Transcripts
1. Welcome to the Grove of Rest: Hey, creative. How often do you plan rest
into your schedule? Is rest an afterthought, an action you take only after
you hit the bog of burnout, just because you have to? Do you feel like rest is unproductive or
do you feel guilt when you take time to rest on your creative
wilderness journey? If so, then it's
definitely time to visit the grove of rest to
learn how this stop on the creative wilderness
map is essential for your creativity to flourish
and be sustainable over time. Hey, I'm Liz. I'm an illustrator, educator, and creative business
coach in New Mexico. I own a creative
company and have spent many years navigating the highs, lows, and unknowns of
the creative wilderness. That's why now I am so stoked to share my field notes and
tips with you throughout this series so that you can
gain more confidence on your creative journey and know that you're not
alone out there. As a creative business owner, I want to be fully transparent
that the grove of rest is definitely a spot where I could spend
more time out here in the creative wilderness. In the past, the grove
of rest has been a stop that I really
rushed through or feel guilty for
taking time to explore because it has felt
like when I'm resting, I'm not doing enough. You too. Well, let's change that
narrative together. Now, I'm practicing, spending more time
in the grove of rest because I've come to
see how essential it is to allow my creativity
to flourish and to have sustainable energy for my
creative wilderness track over the long term. That's why in today's class, I'm sharing how to recognize the seven different
types of rest, identify which type of
rest you need right now, and take actionable
steps to intentionally incorporate the grove of rest throughout your
creative journey, rather than only visiting it when you've already hit
the bog of burnout. You're ready to dive
in? Let's get started. By the way, if
you've taken one of the classes in this creative
wilderness tip series before and you're
already well acquainted with how it works and
with what you need, you can go ahead and jump
straight to lesson number 4.
2. Your Class Project: In this lesson,
we're chatting about your creative wilderness
class project. Your class project
for this portion of the creative wilderness
series is to print off the creative
wilderness field guide PDF, and fill out the "Grove
of Rest" section. In this section, you'll
find the following prompts. One, identify the type of
rest you need right now, two, schedule the Grove of
Rest into your calendar, and three, make your list
of restful activities. You'll learn more about
these prompts throughout this class so that you can fill them out in
your field guide. You can find the
creative wilderness field guide linked in the projects and resources
section of this class. You can find that
by navigating to the projects and resources tab, and going to the
right-hand side of the page where you'll
see resources, and you'll see the creative
wilderness field guide linked and ready to download. Once you've finished filling out this class portion
of the field guide, go ahead and upload it to
the class projects section. You can do this by navigating
to the projects and resources tab and clicking
"Create Project". Once you're here, you'll see a few options to
share your project. Go ahead and fill in the project title with
the name of this series. In the project description, you can add images from your completed field guide
by clicking "Image". This will bring you
straight to your files, where you can select the
images you'd like to upload. You can also type additional
observations from your experience in
this portion of the creative wilderness
into this space. Once you've included all of
your images and observations, go ahead and go to the
Cover Image section to upload an image
for your project. Again, you'll be brought to
your files where you can select your image, click "Open", and then place it just
how you want it in the cropped space.
Press "Submit." Make sure that when
you're finished uploading everything,
you hit "Publish". That way, it will go to
the class project gallery. In the next lesson, we'll
go over the materials you'll need for this
class. I'll see you there.
3. Gather Your Materials: In this lesson, we're going over the materials you'll need for this class. For this class, you will need your Creative Wilderness
Field Guide, a pen, pencil, or writing utensil of choice, and a phone to take a photo of your completed Field Guide to upload for your class project. That's it. Super simple. In the next lesson
we'll go over how to recognize when it's time to make a visit to the Grove of Rest on your creative wilderness
journey. I'll see you there.
