Therapeutic Outlet - Transitions

Show Notes

Summary

Alex talks about his move to a new house and studio, how such transitions affect his mental health and how it’s essential to make space and time for your creative therapy during times of transition.

Transcription

Welcome to the Art Against Mental Illness podcast. My name is Alex Loveless and this is my podcast about the healing powers of art for artists, art lovers, the art curious and anyone with an interest in mental health and well-being.

I’m not good at transitions. Well I should say that my ADHD brain loves transitions. My autistic brain really really hates them and so I find them quite confusing periods. So I’m going to talk about transitions a bit today. This is because I’m currently going through one. I’m sitting here in my new studio by my new house as part of a move that I neither wanted nor asked for. I won’t go into the details of why I find myself in this situation today. There are previous episodes where I mentioned this a few times. I won’t bore you with it any more but I’ve had to move house and I’ve had to move studio and I’m recording this from my new studio. So you might hear some traffic in the background. We might hear the odd voice. My last studio was in my garden in a place in the countryside that was much more isolated and quiet than it is here. Here I’m right near a local high street and the walls of this place aren’t very thick and currently reading 25 degrees on the thermometer. This is an upstairs part of a two floor studio with skylight windows all the way across which makes the light absolutely spectacular but it means it’s like a greenhouse.

So I’m sweating and trying to figure out how I’m going to construct an episode for my podcast which I at least to myself I committed to do weekly. Since I spent most of the last week either preparing to move or moving, I haven’t had time to prepare a well thought through nicely scripted episode. So I’m going to let this one wander a bit and I think that’s appropriate given the subject matter and hopefully you’ll find it interesting or at least I don’t know soothing, enraging, insightful. I don’t know come up with some adjectives that seem to suit your mood after this and by all means tell me about it.

So back to me finding transitions troublesome. At the very least after a transition like a house move but I even find this the case when I go on holidays but starting a new job is a very big one and maybe you’ve you’ve just had a kid, maybe you’ve had a bereavement or anything that changes your life significantly even when it’s very very positive can be quite wrenching and very very stressful. So I think that these are the moments when we need the things that keep us centered and the things that keep us sane and calm, the things in your life that you can hold on to that give you if not a sense of pleasure but certainly a sense of either belonging or familiarity or take you out of the new world that you’re in and I think they’re really important and that for me is obviously my art but even then it’s been very very difficult to use that as a as an escape route over the last week or so because I had to I had to move my studio I had to move all my art stuff and it took a while and it left both sides the old studio and new studio in various states of disarray and it made it impossible and less fulfilling to do my art because of that.

I can pick up a piece of paper and a pen at any point and and start doing some sketching there’s there’s plenty of ways to continue to create or be creative when you don’t have your studio or your office space or whatever it is you feel that you need but it’s not the same to me and it sort of ignores the core of why I do what I do and why I do it in the way that I do it which is partly the sort of mindful stimulating creative element of of making things making paintings in my case but it’s also the way that it necessitates isolation and facilitates isolation in such a way that I can block the outside world to the degree that I need to and people know that when I’m in my space and I’m doing my thing that they need to leave me alone and that’s absolutely vital to me I would find a way I think of making that work regardless of what situation I’m in. And if it sounds like I’m complaining that I’ve I’ve gone from one situation where I had a big old studio to another situation where I have a big old studio then please understand I’m not I feel incredibly blessed to be where I am. But where I am is not the same as where I was and I will make this my my home for whatever time we’re going to be here and I will make the most of it and I think this is going to be absolutely incredible.

But this transition is hard any transition is hard even as simple as I want to paint a picture so where are my brushes I sat down and started painting last night and went to dab my brush in some water and the water’s not there and where’s the pot where’s the pot that the water goes in oh god it hasn’t made it over yet some stuff is still over in my old studio. This is not a hard problem to solve I have lots of pots hanging around the place so I just went and found another one but obviously then there’s no water source in this studio so I had to go and get that and my flow was immediately blocked. It’s all fine but it is something that will break my concentration and make it harder for me to do the things I need to do to center myself and of all the times I need to center myself it’s in the middle of a move of all the times that it’s hard to find the space to do that is in the middle of the move. And these little bits of friction, of not having the things that you need around you almost seems like every time I want to do something I have to go and set the thing up that allows me to do that. And if you’re in a position like me where change is especially hard then then this stuff really mounts up and it adds up and I think that everyone experiences this.

