What to do when you can't sleep?

Blog, of course!

It's the "most wonderful time of the year" especially if you are a worship desigener and church musician. The season is filled with possibilities for thin places, sacred moments and ritual beauty. It is also a season filled with overflowing to-do lists and massive stress brought on by a lack of time and resources, unreachable expectations and church and family committments. 

No doubt you have experienced all of this as well.

How do we stay engaged, stay excited, not get overwhelmed and not lose our fire as artists during times such as these?

This question is one I'm working on in my subconsicous at the moment as I've been up, unable to sleep, since 3:00 am this morning. Who needs more than three hours of sleep a night, anyway?!?!

I'm answering the question, today, at least, with knocking out administrative tasks so that when I get fresher, mentally, I will be able to work on score study and design issues with a less-cluttered mind. Since I'm struggling to get back to sleep, I'm about to head to the gym to burn-off some stress while burning-off some calories. Later today I will be connecting over lunch with a dear friend and fellow artist and I'm going to do my best to not let the conversation devolve into complaining. I'm also working on general mental toughness!  Finally, I'm holding on to those quite moments of the season and working on being grateful for every moment.

How about you?