Art Life Balance - Part 1 of 2: Diet and Exersize
So you have a deadline and you are working your butt off. The nights at the studio have become later and later and as you burn the candle at both ends all balance in your life disappears. Any exercise routine you had or careful diet you followed has gone out the window as you grab coffee after coffee between creative production sessions. Also the toll of late nights leads to craving any foods that give you that instant "Ahhhhhhh!" feeling, cookies, muffins, fried food and chips. Oh the sweet relief of junk food!
After going through the stress cycle associated with projects and their deadlines for a few years I recognized that I wanted to evolve. I wanted to minimize the damage of no sleep, bad food, lack of exercise. I was tired of showing up at my openings feeling like garbage with dark circles under my eyes. I wanted to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, chatting with clients and meeting new ones, not hiding in the corner.
"Choosing art over health rather than art fueled by health kills you faster; it also makes the process so much more miserable and leads to poorer, slower, less innovative, and shallower creative output." - Jonathan Fields from FastCompany.com
There is a great deal of research linking exercise to creativity. Maintain exercise during project crunch time by planning your week in advance and reviewing that plan at the beginning of every day. My weekly planner from Moleskine is probably one of my all-time favourite tools for staying organized but if you don't use paper planners you can set reminders on your phone or an on-line calender.