I think some people thrive on it even and on half of my brain I think does the process of setting up a new studio figuring out where to put things it’s really a process of the ADHD side of my brain problem solving and enjoying the new things new challenges new stimulus and trying to please the autistic side of my brain which wants things just where they should be where they’re supposed to be. And this is quite a positive process in that sense because my last studio for example I never really got set up in the way that I was happy with I was constantly moving it around and I suspect that will be the case no matter where I am but this is a nice opportunity a new space to rethink how I’ve got things and how I want them and what’s going to be most conducive to me working and what I’m doing here is fundamentally to try and create a space where my surroundings disappear, where they are less and less important to me and I can focus on the art and the things that I do in here without distraction. Because distractions are just inconveniences in your space that stop you from doing what you’re doing.

If you’re a writer and you’re sitting in a cafe and you’ve got your headphones on the fact that there’s lots of stuff happening around you probably doesn’t matter if you’ve chosen that space you’ve got a cup of coffee and that’s where you’re happy you can either tune out or drown out the sound via headphones then you can be very creative and none of those distractions or that might pose distractions to other people are really distractions. Distractions are like weeds they’re just a normal everyday thing that’s somewhere where you don’t want it. And I think that to have a happy productive creative space and creative practice that is conducive to good mental health then your things need to be where they need to be. You need to have an environment that is set up so the types of distractions of, do I have to get up and walk across the room or go to my house or something to get this thing to allow me to do something I want to do am I going to be disturbed if someone just going to walk in and start talking to me while I’m doing something and these things matter the lack of these types of irritations distractions are important as is making the time that you can spend in your creative space actually being creative. These things are absolutely essential to enable the therapeutic value of creativity.

And that’s what I’ve spent my last couple of days doing I’ve got some plants up in here I’ve got this space is much bigger and although it’s not got some of the amenities that my old space had so I have to think through how I’m going to account for that but these are these are small problems and given how house moves have been for me in the past I think I’m I’m actually coping pretty well and I think my creative space is is almost as I want it to be and that’s great because the rest of my life isn’t. My house it looks like someone turned it upside down; a good portion of my stuff is still at the old house. That’s a long story but we’ll still be in possession of that house through a little while longer. And we have to sort of find our feet in the local environment, new neighbours, new garden, new space. The house is totally different it has a totally different feel.

It might seem a little bit, what’s the word, selfish maybe? That I spent time setting up my creative space before fully getting my house sorted but I really needed this space to be sorted out so that I could re-center myself and get myself back in the right frame of mind so we could do the house properly and we could do it in our own time in a way that really suited us. Plus I’m not the only person sorting the house out whereas I am the only person sorting my space out and so I can’t just go in and make all the decisions my wife might have something to say about it it’s a bit of a team project takes a bit more organizing.

Now I think that this is all first world problems and I feel amazingly blessed to be in this position but it’s not just my house it’s my whole life you know I’m unemployed at the moment I’ve got to figure out how we keep going we still have to eat. And I’m in a position now where we knew we had to move house and we focused on doing that and now I’ve got to figure out what else I’m going to do what I’m going to do next. And that’s the real battle that I’m gearing up for and why I’m trying to get my creative space how I want it. Because maybe at the other side of this I’ll be blessed enough to be able to do more of this, but one way or the other I will block out a part of my day every day for the rest of my life to do this stuff in my space and I will use that time to charge my batteries so that I can tackle all of the other stuff that I’ve got to do. And I think that is is massively important.

I think that if you’re going through transitions especially things like house moves or having a kid. I think the mistake that a lot of people make, which lands them in hot water, is that they let the things that they need their self-care fall away because that’s not important any more. What’s important is baby; what’s important is getting ourselves established in the new house and we’ve got to do some building and decorating and all this stuff. So we don’t have time for doing the things that we need to do.

