You cannot endlessly grow crops out of the same field and expect the same harvest every year. Every once in a while you need to let the dirt rest before you try to grow again. You need to let the field go fallow.

This metaphor is one that a lot of creatives reach for when they try to describe the creative process, and it’s a good one; art comes from bodies. Human bodies. Bodies that need understanding and care in order to create. Bodies that, like fields, can produce abundant harvests of new, vibrant art – if you tend them well.

There are at least four human seasons of creativity – possibly more. These four are the ones that I have the most intimate experience with. You might not be familiar with these particular seasons or this description of the creative process – I’m not including “sharing” (connection with community or an audience), for example, because sharing is fun, but not a necessary part of artistic creation – instead, these four seasons model the fundamentals of making art as a human being. I will be referring to them as seasons of experience, reflection, creation, and rest.

The first season, important but often overlooked, is the season of experience. These are the moments in which we are living, putting ourselves out in the world and creating the stories of our lives. Without a season of experience we would have no art to make. When we deny ourselves seasons of experience our work often becomes repetitive and stale, locked into old ideas and styles.

Next come the seasons of reflection. Sometimes we try to skip this step and get right into creation, but without reflection our experiences don’t develop into meaningful insights. It’s important to give ourselves time to think and feel – for a variety of reasons – but I’m sticking to creativity in this essay. This stage of self-reflection is where truly exciting art frequently begins to be made. Where inspiration comes. The more honest you are with yourself at this point, the more authentic your work will come across later on.

After the seasons of reflection come the seasons of creation; these are the moments when we create our art. When we take our reflections and give ourselves enough time to focus and devote ourselves to a season of creation, we often begin to experiment and play, uncovering new creative breakthroughs and innovations along the way. Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of time at your disposal – even small moments of creation can provide incredible insights – please don’t let a lack of time dissuade you! Providing yourself with the time and space to create is always a gift.

Finally there are the seasons of rest. These are the moments when you let the creative fields go fallow and focus on healing and replenishing yourself. When we skip these seasons, things tend to get very bad. Rest deprivation can lead to burnout, and nobody likes that. During seasons of rest I believe in putting your tools down and listening to your body’s needs. Water yourself; what do you do in order to feel like you? Where do you go? What kind of sleep do you need? What kind of nourishment? I find these questions helpful when I’m in a resting season.

I use the word “seasons” even though the length of time that’s devoted to each period is very undefined. Sometimes a season of rest might require several days or even months to complete. On the other hand a good day might include a few or even all four seasons. And there is no universal standard here – what’s right for one person might be very unbalanced for another – which is to say that there is no “correct” way to rest, or experience, or reflect, or create. But I believe that we all need regular periods of rest in order to have a good season of experience, let alone a season of creation. And when we push ourselves to unbalanced extremes, we stop being able to make the art we want to make.

Far better to learn what our bodies need, and work with them, then to pretend we don’t need our bodies to make art.

If you are weary, let your field grow fallow. Don’t worry – you’ve still got plenty of stuff going on underneath the surface of all that dirt <3