The pressure to create

While going through my Instagram, I realised that I hadn’t posted in a few months. Although I was unphased, a thought popped into my mind.

During the early years of the platform, I was told that in order to have a large following, I needed to post at least twice a day. Even though a large following would be nice, it is impossible for me to post that often due to many factors. The main one being that I have a full time job and a terrible memory.

I chose to take a couple of weeks break at the beginning of year, in order to allow me to refocus and map out where I would like to grow.

One thing that I had promised myself early on was to create for myself and at pace that is suitable for me. Many artist feel pressured to constantly create even when there’s no inspiration. This is largely due to the fact that we are exposed to the highlight of most artists processes. This makes us all feel that they have an endless ability to create that we do not possess. Most do not share the struggles, the doubts or the failures.

It is clear that without the lows, there would no successes. I spent most of last year feeling like I was caught in a cogwheel of doubts and dissatisfaction. Although it was hard, what helped me through was to accept the state that I was in and to recognise that it a was simply a phase. This epiphany did not happen overnight, believe me.

The creative process can take time. It takes time to develop as artists and even more time to grow. So it is important to take a step back in order to refresh ourselves both physically and mentally. Trying to keep up with other creatives is an easy way to get discouraged.

Most important thing is to spend time with ourselves and learn the habits that benefit our individual creative processes.

The only remedy that I have found that worked for me is to concentrate on one image at the time. This allowed me to rediscover the reason why I started to create and whether it is enough to keep me on this path.