The HARMONY™ Mindset: 7 Essential Traits to Avoid Creative Burnout 🔥
When your art becomes your work, it is very easy to lose your balance or fall out of love with your art.
As a former percussionist turned sound healing artist and holistic mindset coach, I know firsthand how challenging it can be to maintain balance when your art becomes your work. When the line between passion and profession blurs, it’s easy to lose yourself in the grind and fall out of harmony.
The passion that once fueled you gets eclipsed by the grind of gigs, rehearsals, teaching, networking, and the neverending hustle of being a working artist. Before you know it, you’ve lost the harmony between your work, life, and art. If left unbalanced for too long, you risk experiencing burnout.
I’ve spent nearly a decade operating at burnout levels, so you could say I’m somewhat of an expert on burnout (0/10 do NOT recommend). Let me walk you through my journey.
When I returned to university to complete my music and psychology degrees, my schedule was grueling. As a performance major, I spent 14 hours a day on campus. After a severe nerve injury in my left arm forced me to drop my performance degree to a Bachelor of Arts, I took on a full-time job working in psychiatric acute care while still maintaining a full course load.
By the time I completed my dual degree requirements in 2019, I was completely burnt out on both the music and psych industries. So, I pivoted to a job working for the Facebook marketing expert program and then transitioned to freelance work as a marketing operations specialist in late 2019, despite having no prior experience in the field. I dedicated 10–15 hours a day teaching myself the art of marketing automation, email marketing, and CRM configuration to best serve the SMB clients I worked with.
Then, 2020 happened, and as a society, most of us reached unprecedented levels of emotional and social exhaustion due to the stress of the worldwide pandemic. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the lucky ones who avoided contracting COVID-19.
In late 2021, I caught the Delta variant, which was one of the worst strains of the virus at the time. I became extremely ill, unable to eat or drink with a temperature over 102°F for weeks, experiencing extreme fever dreams and hallucinations until I was hospitalized. Even after “recovering” after two months, I remained perpetually exhausted and experienced long COVID symptoms for another year, including severe hair loss. It took two years for my hair to grow back to its former length, but it will never be as thick as it once was. I still struggle with diminished lung capacity to this day.
After pivoting to Notion and digital ops consulting in 2022, I spent my time helping creative businesses with their virtual operations. But the more time I spent working to build other people’s businesses, the less time I spent creating, until I hit the burnout wall HARD in December 2023. I couldn’t function and barely had the energy to get out of bed for the first few months of the new year. I had finally hit the end of my capacity to operate at burnout. I needed a change.
I wanted to mend my creative soul and find my spark again, so I turned to sound healing and personal development. Over the course of the past few months, I’ve finally started replenishing my creative well and I’m prioritizing time to take care of my mind, body, and soul. Now, I want to share the method I’ve developed to recover from my creative burnout and prevent it from happening again in the future.
Introducing: The HARMONY™ Mindset, a symphony of seven pillars to create alignment between your work, life, and artistic expression.
H — Habits 🕰️
The foundation of harmony begins with habit. Just as musicians practice scales and arpeggios, cultivating positive routines is essential for creative longevity.
Identify the habits that ground you and make space for them daily, whether it’s morning meditation, an evening journal ritual, or hitting the gym to clear your head. These rituals act as your tuning fork, ensuring you start each day in tune with yourself.
A — Authenticity 💯
Staying true to your authentic self as an artist is integral. It’s tempting to conform to trends or outside expectations, but that path leads to creative dissonance.
Don’t be afraid to boldly express your unique perspectives and experiences through your art. Vulnerability resonates far more than fabricated personas. By operating with radical authenticity, you’ll forge an unbreakable connection with your work and your audience.
R — Resilience 💪
Let’s get real — the creative journey has its share of dissonant chords. Rejection, criticism, and creative blocks will inevitably rear their ugly heads.That’s why resilience is a must. Develop a zen-like ability to let setbacks roll off your back and maintain your artistic rhythm.
Strengthen your resilience muscle through practices like positive self-talk, celebrating small wins, and seeking out pro support when needed. Remember, every successful musician has endured their share of rejection, criticism, and setbacks — it’s how you push through them that matters.
M — Mindfulness 🧘
It’s so easy to get swept up in the daily grind and endless “noise.” Mindfulness helps you stay present, focused, and tapped into your inner well of creativity.
Take intentional pauses throughout your day to ground yourself in the moment. Use mindfulness practices like breathwork, journaling, or simply anchoring your awareness in your senses. This mindful presence allows you to imbue every aspect of your life and work with purposeful artistry.
O — Openness 🤗
They say variety is the spice of life, and the same rings true for our creative endeavors. An open spirit and beginners mindset prevents us from getting trapped in creative ruts.
A growth mindset and openness to new experiences prevents stagnation. Actively seek out new experiences, perspectives, and artistic influences. Collaborate with creatives across different disciplines. Don’t be afraid to take artistic risks and veer outside your comfort zone. You never know where your next big creative breakthrough will come from!
N — Nourishment 🥗
Don’t neglect your instrument! As creative beings, our minds and bodies require attentive nourishment to operate at their highest frequencies.
Prioritize a nutritious diet, quality sleep, physical movement, and other self-care practices. When you’re firing on all cylinders, your creative clarity, stamina, and inspiration flow with greater ease. Your artistry is a reflection of how vividly you choose to live.
Y — WHY ❓
My final nugget of wisdom: Never lose sight of your “why” — the profound reason you chose to devote your life to your artistic pursuit.
Perhaps it’s to impact others through your work, to unearth deeper truths, or to experience the sublime joy of creative expression. Whatever YOUR why, revisit it often. Let it be your north star, guiding you back to harmony when you’ve drifted off-key.
Are you thriving or just surviving?
It’s time to tend to the fundamental force that breathes life into all your creative work — an inspired, resilient and unshakeable mindset. Step into your most courageous, creatively liberated self with my FREE 7-day HARMONY™ email course.
Over 7 thought-provoking emails, we’ll dive deeper into cultivating the essential mindset traits that allow truly resilient artists to flourish amid the inevitable creative ebbs and flows.
Each insight-packed email will share potent mindset shifts, psychology hacks and habits to transform how you approach your creative process and artistic career from the inside-out.
You’ll walk away with a refreshed appreciation for your singular gifts, actionable tools for igniting productivity and innovative inspiration, and the mindset mastery to embrace every up and stumbling block as fuel for your fullest expression.
Plus, each email includes simple “Take Action” prompts to make these artistic mindset principles immediately applicable and sustainable for your life.
Sign up now for this free 7-part email masterclass to rekindle your artistic fire.
When you bring your whole self into harmony through the HARMONY™ Mindset, you’ll not only prevent burnout but thrive as an artist. You’ll be more creative, focused, resilient and joyful in your work. 🎉
It’s not always easy, but making your self-care and mindset training a priority allows you to show up as your best creative self day after day. Trust me, your future self will thank you!
So keep working on finding that elusive work-life-art balance.
Just remember — when you veer off-course, you can always revisit the HARMONY™ Mindset to get realigned. One quarter note at a time, you’ve got this!
Trust the process, embrace authenticity, and never abandon the song of your soul. With this approach, creative burnout doesn’t stand a chance!
👋🏼 Tasia is a classically trained percussionist turned Notion Certified Consultant at Rhythm Productive, where she helps the creative arts streamline their digital operations with Notion and supporting tools.
Tasia shares her love of music through her sound healing studio, Harmonic Vibes. 🎶💜🎶
She’s also passionate about teaching musicians and creatives how to embrace productivity for a better work-life-art balance through her newsletter, YouTube channel, and community.
