Create more, consume less

We forget the power in our hands

I read a great piece by the bestselling author Jojo Moyes last week about why she writes. It explains very well, I think, why so many of us are drawn to writing - how it helps us make sense of both the world around us and of our own thoughts. Jojo almost has no choice but to write. Without it, she wouldn’t be able to process what’s going on in her brain. I nodded along as I read the piece, feeling as though she articulated my own reasons for writing perfectly. Writing something down gets it out of my head, taking something jumbled and tentative and making it both clearer and somehow - just by virtue of it now existing in the physical world - real.

There’s another aspect to this I think. One which has nothing to do with the words being written and much more to do with the creating of something - anything - with your own hands. Six years I wrote a book about running and how it helped my mental health (it’s called Jog On if you’re interested in those things). At the time, I was convinced that exercise was the magic solution to my fretful head, and I set about trying to convert people with the zeal of a multi level marketer who doesn’t fully understand she’s part of a pyramid scheme. I still wholeheartedly believe in the powers of movement in helping alleviate anxiety but I also realise there was more to it, and it’s the same thing I get from writing.

Create more, consume less. I read this somewhere last year when I was trying to curb my seemingly endless need to buy things and it got stuck in my head. So much of our lives revolve around consumption - shopping, TV, TikTok etc. It’s not an individual fault - the system is designed to make this difficult (read: almost impossible) to resist - but it’s never a long term solution to the itch you’re trying to scratch, is it? You buy yourself a little treat because you’re feeling some emotion you think warrants it. You mindlessly scroll Reddit because you want to step away from your own life for a minute. And it works, that’s why we continue to do these things. But it doesn’t work for long - that’s why you keep consuming, hoping for the hit of dopamine you’re being promised.