Because I, and many of us, maybe all of us feel "meh" a lot in the face of responsibility. You can love your job very much, have it be the perfect fit for you and still feel like doing nothing when you wake up.
So how do I get over the malaise and do it anyway? How do I output creatively when I feel empty?
Because I, and many of us, maybe all of us feel "meh" a lot in the face of responsibility. You can love your job very much, have it be the perfect fit for you and still feel like doing nothing when you wake up.
So how do I get over the malaise and do it anyway? How do I output creatively when I feel empty?
what if you don't feel like it? Hello darlings, this is Micah R riot, back with another episode of ink medicine podcast. I was thinking about those taglines that people have on their podcasts and I was thinking something along the lines of like Ink Medicine, a podcast about being human and we look at that humanity through the lens of tattoos. Ink Medicine, a podcast where we learn about the wide scope of being human through the lens of body art. Let me know what you think. I think I need a tagline to sound more profesh. You know I always want to sound more profesh.
Micah Riot:
Speaking of being profesh, I am a couple weeks behind on this episode and that's precisely because I didn't feel like it. The theme of this here episode, and that's okay. You know, I spent last year feeling like I had to release an episode every single week and also like I had to do in every other episode, solo and an interview, and it was great for me to have a specific goal in my format and this year I've really approached it as I as an exercise in do I have something to say? Do I have the mental space and have? Most weeks I have and some weeks I haven't, as I think you know. I've talked about this, I believe, on the pod before I have PMDD, which really means that my energy fluctuates and my focus also fluctuates throughout the month, and so about half the month I feel pretty good and the other half I feel very low, like low motivation and low energy. So and given everything that's happening in the world, how globally depressed we are and how just energetically low and it's summer, so it's warm that also has an effect on me Like the heat makes me feel like complete, you know, puddle on the floor, like I don't want to do anything. So, given all of that, I am, you know, a lower production. Also, we my partner and I signed up for the clay studio again, so we're coming home every week with like an armload of useless little pieces of pottery. So lots of my friends are getting little bits of pottery here and there as gifts. So there's that Liz is getting amazing at the wheel. The wheel, if you don't know, in pottery it's the thing that you like throw the clay onto and then, as it goes around and around, you can shape it to become a mug or a bowl, and Liz is amazing at it, like she's really, really. In the last month or so she's she's been like she's real profesh now. These days she really has control of the clay. It's pretty cool to watch and makes me happy, because it makes her happy.
Micah Riot:
Next week is my Chicago trip. I am fully booked. I have five days of the six that I'll be in Chicago. I'm working and they are booked days. I have a client each day. They're bigger pieces. I'll probably take me. I'll be tattooing like three to four hours each day, which you know I don't do that here. I do rarely. I rarely work five days in a row here, like when I do I feel dead. So we'll see.
Micah Riot:
I think being in a new city will give me energy. I will not have to, like, come home and, you know, straighten up the house and make sure the dog is doing good and all that. So perhaps some of my energy will be freed up and I'll feel not, um, not exhausted by that schedule. Otherwise, you know I'm I'm excited. I'm excited to go to that shop, tattoo those folks, um, see some friends. It's, uh, yeah, very exciting, kind of my main trip of the summer. So it is my little working vacation.
Micah Riot:
And now for the theme of this episode. What if I don't feel like it? There are many mornings when I wake up and the last thing I want to do is have responsibilities, and you probably feel similar. I think being an adult is like that it never ends, there's never a break. There's always something you have to do and sometimes you just don't feel like it. So what do I do when that happens? Well, I do it anyway. I eat my breakfast, which is the same Basically every morning. I have vegetables, which is usually kale, radicchio and mushrooms, I have two eggs and I have a piece of toast, sometimes with cheese, and that's my breakfast every morning. And it helps.