4. Recognize When You Need Rest: In this lesson I'm sharing
how to know when you need to visit the grove of rest on your creative
wilderness journey. Typically on the creative
wilderness journey, it's pretty common to
only visit the grove of rest immediately after you've landed in the bag of burnout. The reason for this is that
when we hit the bug of burnout and implement the
tips to get out of it, all we can do right after
that point is rest. We've depleted all of our
energy and the only option we have is to rest in
order to then keep going. By the way, if you haven't yet
learned how to prevent and heal from the bag of burnout
or you need a refresher, you can visit that stop in the creative wilderness
by navigating to my profile page and going to the creative
wilderness section. Even though the grove of
rest typically hand most commonly comes right
after burnout, I really want to emphasize that you need to visit
the grove of rest intentionally and
frequently throughout your creative wilderness journey so that you can prevent
burnout and have sustainable energy for
your path long-term. See, a huge part of
recognizing when you need to visit the
grove of rest and why you need to schedule
it frequently and intentionally in your
journey is awareness. Being aware of yourself and aware of what leads you to feel depleted or unrested
is so valuable. What leaves you feeling
unrested could be the common symptoms of
overworking and lack of sleep. But it could also
be the types of work that leave you
feeling unaligned, the type of sleep habits that
leave you feeling unrested. The people in your
life who maybe drain you or don't support you or don't celebrate you or leave you feeling just depleted. Having the awareness
and open eyes to witness the things that
really don't give you that deep nourishing
sense of rest that you need is a huge first
step to recognize when you really need to
visit the grove of rest and how you can be deeply present for it while
you were there. Because the grove of
rest is another place to take a break on your
creative wilderness journey, you might be wondering
what the difference is between the grove of rest
and the cave of hiding. Because when we were
in the cave of hiding, we also pressed pause and retreated from
our journey, right? Yes, totally and there
is a clear distinction. The cave of hiding is
often influenced by external circumstances like
feeling overly vulnerable, having a lot of
personal stressors, or feeling scared of
other people's opinions. All of these external forces can pull us into the
cave of hiding which makes it a bit more of a reactive space to what
is happening in life. Now, the grove of rest
on the other hand is a much more intentional and
internally motivated space. The grove of rest is
a place that we plan out or should plan out ahead of time on our creative
journey to intentionally press pause and gather energy. A visit to the grove
of rest is fueled by intentional and
internal motivation rather than only
external circumstances. In that case, the grove
of rest is or it really should be proactive
rather than reactive. But you might be wondering what this grove of rest
actually looks like. Well, it's often described as the place rest that you
just go to get sleep. But in the next lesson I'm actually sharing
that there are seven main different
types of rest and how to identify
which one you need specifically on your creative
wilderness journey right now so that you can get
the deep nourishment and energy for your next
steps. I'll see you there.
5. Know the 7 Types of Rest: In this lesson I'm sharing the seven different types
of rest so you can identify which type you need at different points throughout your creative
wilderness journey. The way I like to view the grove of rest is as its own ecosystem. It's a web of many
different types of risks that connect to give you the energy and well-being you need for your
journey to move forward. Rest is often thought of as
sleep and physical rest, but when we can see
the full spectrum and ecosystem of
different types of rest, we can more accurately
assess the type we need and intentionally make space to fulfill that on our journey. This makes the rest
way more impactful, effective and nourishing both in the moment and
in the long term. The seven types of rest are, number 1, physical rest. This is the type of rest that is often thought about
and talked about. Physical rest can be
passive like sleeping and napping and it can also
be active like yoga, stretching, or massage. When you haven't
been getting enough sleep or attending to the physical aspects of
being a human being, you likely need to intentionally make time
for that physical rest. Two, mental rest. Mental rest is pretty
much what it sounds like. Giving your brain a break. This can look like stepping
away from your work, away from your computer screen or away from trying to solve a problem to give your brain
spaciousness and ease, so if you're feeling
brain fog or your mind feels sluggish
or overwhelmed, then that means you're
mentally exhausted and really need to take
time for that mental rest. Number 3, sensory rest. Sensory rest is stepping
away from sensory overload, like excessive noise
or stimulation to drop into silence,
nature or solitude. Sensory overload can
happen when there's just a lot of external
stimulation happening around you. For example, sometimes
I notice that if I work from a coffee
shop for a full day, by the end of that day, I may feel a little more
