I have a theory that when you spend long enough doing left-brained activities, like office work, you burn out your left brain. So doing creative work is the perfect break from stuff like that. Then if you spend an hour doing something creative and you wear your right brain out a bit, but your left brain is refreshed, and you can stare at Excel columns some more.
This could just be me, though. I'm not super artistic (I am bleh at poetry and terrible at visual art), but I love being creative. Playing music that someone else composed, writing prose, following a knitting/crochet/plastic canvas pattern, or putting together stitches I'm already familiar with in order to make something moderately original. I'm definitely not a fully right-brained person based on those specifics, but I'm not 100% left-brained either.
I'm curious, does anyone else feel the same way? The division of creative versus logistic work and how burning out on one doesn't mean that you're burned out on the other?
For me, logic and creativity are closely related. I paint realistic portraits, and you'd be surprised by how much of it is just an exercise in logic. (Though there is definitely something more than logic in a truly great painting.)
ReplyDeleteDoing office work (like Excel) makes me want to read a novel more than anything. That requires using the imagination, so you might be onto something.
I'm loving your blog, by the way!
I guess it just depends on what you find restful. People usually do find relaxation in stories and games. And when you really love a craft, it's not exactly stressful. So yeah, I agree. :)
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