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Monday, September 6, 2010

Where Did My Creativity Go?

Single Water Lily  by Ann Fahl
 Two weeks ago I made a discovery that will make a big difference in the quality of my life. I would prefer not to share personal details of my life with the world, but you may find this worthwhile.

For quite some time I have not had any creative energy. It seemed that maybe I had come to the end of my quilt designing career!  Creative block has happened to me before, but never lasted longer than a few months. As I wrote in my book Dancing with Thread, I mentioned that my creative juices are higher at some times of the year than others. But right now is the time that I should be very creative and I'm not!

For years I've walked every morning 5 days a week. Lately it's been hard to get up early, so I've started walking after dinner. Some days I don't walk at all. I can go on and on with little clues that have been there, but I didn't interpret. Three weeks ago at my annual checkup I mentioned that I thought my hair was thinning.

My blood tests came back, and my thyroid is quite low. My mother and grandmother also had hypothyroidism, but it happened much earlier in life for them. So now I've begun taking medication to raise my levels. Suddenly all the little pieces have fallen into place. When a person has limited energy, of course creative thoughts and activities would be the first to go. I am anxious for my body to come back into balance again. As active men and women, sometimes we need to pay attention to the clues our bodies and energy levels are giving us. When we are young we expect to always be healthy. But......we are getting older each day! To be healthy productive artists we have to pay attention to the clues and nurture our bodies and our spirits. I guess I needed to be hit over the head with it!

After just 2 weeks of the medication, I've begun to feel more and more like myself. Ideas have just started to come again after 6-9 months of nothing. I'm working in my garden again, oh it feels so good.

Here is a link about hypothyroidism that you may find helpful.



Be healthy
Ann

5 comments:

Sally said...

Thank you for posting about your health situation. Reminds us all to have regular check-ups. And glad to see your creativity is coming back. It's always a delight to see what you've been doing.

tmstewart said...

Hi Anne,
I'm happy to hear you're back to your old self and that you figured out what the problem was.

Allie said...

Thank you so much for sharing this - so glad you were able to get help for it! I have fibro and I know when I'm not good to my body, my mind pays for it. Good post!

TerryKnott.blogspot.com said...

Anne, what a simple fix that was! I'm glad to hear that your creative juices are flowing again.

Rosalind said...

It is a wonderful feeling when the fog and lethargy start lifting isn't it? I Have same problem so totally empathise.You will feel even better next week.
Keep well!
:o)