And this is a podcast about art therapy and I’m assuming that if you’re here that that is one of your ways of recentering and balancing yourself. It might look like it’s a bit of a “put it to the back of the queue” chore to get your creative space in a good state or to create at least an environment where you can get moving on this stuff again. It might seem like a selfish thing that should go on the back burner and I would urge you to not think about it that way. I recognize that in some situations it’s just not possible to transition in a way that I am. If you feel guilty or bad about doing this I really really wouldn’t if you rely on art for your mental well-being then it’s absolutely essential that you continue to be able to to find that space when when you are transitioning.

And this works for me for things like going on holidays well. I find holidays ridiculously stressful I always used to say when I come back from holiday I need a holiday to recover from the holiday. And that’s partly because travelling is stressful and family all locked up in one space together for a week or two can be a little bit incendiary especially if you have a family like mine. But also my stuff is gone I don’t have my creative space I don’t have all my stuff that I need to do what I need to do so. I have to try and find some little microcosm of that I can take with me. It’s about being able to carve out that mental space to be able to express myself and to zone out and to have a place where people will leave me alone. I have to have my headphones and I have to have at the very least some pencils and some paper so that when I’m on holiday I can I can relax and that’s how I relax. My ultimate holiday is really to be left alone for a week in my studio to just create if holidays really are about relaxing then that’s how I would want to do that I can’t think of a better way of spending my time. Although given that it’s at least 25 degrees I don’t know what that is in American temperatures but it’s pretty warm and getting warmer in here. And I’m in rural Scotland very warm for this part of the world and so I might as well be on holiday at this point I feel like I’m sat in the middle of the Mediterranean except I’ve got no swimming pool and if I was on holiday I would probably be sat in the corner trying to find some shade with my headphones on hoping that everyone will leave me alone.

Anyway I won’t wrap it on for too much longer. If like me you’re going through a transition, you have my sympathy. And if, like me, you’re the type of person that finds these things very very difficult you need to make sure that you look after yourself. You need to make sure that you have your space to escape and to recenter. There is never a more important time to find those spaces than in times like this. If you’re planning for a house move or you’ve got a baby on the way make sure you also plan in the opportunities and the facility to do the things that you use to centre yourself. Make sure that you’ve got access to your guitar or your piano or whatever issues you use to make music; make sure that you’ve got a place to go with your laptop or whatever it is to use to do some writing; make sure you’ve got some creative equipment to go with you so that you are able to express yourself and find your space. And then talk about this with the people who are with you in whatever that transition is and make sure that they understand what you need when you need it and why you need it. And I think you’ll find that although it might seem like you’re adding some extra stuff into the process that isn’t necessary you’ll find that it will have such a rejuvenating effect that you’ll see that afterwards how absolutely necessary it was. And so don’t feel guilty about it. Don’t deprioritize it I urge you to keep going and do the things you need to do and when you come out the other side of it you will feel really really pleased that you did it.

I think that’s all I’m going to say for today. Next week I will attempt to find the time to do something a little bit more formalized. I don’t know what I’m going to do it on I’ve got such a long list of subjects I need to cover I can’t wait to get on with it. As per usual if you want to support me if you like what you hear here please like it on whatever platform you’re on. Please rate it if you’ve got that facility. Tell your friends, your dog, your mum, the random person on the street. Tell them to come and listen to my podcast.

And if you want to contribute at all financially I’m on Etsy if you want to go and buy some artwork. Alex Loveless on Etsy. But probably the easiest way to support me financially, other than sending me a suitcase of cash, is to support me on Patreon: patreon.com/AlexLoveless. There are various plans on there where you can give me money monthly. I know there’s tens of thousands of you out there so if you all went and gave me a pound on Patreon a month I wouldn’t have to go and get a proper job and I could sit here in my studio talking to you lot all day every day. Wouldn’t that be nice, eh? Come on make it happen. I’ll see you next time.