Energy & Oxygen

I've written before about The Oatmeal's brilliant comic on creativity and the importance of knowing when we need to refill our oxygen tanks. 

For a lot of my life that would happen naturally. Things were structured so that finding time to getaway wasn't a thing I needed to think about, it would just flow out that way. 

A few times I spent so much time exhaling that I burned myself out on a few things. It's hard to come back (at least to the same things) once you've been burned out by them.

This last year or so has been about testing how long I can exhale before I need oxygen again. At times I've definitely exhausted myself of oxygen, but I've managed to create a self-awareness that alerts my conscious brain pretty quickly to the fact we need to shift to inhaling. Just when I think I might crash, the space for the inhale comes.  (I like to think my former life as a synchronized swimmer helps with this :))  

I'm not sure pushing to the extreme of the exhale so many times is sustainable in the long term; however, it's been a great self-exploration exercise to understand more about where my limits are so I can prevent any kind of burnout in the future. All of this on the path to finding the right balance with my creative breath.