The black dog.
Churchill talked about it.
The black dog chases us all.
Some people it chases more than others.
It robs you of your peace and puts your head into a feedback loop of rumination.
It is depression. The only true enemy.
Churchill’s solution was to outrun “The Black Dog”.
He did so by writing.
I do it by painting.
It is why I work on many pieces at a time. I found that when I finish a project and don’t have something else in the works, That Black Dog will get me. Leading to weeks of bed rot and doom scrolling.
I like to imagine The Black Dog gnawing on the marrow of my soul during bed rot. Chipping away at hope and optimism. Through speculations and ruminations it molds you into something natural to the spirit. It’ll change who you are if you let it. Guilt, jealousy, anger and the rest of the emotional monsters are not far behind that Black Dog.
If you learn to recognize the signs of the dog, you can avoid the cycle. I’ve spent the last couple of years observing what causes the chase. What are the triggers. What I’ve boiled it down to is fear of the unknown. Then I studied what causes that fear. Being idle is a big factor. If I don’t have creative projects stacked, that dog will get me.
But, I found something else interesting too. The Black Dog’s favorite treat is gossip. Over a year ago I stopped entertaining gossip. I stopped feeding Flying Monkeys.
Flying Monkeys are people who probe for dirt on someone else’s behalf. They want your opinions about other people. Then they take it back to the gossip trough for itching ears to feed off of.
I have an empathetic ear. I use to listen to people “vent” and be supportive. But sometimes gossip disguises itself as venting. After I hear gossip it depleats creative resources. Instead of writing or painting, I’ll speculate and try to understand someone else’s situations. It chips away at the brain budget.
So I stopped listening to people who only discuss other people. For over a year I’ve changed the subject or walked away. If forced in a corner I’ll only say nice things about people who are not in the room.
This one little change has improved my mental health by leaps and bounds. And my body of work is a tangible representation of that. I’ve made so much awesome art this past year and became prolific.
I guard my brain budget. I view creativity as a token based system. When I wake up, I have X number of creative coins. When I pick out a T-shirt for the day, that cost a coin. When I decide what to eat it cost a coin. When someone ask for my opinion on someone else’s actions, it cost a coin.
This year I saved my creative coins for my art. If you think this is a silly theory I can rhetorically prove it to you. Look at the people in your feeds that gossip a lot. How often do they actually create something?
It appears they spend their creative tokens crafting narratives to drag others down. Instead of creating something for themselves.
Don’t let the Black Dog get cha
Be Excellent to Each Other.
