This morning, I shared a social media post with my daughter about different types of rest. The post is the most recent offering by psychologist and writer Alf Lokkertsen, who publishes attractive and thought-provoking infographics in his Instagram account @ThePresentPsychologist. He identifies 7 types of rest:

With respect to "Creative rest," Mel suggested that sometimes we need a break from the creative process, not—as Lokkertsen proposes—to pursue activities in the hopes of finding inspiration. Sometimes the antidote to creative burnout is to pause our creative efforts, not to push ourselves to do more creating.

Our conversation led me to an article by Anne-Laure Le Cunff, founder of Ness Labs and a PhD researcher investigating the neuroscience of education. In her article Creative burnout: when the creativity tap runs dry, Le Cunff confirms the existence of creative burnout. She writes: "Creative burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion around creative work." Creative burnout, she notes, can harm mental health and lead to self-blame.

Among the signs of creative burnout Le Cunff identifies in her article are unhealthy comparisons of our productivity to that of other creators, unbalanced content consumption (such as scrolling through our social media feed or streaming service), irritability and self-doubt. Le Cunff states: "you may also think that you will never be good enough, that your work is pointless, or that you lack the necessary imagination—despite having produced good creative work in the past and having received praise for it."

Le Cunff offers five recommendations for bouncing back from creative burnout, including seeking support from friends or colleagues, engaging in constructive self-reflection, looking at our past work to remind ourselves of our accomplishments, and starting small when endeavouring to regain our creativity. My favourite suggestion is to simply take a break. Le Cunff writes:

Take a break. Not just a short walk, which may be helpful for a creative block but probably not enough to help with creative burnout. Take a proper break—a few days off, with your out-of-office autoresponder on, where nobody will expect any work from you. The anxiety of knowing you are supposed to work but can’t bring yourself to is a vicious cycle. Taking a break is a way to escape that cycle so you can start afresh. Use the time to do things that have nothing to do with work without feeling any guilt: spend time with your loved ones, read books, take naps, cook, watch movies, go on a weekend holiday in the countryside, take care of your plants… Or just do nothing, that’s perfectly fine.

Le Cunff suggests that preventing creative burnout is better than trying to cure it once it's arrived. My favourite idea from among those she puts forward in her article is one called structured distraction. She writes:

Many creators have internalized the idea that they need to be hyperfocused on their work. But our brains were not designed to sustain attention for long periods of time. We need to alternate between focus and distractions. Instead of forcing ourselves to work through fatigue and demotivation, take creative breaks. It will help you restore your motivation, prevent decision fatigue, and improve your overall well-being.

We can experience creative burnout in all spheres of our life: at work or school and in voluntary or leisure activities. For my part, I've staved off creative burnout by:

So if I could quibble with Lokkertsen's proposal for creative rest, namely to engage with art, music and nature in order to be inspired, I would say that it's OK to take a break from the stress of creating. If inspiration flows from that break, I would view that as a bonus rather than an objective. Perhaps I would call it "Creative reset" as opposed to "Creative rest."