Love Your Crisis of Meaning

You know these periods that you go through, where you're not sure where you're going or why. The thing you were working so hard on or for just yesterday now leaves you drained. The thing you used to be excited about now leaves you cold.

I think it's normal to go through these periodically. They say that you usually have one big in your lifetime (for me that would be my divorce and move from Denmark to the US a couple of years ago), and then smaller ones much more frequently.

Last week I was in one of those again. I just couldn't bring myself to do any real work. Nothing excited me. I felt tired to my bones all the time. It's waning now, but I can still feel it.

I think it's important to let these things run their course. They're part and parcel of creative life. If you're creative, you're going to have these periods where your priorities and desires and meaning shifts. It's what tees you up for the next creative burst. If you try to push them down or press through them, my feeling is you miss out on the gift that they offer to get to know yourself at a deeper level.

There's always another layer to our creativity, to our life. A little bit of quiet and downtime is needed to get to them.

Whenever friends reveal to me that they're in a crisis of meaning (they don't typically use those words, but it's easy to spot), I always celebrate. It's life-affirming. It literally is new life breaking through. 

You have to pause and question your beliefs in order for the new subtler layer to surface. Your current belief system, your insistence on what you know is right and wrong, who you are, and who you're not, is what's holding that creative force back. Embrace it. Celebrate it. Love it.

Chill. Go for long walks. Explore something new. Listen to music that intrigues you. Meditate. Explore. Let your curiosity guide you. And be grateful for the experience.

Soon enough, life is going to return to normal, and all the pieces of the puzzles will fall into place again, only this time in a new and different configuration.