Art + Psychology Link Love

Your weekly digest of a niche of this astounding Substack writing community and some elaboration, connections, and hopefully community-building

See this post if you aren’t sure what this roundup is all about.

Reminder: I draw connections between what the writers are sharing and my understanding of how that relates to art + mental health but this doesn’t mean that the original writer intended that or agrees with it in full or part … I always encourage you to go read the full pieces whose snippets capture your attention here to find out what the writer’s piece intends and offers.

This week’s images free from Unsplash using search term “slow”

Grounding Us Before We Begin

I love quotes. And I swear

Paris Collage Collective

always finds the best ones. Like this, which starts The Weekender 22 issue.

“Creativity is not so much a boundless well, but an all-you-can-eat buffet of elements for your creative endeavor. Eventually you've eaten your fill, and it's time to digest and then make something. But at some point, it will be time to return to the restaurant.”

― Vera Nazarian

From the past week or so then …

My favorite recurring theme this week has been everyone that’s writing about spaciousness, slowing down, going small … you can find several links in the “psychology and productivity” section below. It reminds me of what I was thinking about when I wrote this:

Craftivism: Slow and Small and Quiet = Powerful

And it reminds me also of why I’m beling deliberate and slow in choosing how I develop the new THREADSTACK section of Create Me Free.

Psychology and Creative Process

Sophie Mackintosh

of

Little Intimacies

wrote how to finish a draft

which includes this very relatable stream of consciousness within the process:

“I know I need more structure if I’m going to stay motivated, so I try to prepare in advance by planning a bit of quieter time between other work, and then I find myself panicking for writing rather than pitching more for paid work, and then feel guilty because panicking time is writing time and I am wasting it! I put the appointment “WRITE NOVEL!!!” in my Google Calendar to recur every day so that I actually barely notice it, but it succeeds in making my calendar look stressful. I wake early, too early, in an attempt to make the most of time, and weekends pass in a weird, undemarcated haze. I give myself a lot of little treats, and I cry more, because I’m tired from all the early waking and fitting in other work and general life and also excavating my brain and coming up daily against my own inadequacy. I worry the book generally is unfixable, then tell myself not to worry, all that matters is finishing this draft, and I’ll fix it in the next one.”

Poles and Crocs

shared Men’s Voices - I

in which Pete Tiarks describes how heading outdoors to talk through an issue with someone else during a walk/hike is a powerful way to move past overthinking and procrastination and into grounded solutions.

“Having set myself a walk to do is calming on a slightly deeper level as well. The best way I can explain this is by saying that the anxious part of my mind that wants to overthink things is like a guard dog; if there's something around that makes it feel threatened, it's going to start yapping. If I'm going to smuggle all this uncomfortable talk past it, I need to throw it a bone, and finishing the walk is a pretty good bone. The dog doesn't need to worry about whether I'm being productive either. The walking is one of the things on my to-do list, and I am at least doing it.^[1] If I talk as well, I am now being super productive and doing two things at once!”

If you’re not familiar with

Poles & Crocs

yet, they bring a unique voice to the mental health space as: “a dynamic community of fighters, military personnel, and ultra runners who unite in the scenic fells of the UK … to support #mensmentalhealth through physical activity, camaraderie, and mutual support.”

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