Summer Self Care to Revive Your Creative Spirit

Ah, mid-summer…a perfect time to experiment with new summer self care practices.

Summer extends the invitation to longer days, warmer weather, and summer self care that veers from the norm. It’s a time for slowing down, relaxing, and reviving parts of you that tend to get left behind during the rest of the year.

Often, the best summer self care reacquaints you with aspects of yourself that don’t get out much.

As a matter of fact, they may not even feel like you at first. 

Like the playful, goofy facets of you that have to take a backseat when you’re in the grind of daily life. Or the spontaneous, creative spirit in you that gets pushed down when you’re focused on doing everything right.

But when you take time for playful and spontaneous summer self care, it doesn’t just revive your creative spirit. It can also lead to a deeper sense within you of who you are at your core.

That’s because it literally opens up space for your joyful inner child. You know, the one that can play and create with abandon, and doesn’t have to color within the lines.

In this post, I’m going to encourage you to push the envelope of routine summer self care.

Don’t get me wrong. I love beach walks, gardening, and farmer’s markets as much as anyone else. But there is something delicious about venturing away from the shoreline of what’s known and expected. And then, diving deeper to experiment with other activities that don’t necessarily fit your concept of summer self care. 

In particular, I’m talking about three activities that may push your envelope a bit. Even so, all are definitely worthwhile and legitimate forms of summer self care:

• Purposeless Play
• Process Art and Creating
• Turning Toward Boredom

So let’s get the ball rolling, shall we?

Purposeless Play: Timelessness and Freedom

When you see the word “purposeless,” you might wonder, Whaaat?

After all, aren’t we supposed to seek purpose? Isn’t a sense of purpose key to living a life of meaning, fulfillment, and satisfaction?

For most women the answer is “yes.” But like every coin, life has a flip side. And often, in our attempts to lead meaningful, purpose-driven lives, we forget how important purposelessness can be.

However, when you can put purpose on the back burner for a time and give yourself over to play, you surrender to a kind of purposelessness that is freeing and rare. Play, as it turns out, has the potential to open you up to a fascinating possibility: that purpose and purposelessness can sit side by side, and that our pursuit of meaning requires us to engage in both.

According to the National Institute for Play, play is a basic human need, as essential to our well being as sleep. I like to think of it as a nutrient our bodies need in order to experience the full spectrum of life and color.

That said, while the yearning for play persists in almost all of us, adults rarely get enough of it. (That’s why it’s a perfect summer self care activity).

During summer you may feel freer to dial back the striving and play with abandon, without agenda or ambition. And by doing so, you open yourself up to timelessness, freedom, and life-affirming purposelessness.

How do you push the summer self care envelope and embrace purposeless play?

Since it’s normal to feel uncertain about what constitutes play and what constitutes work in your life, start by making three lists:

• Activities that always feel like play or that you think would feel playful if you tried them
• Activities that sometimes feel like play and sometimes feel like work
• Activities that seduce you into thinking they’re play, but rarely are

Once you have your lists, choose a simple activity from the first list and set aside your need to accomplish anything or feel purposeful. For instance, if you love to hike, try aimless walking in nature instead, with no agenda and no expected outcome. Let yourself discover what you discover along the way, opening up to what feels fun or freeing or brings you joy.

And then throughout the summer, repeat often. 

It doesn’t have a particular purpose…if its purpose is more important than the act of doing it, it’s probably not play. 

-Stuart Brown

Process Art/Creating: What if you let yourself go wild?

Have you ever heard the story about what happens when you ask a room of kindergartners if they believe they’re artists? Most will joyfully raise their hands.

And then, what happens when you ask a group of adults the same question? A few (perhaps none) will hesitatingly raise their hands.

Whether or not you would raise your hand, the fact is that women are born artists and creators of life, and always will be. If you struggle to connect with this deeper sense of yourself or tend to lose track of its healing powers, it’s time to push the summer self care envelope and experiment with process art.

As you may know, process art focuses on immersing yourself in a creative activity. You give yourself over to it without thinking much about the finished product. When you’re in process you’re in the moment. On the journey, a hazy destination ahead, not fully knowing where you’re going. (Kind of like the best summer road trips).

Almost any creative activity can be turned into process art:

freewriting, painting, stitching, drawing, collaging, sculpting with playdough, print making, improvisation.

And if you’re intrigued by the idea of process painting, I recommend the book, Life, Paint and Passion by Michele Cassou and Stewart Cubley. They’re experts in the art of process painting, which can be incredibly fun and playful.

But no matter what kind of process art you pursue, consider these questions inspired by the book to give your inner artist a boost…

• If you are planning instead of playing, think about this: What would you create if it didn’t have to fit?

• If you are frightened of pushing the envelope too much, ask yourself: What would I create if I let myself go wild?

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

-Maya Angelou

Turning Toward the Elixir of Boredom

Are you thinking…

Boredom? Isn’t that a thing of the past? Don’t we have everything we need to never be bored again?

Well yes, you could make a case that in the 21st century boredom has almost been eradicated. Or at least doesn’t last long when we experience it.

Consider this: when the edges of boredom are creeping toward you, what do you usually do? Because boredom can feel uncomfortable, you might automatically distract yourself by picking up your phone. Or you may have developed other ways to head boredom off at the pass.

But the thing is, while boredom might not feel good immediately, it actually improves mental health and also opens up space for creativity and self-compassion.

When you embrace boredom your imagination eventually kicks into gear because you can only tolerate the boredom for so long.

Alternately, when you cut off boredom, you run the risk of thwarting your creative wisdom and benefitting from its elixir-like qualities.

So if you really want to push the envelope of summer self care, click over to read about my Boredom Routine. Even if you hate the thought of being bored or hate the word itself, try it. I shared it in another post a few years ago, and I still faithfully stand by it!

Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience.

-Walter Benjamin

By the way, if you’re a woman who’s approaching (or in) your midlife and beyond years and it feels like something’s missing in your life…and it’s time to revive the wise, imaginative spirit within you…you’re who I created the Wisdom Tending Circle for.

JOIN THE WAITLIST and find out more about this creative and supportive women’s group that journeys through the archetypal energies and archetypal landscapes of midlife and beyond.