Micah Riot:
You know. You get up, you wake up, you like start doing your routine drink your water, eat your breakfast, brush your teeth, take a shower, and you feel a little bit more ready to go. You know, a lot of days my work doesn't start till two, so my morning is my routine, and then I go to the gym for a class, I take a CrossFit class, and then I come home and quickly like shower, change, eat and go, and so by that time I'm usually feeling better. But of course, you know there are absolutely days when I get into the shop and I'm still kind of like meh, and you know, caffeine is my next step to try. That can help me feel more peppy and ready. And if that doesn't work either, you know what does, what always does, what's never failed is actually working.
Micah Riot:
So when I have that person in front of me and that person is excited and that person deserves my best, like every single person that comes through my doors that gets onto my workbench, is a person that deserves my very best. And yes, my very best will vary from day to day, and some days what's required of me is a lot of output, like you know, creative output, where I have to really think about what it is, um, or really feel into what it is that you know, I want to create on the person. Like there's nothing there and I have to create something. It has to be cool, and that's one of the kinds of days that I have. And I have days where I'm just like working on what's already there, so I'm just progressing, like, say, I'm filling in flower colors, or I am like I know what's gonna happen, like it's not something that I have to like make up out of my head that we have an image. You know, we have line work ready to go. So if I have to have a great output, energetically and creatively.
Micah Riot:
What I do is I connect to my client and I feel their excitement and I feel what you know. I try to feel where they're at. And then, when I see their skin and I take a pen into my hand and I feel what you know. I try to feel where they're at. And then, when I see their skin and I take a pen into my hand and I start to make lines across it with my pen, it like whatever I'm coming in with, whatever has happened to me that day. However, I woke up, it just fades into the background and I become present with the skin in front of me, with the person in front of me, and I become present with the skin in front of me, with the person in front of me, with the pen in my hand, and as I draw on their skin, some things start to feel right and some things don't, and so maybe I'll erase it, start over, maybe I'll have them go to the mirror and look and as they get excited, that excitement fills me, and as they get excited, I feel more excited, and so my energy comes up. You know, it raises the conversation with them, takes me out of my head, the like you know, the holding of space, helping them with the pain or with. You know their comfort as I attend to them.
Micah Riot:
Whatever's happening for me is in the background. I don't feel it all that acutely, and so that is how I'm able to do my work, even if I don't feel it all that acutely, and so that is how I'm able to do my work, even if I don't feel like it that day. The person is really, really helpful, which I think is why I'm much better at working like one-on-one, face-to-face. Like I could not be a graphic designer sitting at home on my computer like trying to design a thing. I just don't know where I would get inspiration. It's also why I don't really draw very much on paper for people for their designs, like that's why I need the body in the room with me. That person it's uh, it's precisely why and the same thing happens if I'm not designing on their skin that day, if what I have to do is keep filling the lines we have or adding maybe something floral that you know is pretty straightforward, or a bird, or something you know where I have a stencil. It's the same kind of thing tuning into their energy and their excitement and their day and what's going on for them. Really focusing on them and holding that space for them is the thing that helps me be present and do my work and not feel whatever malaise I've been feeling earlier that day. And that's also why, basically the second the person leaves and I say goodbye, all peppy, like, okay, have a good day, drive safe. I hope your healing goes well.
Micah Riot:
I basically sit down on the couch and can't get up. Oftentimes I'll sit there on the couch, maybe trying to make a post for social media or just scrolling, just kind of resting. Sometimes it's really hard for me to get up out of that couch, clean up my station and then go home. Um, that's why sailors really good for that too. I love it when they're in the shop and they like their. Their energy also keeps my energy up. So if I'm there alone I'm just like meh, and if they're there it's not so bad. So that's how that happens. It's a short, cute little episode for you. Um, I have a really beautiful interview with a client slash friend of mine, which is pretty heavy, and I'll be releasing that maybe next week. Um, we shall see, but I really appreciate you being here really appreciate, appreciate you listening and I hope that this episode made you smile and I will talk to you very soon. You.
