Avoiding Art Burnout

Avoiding art burnout (or burnout of any kind) is crucial, especially if you’re making a living off of what you do. Falling into a full-blown burnout can disrupt more than your flow. It can affect your health and your means of income.

But first, let’s identify what burnout is and list some of the signs associated with burnout. According to an article from Eastern Washington University (EWU), “burnout develops as a result of chronic exposure to stress as a result of a long-term perceived inability to meet situational demands.”

Avoiding art burnout is crucial for physical and mental health. (Photo Credit: 123RF.com Image ID: 121093411 Copyright: vejaa)

As a professional artist, or even an art student, demands and deadlines can introduce stress factors that take its toll mentally and physically.

According to the same EWU article, some symptoms might include (but are not limited to):

• Physical

• • Feeling tired most of the time
  • Lowered immunity
  • Frequent headaches, back pain, or muscle aches
  • Change in appetite or sleep habits

• Emotional

• • Self-doubt
  • Feeling helpless and hopeless
  • Detachment
  • Decreased motivation
  • Increasingly negative outlook
  • Decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment

• Behavior

• • Withdrawing from responsibilities
  • Isolation
  • Procrastination
  • Using food, drugs, or alcohol to cope
  • Taking out frustration on others
  • Skipping class/work – or coming in late or leaving early

I’ll be the first to admit to experiencing more than a handful of those symptoms. They’re not fun and the symptoms themselves lead to even more frustration and hardship. They can even become cyclical, feeding back into itself.

So, how do you go about avoiding burnout in the first place?

The EWU article suggests the following:

• Exercise regularly
• Eat a well-balanced, healthy diet
• Get enough sleep
• Regular work breaks

• Meditation
• Self-care/pampering

These suggestions are necessary for both mental and physical health no matter what you do for a living. But when it comes to avoiding art burnout, you might also try incorporating these two:

• Art breaks
  Unlike a regular work break, this type of break involves taking a break from art. Just step away from it for awhile. The trick is setting a very specific time frame here. You don’t want your break to stretch on indefinitely. We all take days off from work every now and then, or even a one or two week vacation. If you’re a professional artist, this is probably even more crucial.

  At a regular 9 to 5, you most likely don’t have to worry about all the background office operations like marketing, billing, inventory, packaging, shipping, accounting, payroll, etc. But as a self-employed artist, you’re responsible for everything.

  At some regular jobs, it’s likely that you have health coverage, paid sick time and vacation time. As an entrepreneur, you don’t. So it’s very important to take regularly scheduled time off. For example, you may have to finagle time and savings so that you can take a real vacation. And at the very least, you can make sure that you take weekends off just like you would at a regular job.

• Try something new
  If you’re a professional artist, you likely specialize in one type of artwork. In this case, you might consider doing some type of art that is completely different from what you normally do. Learning something new or working with a new medium, can open your mind back up to that childlike sense of exploration that is anything BUT stressful. It’s enough to break up the daily stress and monotony of your usual schedule. It gives your brain a fresh new track to travel apart from your regular day in, day out routine. The main goal here is to make art fun again and turn it back into play rather than work.

So, first and foremost please make sure you’re taking care of yourself. No matter what your career or passion project is, if you’re in poor health, it will become an obstacle sooner or later. But sometimes we still need to take measures to avoid burning out on the thing we love most…art!

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