Paulinho da Viola’s “Dança da Solidão” was one of the Brazilian songs that immediately struck a chord in my melancholic Finnish heart when I heard it for the first time, more than…
Lessons from the Road Lessons in Creativity Mindful Music Practice
Bringing Back That Lovin’ Feelin’
At the beginning of last year, I promised myself I would sing and make music every day. Now, this might sound like a strange promise coming from a singer and musician, because…
“I am on a lonely road, and I am traveling, traveling, traveling… Looking for something, what can it be?” I must have been 17 years old when I heard those words by…
Lessons from the Road Lessons in Creativity
Finding back home to your Soul and creativity after burnout
Hi and welcome to my new home on the web! Because my website has gotten a fresh, new look and this blog is new, I feel like I should introduce myself! I’m…
![Four years ago, just after New Year’s eve, I found myself driving above the clouds on the beautiful island of La Palma, experiencing a tremendous feeling of space open up inside of me. Up there, above the clouds, my Inner Voice spoke to me: “This is what you need! SPACE!!” An exhausting year had come to an end. I had ended a long relationship and moved houses for 3 times within 5 months, all while being in the middle of a theater tour, and having a busy vocal coaching schedule. Halfway through that year, I was hired to write and film for a big project, in the middle of which I came down with a major laryngitis, sinusitis and ear infection and completely lost my voice. I was feeling overwhelmed and anxious. I had a #burnout, but didn’t actually “know it” yet. Everyone around me seemed busy, overworked and overwhelmed. So I just continued in the same tracks, for another year..! I didn’t really know “if my burnout was serious enough”, or if it even was “real”. (How real did it still have to get?!) I didn’t dare to take a time-out with my career unfolding, and felt deeply committed to my work. I bought into my own fears about things like income, and told myself that I had to start working even harder now that I was a single artist. .
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I didn’t realise it back then that I was looking for a permission slip. But here’s the thing: you don’t need permission! You don’t need permission to say: “I need a real lunch break. Or “Can we work out another way to do student reports, because this is draining me and robbing my time and energy from what I’m good at doing, which is why you hired me”. Or “I can do this part of the job but not that part”. You don’t need permission to say: “I feel overwhelmed, exhausted, numb and uninspired. I need a time-out.” You don’t need to wait until it gets REAL. You don’t need to measure it by someone else’s definition of what’s real. Because it IS already real. To YOU.
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How to deal with the fear and the inner hurdles you have to overcome to give yourself permission, is another thing. So is overcoming scarcity-mentality and looking at the world with the “starving, suffering artist glasses”. [Post continued in comments]](http://scontent-ams4-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/97c6e68eb4e68f26bc9315ad99d3687c/5E189BF5/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/s640x640/69033191_359756678263605_6973229384947464370_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-ams4-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=109 "Four years ago, just after New Year’s eve, I found myself driving above the clouds on the beautiful island of La Palma, experiencing a tremendous feeling of space open up inside of me. Up there, above the clouds, my Inner Voice spoke to me: “This is what you need! SPACE!!” An exhausting year had come to an end. I had ended a long relationship and moved houses for 3 times within 5 months, all while being in the middle of a theater tour, and having a busy vocal coaching schedule. Halfway through that year, I was hired to write and film for a big project, in the middle of which I came down with a major laryngitis, sinusitis and ear infection and completely lost my voice. I was feeling overwhelmed and anxious. I had a #burnout, but didn’t actually “know it” yet. Everyone around me seemed busy, overworked and overwhelmed. So I just continued in the same tracks, for another year..! I didn’t really know “if my burnout was serious enough”, or if it even was “real”. (How real did it still have to get?!) I didn’t dare to take a time-out with my career unfolding, and felt deeply committed to my work. I bought into my own fears about things like income, and told myself that I had to start working even harder now that I was a single artist. .
.
I didn’t realise it back then that I was looking for a permission slip. But here’s the thing: you don’t need permission! You don’t need permission to say: “I need a real lunch break. Or “Can we work out another way to do student reports, because this is draining me and robbing my time and energy from what I’m good at doing, which is why you hired me”. Or “I can do this part of the job but not that part”. You don’t need permission to say: “I feel overwhelmed, exhausted, numb and uninspired. I need a time-out.” You don’t need to wait until it gets REAL. You don’t need to measure it by someone else’s definition of what’s real. Because it IS already real. To YOU.
.
.
How to deal with the fear and the inner hurdles you have to overcome to give yourself permission, is another thing. So is overcoming scarcity-mentality and looking at the world with the “starving, suffering artist glasses”. [Post continued in comments]")