irritable and way less motivated because of the continuous
noise like dishes breaking, loud music, and lots
of people talking. Well, all of that
sensory activity is actually really energizing
for me at first, it can start to feel a little overwhelming
if it's a full day. If you are feeling
sensory overload, then you likely need to make
time for that sensory rest. Number 4, creative rest. Creative rest looks like
taking a step back from your creative practice and
intense creative output. This can look like
pressing pause on productive output mode
to allow inspiration, ideas and reflection to enter in and land
on your journey. If you've been in a season
of a ton of creative output, then you likely
need creative rest. Number 5, emotional rest. Emotional rest looks like
saying no more often, resetting boundaries,
making time for solitude and tuning
into your needs. For me personally,
emotional rest is really closely
tied to burnout. I often find I need emotional
rest when I've been saying yes too much
to too many people, both socially and in my work. The need for emotional rest comes up when I let
my boundaries slip a lot around my own
grounding practices and routines like
cooking healthy meals, sleeping enough and
moving my body. If you've been feeling
like your boundaries are slipping and you're not getting
enough time for yourself, then you likely need
that emotional rest. Number 6, social rest. Social rest looks like taking time for intentional solitude. If you've been going
through a ton of social engagement's not carving
out time for yourself, or you're just spending way too much time with
people who drain you, or bring you down or don't
really believe in you, then you likely
need social rest. Lastly, number 7,
spiritual rest. Spiritual rest
looks like tapping into a bigger purpose or vision, like volunteering,
connecting with your community or
attending to the earth. Often spiritual unrest starts to really build up
when you've been super heavily focused on one particular end
goal in your life. You've been striving and
working towards this goal with total intention and full focus like you've had blinders on. You've been putting
so much energy into this one personal goal that maybe your community
friendships and other life tasks start to slip. This can lead you to feel
really spiritually depleted. When you feel
depleted in this way, like you're losing connection
to the bigger picture, then you need that
spiritual rest. To recap, the seven
types of rest in the grove of
rest ecosystem are; one, physical, two, mental, three, sensory,
four, creative, five, emotional, six, social and seven, spiritual. Now that you know these
seven types of rest, take a moment in your
field guide to determine which type you most
need to intentionally schedule on your creative
wilderness journey right now so that you can have the energy and stamina to keep moving forward. Then meet me in the next
lesson where I'll share the tips to
intentionally plan for and enter into the grove of rest throughout your
creative wilderness journey, so that you can have more sustainable energy, creativity, and momentum for your path
long term. I'll see you there.
6. Tips to Fully Rest: In this lesson, I'm sharing the main tips to
intentionally and proactively plan and be
present for the grove of rest. Tip Number 1, identify which type of rest
you need the most right now. Based on the last lesson, identify your current
season of life in which type of rest would
serve you the best right now. Identifying a specific type of rest you need before you enter into the grove of rest will give you so much
more intentional, focused, and impactful
rest while you are there. Tip Number 2, plan your
rest ahead of time. To make the grove of rest
proactive on your journey, plan out your visits to
this spot ahead of time. Now, for disclosure
and transparency, I can totally be
better about this too. I don't always do this
because I can really get deep into
creative output mode. But I have found that the
seasons in my life where I'm actively planning rest
ahead of time are way, way better, way more grounded, way more balanced, and
way more sustainable. Instead of scheduling
the grove of rest just as a place
that you visit, as a reward, schedule it as a requirement
for your journey. Planning for the grove
of rest can look like visiting it for different
lengths of time. You can think of
this as scheduling three main sizes of rest, short, medium, long. Essentially scheduling a short
visit to the grove of rest could look like incorporating
daily moments of rest, like taking a
10-minute break for every 15 minutes that you work or taking a
five-minute break a couple of times
a day to meditate or taking some deep
breaths outside in nature. When you incorporate
short micro visits to the grove of rest
throughout your day, those small breaks
really do add up. A medium visit to
the grove of rest could look like scheduling
an hour lunch break each day and stopping work
at a certain time like 5:00 PM to enjoy a relaxing evening
cooking or reading a book, or spending time with friends. Scheduling a long
visit to the grove of rest can look like
planning weekends off, certain days off for
holidays or just for rest, scheduling three-day
weekends and scheduling weeks
off for vacation. To make your visits
to the grove of rest intentional and consistent, take a moment now in your field guide to schedule
out all three lengths of visiting the grove of rest for your next quarter
in your calendar. Not as a reward, but
