engineer encouraged me to budget a 10-15% margin in the studio just to play around with ideas. It turned out to be a blessing. That 10-15% left room for ideas that were sparked by the venue, by the sound engineer’s creative choices, and even the time spent in listening at the sound board. It applies to any form or art.

Plan for margins in your budget, and margins in your time to get in all the shots for a TV show or film. Creativity isn’t finished until the final product is published, uploaded, released or displayed. Every moment between concept and final product can benefit by giving yourself time to breathe, reflect and try alternative approaches. Naturally, at some point you have to stop. Money and time are not endless. So plan ahead, give yourself margins to play within and see what new ideas invigorate your creative output.

Time to Play Personally

Brene Brown did the research so we don’t have to. After interviewing thousands of people and the importance of play, Brene stated, “ I learned…how things that I take for granted, like rest and play are as vital to our health as nutrition and exercise.” You and I, made in the image of God, need time to unwind and play.

So take time to play sports, board games, and even video games. Be wary of the ones that can get addictive, but realize that our minds and hearts need to take time to play. You need to have fun! It brings life back into your art and your relationships. Enjoy your family and friends. Savor the good food you get the opportunity to savor. Don’t let the blessings slip on by when you could soak up the marrow of life in each day.

Time to Rejoice

The puritans used to greet each other by asking each other, “Any joy?” It was an elegant reminder that if we really believed the Gospel, and truly understood that all our sins have been forgiven and our shame washed away…. we would have great joy!

Sometimes the hardest spiritual battle of the day is starting with joy and holding onto that joy throughout the week. But if we pull our attention away from the crazy morning traffic, the toxic daily news, and the worries that creep in, we can fix our eyes on Christ and His deep love for us.

Don’t give into despair. You are loved. You are gifted. You are blessed beyond measure. So, take time to count your blessings, (Psalm 103:2) and to sing praises as you give thanksgiving to God (Psalms 9:1-2). In so doing, God restores our joy! Don’t fail to take this time because you feel under pressure to ‘get to the important work.’ This is part of the important work!

Time to Rest

We all know we need a Sabbath. Though it is one of the least remembered commandments, it is still one of the core Ten Commandments given to Moses by God at Mt Sinai. We need rest. In fact we were designed by God to need sleep every night, and to need a sabbath every week. We were never made to be consumed by work.

Like our Creator, we were designed for community, for relationships and for glorifying God in all we do. Rest is an essential part of this life. Don’t skip the sleep you need to finish creative projects and don’t skip observing the Sabbath. It is for your health. Consider the work of sleep researcher, Matthew Walker. In his book, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams(amazon affiliate link), he states this about sleep:

“…the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. The leading causes of disease and death in developed nations—diseases that are crippling health-care systems, such as heart disease, obesity, dementia, diabetes, and cancer—all have recognized causal links to a lack of sleep.”
– Matthew Walker

The sabbath is the same kind of safeguard. In the late 1700s France tried a ten-day work week, shortly after the death of Marie-Antionette. It was an attempt to wipe out religious vestiges inherent in the seven-day work week and in French culture. In the end it was a disaster and Napoleon retracted the laws regarding a ten-day work week. What the French elites missed, but we acknowledge is this: We were designed by God to benefit from the Sabbath – not only for rest, but for so much more. If you would like to think more deeply about the Sabbath, Click Here. Remember the Sabbath, and to keep it holy.

Conclusion

Take time in this season to establish healthy rhythms that fuel your creativity. You cannot be obsessed only with work. You cannot ignore the need for play, rest, and rejoicing. To ignore these components of life is wander away from God’s design for a healthy life. So take a moment and consider again the wisdom of Solomon, for your life!

“Seize life! Eat bread with gusto,
Drink wine with a robust heart.
Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure!
Dress festively every morning.
Don’t skimp on colors and scarves.
Relish life with the spouse you love
Each and every day of your precarious life.
Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get in exchange
For the hard work of staying alive.
Make the most of each one!
Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!
This is your last and only chance at it,
For there’s neither work to do nor thoughts to think
In the company of the dead, where you’re most certainly headed.”

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 (MSG)

Take a moment, process, and share below how you are going to embrace joy, and start new healthy rhythms this year. It may be simple. It may be complex. But don’t just read this and let it wash over you as ‘interesting information.’ Take the few moments to consider how you can change your habits and savor life more right now.

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Copyright © 2022 Joel & Michelle Pelsue. All Rights Reserved. Used with Permission.