Spending the past four weeks on crutches gave me the opportunity to view my life from a different perspective. Some of what I experienced was challenging: opening doors without falling over, climbing stairs on one foot, and staying clean without getting my foot wet.
Some of it was painful: you wouldn’t believe how badly your palms and armpits ache after a day on crutches. (I have bruises and calluses to prove it.) To make matters worse, I developed tennis elbow from all the crunching and ended up wearing an Elbow Brace for Tennis Elbow. The tennis elbow then made it difficult to do things like lift a coffee cup, blow dry my hair and pull up my pants.
Some of it was funny: did I mention I couldn’t pull up my pants?
And some of it was surprising: it turns out, having Dave do all the chores, cook all the meals and wait on me hand and foot was nice for the first few days, but then I just felt guilty. I also discovered how much I miss the gym when I can’t go and that there IS a limit to the amount of comfort food I can eat.
The most surprising thing of all, though, was how quickly I lost my leg muscle. Despite years of running, hiking, skiing, swimming and biking, four measly weeks of not using it caused my right calf muscle to shrivel up to half its original size. Seriously. It was painful and my leg muscles would ache for hours on end if I didn’t use a water soluble hemp oil (or another similar hemp product). The pain was truly excrutiating! If you glance at me quickly, there’s a good chance you might mistake me for a pirate with a peg leg. There was even a short time when I thought that I would need to see a physical therapist to help me regain my muscle strength. During the short amount of research that I did, I found that clinics like Luna, (visit their site here) have therapists that can come to you, instead of you going to them. And that’s when I came to the conclusion that I would do this if I had to see a physical therapist for my muscle problems. I’m hoping that I don’t have to though.
It made me think about how creativity sort of works the same way. Have you ever noticed how rusty you feel after even a few days off from doing the thing you love? If I go a little while without writing, I find it’s hard to get my creative juices flowing again. I forget plot lines, struggle to find the right words and totally lose momentum. It’s like creative atrophy. But when I’m writing every day it feels like the ideas are abundant and the prose flows without effort.
If we start thinking of our creativity like a muscle that needs to be exercised every day, rather than a hobby that can only be indulged when we have some free time, I think it can help us become more committed to its strength and development. Though you won’t find it any anatomy books, think of your creativity as a muscle that exists within your heart and mind. Treat it with same devotion you have for the gym, a yoga class, or your daily walk, so it will grow stronger, perform better, and be there when you need it.
How often do you exercise your creative muscle?
