It’s been quite the couple of months. During June, I was just bumbling along working on my business when suddenly, I couldn’t work any more. It felt like I had nothing left to give.
For the past 2 years, I have been trying to untangle the conundrum of how I should go about opening an online shop to sell my original art, art prints, and maybe stationary or stickers. I had a launch day set. I was laboring over my social media posts for sometimes an hour and a half a day, only to see it go nowhere. I was stressed and uninspired. My time felt wasted.
So I stopped. I haven’t posted on my social media for almost 3 weeks, and I feel so free. I did no work for 10 days, instead filling the time by painting another mural on the kitchen wall, quilting, and playing piano and chess.
Burnout is a horrible feeling. It forces you to stop and reconsider your methods, while at the same time you just want to push harder. The main problem turned out to be my rigorous social media posting schedule. And the thing is, I love making reels, I love taking photos to post. But when I start doing those things because the “experts” are telling me to, I don’t enjoy it any more.
While I wasn’t doing any work, I picked up a book called The Creative Act: A Way of Being. It helped me understand that I haven’t been in touch with real inspiration for a long time; I was just painting because it helped me create content.
After those 10 days of real vacation (I had still been posting on social media every day during my summer travels), I felt ready to pick it up again, but at a more relaxed and careful pace. Yesterday I painted for the first time in at least a week. I made a solid plan, and now I am slowly completing the steps toward growing my business. Speaking of which…
The Noemi Salome shop is now live! I currently only have several art prints and a sticker for sale, but it’ll be getting bigger soon! Oh, and I also have embroidery patterns from some of my previous shop escapades under the category “Creative Tangents.”
Thank you for reading my musings.
xo,
Noemi