as a requirement. Tip Number 3, plan a sleep schedule and
make it consistent. Look, as much as maybe you
don't want to believe it, you are a creative human, so you need sleep. Get to know yourself and how
much sleep you really need. Usually, it's recommended seven or more hours of
sleep per night for adults. I know personally I love
to be in bed at 9:00 PM, ideally I sleep by 10:00. I really love to get up
around 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning because for
me personally, again, that's probably
different for you, I know that I like
to have a calm, slow, early morning
when everything is quiet before I start work. I know that to get up that
early and feel rested, I have to intentionally plan to go to bed
at a specific time. Set a sleep schedule for
yourself that you can intentionally and consistently
make time for rest. Tip Number 4, make a list
of restful activities. When you make a list
of restful activities, you can use your time in
the grove of rest much more intentionally rather
than arriving there and then not really
being sure how to rest, you can arrive with
a list of items that you know feel
restful to you. For me personally, if I don't
know how I'm going to rest, then when it comes time to rest, I can actually feel really antsy and like I'm
not doing enough. But when I can
reference my list of restful activities like doing a puzzle or going for a trail run or cooking a
delicious dinner at home, maybe reading a
book, then I feel more prepared to
rest intentionally rather than feeling
anxious during my visit to the grove of rest and like I shouldn't be doing
something else. Take a moment now in your field guide to make
a list of rest ideas for yourself that you
can intentionally use once you visit
the grove of rest. Examples might include
reading a book, going for a hike or
calling a friend. This list is going
to look different and personal for each of us. Makes sure the list feels
fitting and authentic for you. Once you have your list
of restful activities, you can match it up with the
different types of rest in the ecosystem that we discussed
earlier in this class. For example maybe right
now you need social rest, but calling a friend and going
to the farmer's market are both activities on your
list of restful ideas. In this instance,
neither of those would likely fulfill your
need for social rest. Instead, you might
want to choose something like take
a bath or read a book from your list to fulfill the specific type of
rest you need right now. Be sure to pick
the specific rest from your list that fits
your current needs. Tip Number 5, set intentional boundaries around your work and your business. If you work part-time
or full-time, leave the work when you leave the work as best as you can. I know this is hard, especially if you own
a creative business or work for a company
that you really love. I love my business. I often want to be working
on it all the time, but I have to be really intentional to set
boundaries of when I do and don't work as well as when I do and don't communicate
with clients, and when I do take time to be present in the grove of rest. I even get super
specific and have in my email signature
my studio hours and when clients can
expect to hear from me. That helps to just set the
boundary for myself and the expectation for
people who might try to reach me on my work email. This makes my boundaries super clear and communicated upfront, which makes it
easier to stick to. Set clear work boundaries
for yourself and share those boundaries with
anyone else they may affect like your family, your friends, or your clients. Lastly, tip Number 6, don't have rest.
This is a big one. When you reach the
grove of rest on your creative wilderness
journey, don't have rest. What I mean by this is
that when you are resting, allow yourself to rest fully. For example after I finished
filming the second bout of classes for this create
a wilderness tip series, I had more free
time but I didn't intentionally plan for rest. Rather than fully resting, which actually would have
benefited me the most to move forward
with more energy, I just have rested. I was tired but wasn't
intentional about the rest. I was half working
and half resting when I actually just needed
to be fully resting. I learned from that
experience to not half rest. If you're going to take
time in the grove of rest, be intentional about it, fully lean into it and be present for it rather
than feeling like you should be working or
should be productive. Your work will still be there when you leave
the grove of rest so just let it be and dive
deep into that restful state. Use this to its fullest
potential while you are there so that you can come back to your work even stronger, more energized, and
with more creativity. To recap, my six main tips
to be proactive and carve out time for frequent
and intentional visits to the grove of rest are, one, identify the type of rest. Two, plan your rest
ahead of time. Three, plan a consistent
sleep schedule. Four, make a list of
restful activities. Five, set intentional
boundaries. Six, don't have rest. In the next lesson, I'm
sharing a personal example of how I carved intentional
time for the grove of rest throughout my creative
wilderness journey using the tips that I've
shared so that you can be inspired and
see that it's not just a place to visit
reactively and occasionally, but instead a place to visit proactively and frequently
for more energy, stamina, and creativity on
your path. I'll see you there.
