Creative ADHD

There I am, busy as can be creating away, maybe even humming a tune to myself as I work, when all of a sudden it hits. That feeling that starts as a little tickle in the back of my brain and quickly grows louder, more insistent – “Hurry up! Get this part done! The next part is going to  be even better! Especially if you do this…or maybe this…or how about this?! Glitter! Sparkles! Happy Dancing Squirrels!!!”

Do you ever feel that way? Okay, maybe you don’t go into the glitter, sparkles, dancing squirrels part (you probably think cuddly foxes or dandy owls or something, right?), but it’s that really distracting, over-thinking part that I’m really talking about here. That feeling of wanting to be done with what you’re currently doing and doing the next part, or finishing up and starting a new project. It’s not that you don’t love or aren’t interested with what you’re doing, it’s juts that there is so much you want to do and be doing that you can get restless and overexcited about what’s coming next. It’s what I call Creative ADHD. Now, of course, ADHD is a real and true issue (one I actually have been naturally dealing with my whole life) but Creative ADHD can hit and affect us all at one time or another. Case in point, the current October stitch-a-long.

As you can see, I’m over half-way done with my embroidery. I am loving how it’s turning out and I really do adore the embroidery part (seriously, I often find embroidery to be soothing and almost meditative) but with this project I’m super eager to get the embroidery done and move onto the next part, which will complete the piece and let me display it. I keep finding myself rushing and instead of focusing on what’s in front of me I keep thinking ahead. It’s lead to several picked-out stitches and more than a little bit of frustration (and yeah, I’ve only been working on the embroidery part since Monday, in fits and starts, so it’s like “Girl, slow it down!”).

I do this with a lot of my projects and if I don’t stop and refocus myself, it can cause drama and make something I truly love into a nightmare. I have found that meditation helps a ton, as does tackling only one or two projects at a time (multitasking just causes more mind clutter). Of course, I can’t say that it’s truly a bad thing to have so much inspiration and desire to create, it just helps if I don’t go into hyper overdrive and crash. Does anyone else deal with this sort of thing when it comes to creating? Do you ever get restless, unfocused and maybe even a little sloppy at times? What do you do to turn what could be a negative into a positive and refocus your creative energy?

Here’s to conscious, engaging creativity and no frantic, sloppy mistakes!

Namaste ~ Ella