7. Learn from a Personal Example: In this lesson,
I'm sharing how I proactively and
intentionally make time for the Grove of Rest on my own creative
wilderness journey to inspire you to do
the same on yours. As I mentioned before, intentionally planning
for and spending time in the Grove of Rest is a
continuous practice. To implement this practice, I constantly remind myself that rest is necessary
for creativity to flourish and for
me to show up as my best self business owner
and creative business coach. I really remind myself that the creative wilderness
journey is a marathon. It is a long term
journey, not a sprint. It's a lifelong path
that I want to be fully present and energized for. To do that, I need to
make sure I intentionally spend time in the Grove of Rest frequently throughout
my journey. To do this, I schedule
different lengths of time to visit
the Grove of Rest. I schedule shorter
visits by doing a short meditation each
morning, most mornings. I schedule medium visits
to the Grove of Rest by taking daily time for
physical exercise like running or strength
training or yoga and evenings off to cook
intentional nourishing meals. I schedule longer visits to the Grove of Rest by
designating the weeks and I'll be away from my studio during the year for road trips
or to visit family. I put all of these into visual time blocks in
my calendar so I can clearly see that the visits to the Grove of Rest are scheduled
and set ahead of time. This gives me peace of mind
to know that my work is balanced with rest and my
rest is fueling my work. By the way, if you want a
more detailed explanation of time blocking and scheduling, you can visit my time
management for creatives class, which you can find
by navigating to my profile page and going to the Creative
Business section. In addition to scheduling my visits to the Grove of Rest, I also keep my list
of restful activities top-of-mind to use while
I am in the grove, which include cooking,
dancing, running, going to the local library, and taking a slow morning at my house with coffee and a book. All of these are things I know, fuel me, give me rest
and rejuvenate me. I continue to revise and edit this restful list as I change
and evolve as a person. Because I also recognized
that there are seasons to our creative wilderness
journey that shift and change over time and I
really want to honor that. Having a consistent
structure and intentional plan to
visit the Grove of Rest is essential because life
happens and things come up. There are going to
be seasons where client work is more
abundant than usual. There are going to
be seasons where I work some evenings, and there are going to be
seasons where I need to work some weekends to prep for a
launch or a Skillshare class. Because there are going
to be seasons that aren't as balanced
or have more work, it makes scheduling intentional
and frequent stop to the Grove of Rest all the more essential to have that stamina, creativity and energy for
when those seasons do arrive. When you have a consistent
system of scheduled rest, it can bring you through
the busy seasons and ground you in
the calm seasons. You know that your frequent
visits to the Grove of Rest, no matter how long or short, are compounding and serving your longer-term creative
wilderness journey as a whole. I hope this personal
example of how I implement visits to
the Grove of Rest, using the tips I've shared
throughout this class, inspires you to do the same
on your creative journey. Join me in the next lesson where you'll fill out your field guide and publish your class
project. I'll see you there.
8. Publish Your Class Project: In this lesson,
we're chatting about publishing your class project. Once you've completed
this section of the creative wilderness, go ahead and take a photo
of your completed grove of rest portion of the creative
wilderness field guide. Then you can upload
that photo to the class project
section of this class. Remember that you can upload your class project by going to the projects and resources tab and clicking the "Create
Project" button. Once you've uploaded your photo, be sure to hit Publish. Also be sure to check
out other class projects from your fellow creatives
in the project gallery. We're all out here in
the wilderness together, so let's show support for
each other's journeys. Lastly, be sure
to let me know in the discussion section which
type of rest you currently need on your creative
wilderness journey and how you're making time
for that rest this week. Join me in the next lesson where I'll share
where we're headed next on this creative
wilderness track. I'll see you there.
9. Thank You & Next Steps: Thank you so much
for tuning into this class in the Creative
Wilderness Tip Series. I really hope that
you're feeling more equipped, confident, and totally stoked to keep trekking through
the wilderness together. Remember, the grove of rest is not a reactive stop
on your journey, because rest is not a reward, rest is a requirement. So implement the
tips from this class frequently to take time to rest, nourish yourself, and
get the fuel that you need for your creativity
and journey long-term. In the next class in the series, we're diving into
wide-eyed wonder, we're you're going
to learn how to tap back into a sense of wondrous curiosity on
your creative journey so that you can have
renewed inspiration, motivation, and clarity
to create work that ignites new ways of seeing
and being in the world. In the meantime, if you want continued encouragement
for your creative journey, you can download a free
pep talk that I've recorded just for
you to listen to any time you need to
get pumped up and competent about your
next steps forward. You can download that at
lizbrindley.com/peptalk. Lastly, be sure to follow me
here on Skillshare to stay up-to-date on new classes by
hitting the "Follow" button. Check out more of my
work at lizbrindley.com, and come hang out with me on
Instagram @itslizbrindley. Stay wild, stay creative,
and I'll see you soon. In this lesson, we're going, in this lesson. Oh, my God.