Tired All The Time? Try Creative Rest

Music, comedy and joyfulness

Author

Sara Hamdan
May 28, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Whenever I catch up with my girlfriends, there’s a recurring theme. We are tiiiired.

We work hard, take care of dem kids, and actively exercise / rest / meditate, but none of it feels restorative. I’ve been reading up on the 7 different types of rest and there’s one we may have been neglecting: creative rest.

It’s so easy to get sucked into hustle culture. After a lifetime of getting the best grades, climbing the slippery corporate ladder, then having kids… making time for play feels… frivolous. Unusual. Selfish, even. I love playing music, but who has time for that?!

The reality is that playtime with others releases stress, adds variety to life, and actually helps build skills more quickly. It’s fun and it’s necessary.

So here I am at my second-ever drums class, the day I decided to move on from my stressful tech job and embrace my new #authorlife. My hair is messy and I’m concentrating way too hard, but I loved it!

My girlfriends also vowed to try something new in the name of ‘creative rest’ and report back: attending a spicy food tour in Dubai’s old town, learning how to sew dress patterns, mastering a chocolate chip cookie recipe… the stress of tending to house, work and the surprises life throws our way will never end, so we want to find a way to bring back some much-needed joy. You in?

What do you like to do for fun? 🎵🎤

Read: Music for the Soul

Music and comedy have always made me feel good. It’s no surprise that I drew on these influences when developing the main characters of my upcoming debut novel, What Will People Think? - a standup comedian named Mia and a jazz singer named Phaedra. The building where they live is housing for Juilliard, the elite music school in New York City. So, I wanted to share two fantastic reads with music as a main character.

Non-fiction: This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin

Non-fiction book pick of the week

Did you know that when women ovulate, they are more attracted to musicians than bankers? And that playing and listening to music coordinates more disparate parts of the brain than any other activity? This clever book is written by a rock musician-turned-neuroscientist and will blow your mind.

Fiction: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

Fiction book pick

Fiction book pick of the week

You may have seen the movie version that showcases the always-stunning Penelope Cruz and the worst Italian accent ever by Nicolas Cage. In the novel version of this sultry romance set on a Greek Ionian island, the writing itself is so musical. Look at these melodic sentences:

“Symmetry is only a property of dead things. Did you ever see a tree or a mountain that was symmetrical? It’s fine for buildings, but if you ever see a symmetrical human face, you will have the impression that you ought to think it beautiful, but that in fact you find it cold. The human heart likes a little disorder in its geometry, Kyria Pelagia. Look at your face in a mirror, Signorina, and you will see that one eyebrow is a little higher than the other, that the set of the lid of your left eye is such that the eye is a fraction more open than the other. It is these things that make you both attractive and beautiful, whereas… otherwise you would be a statue. Symmetry is for God, not for us.”
― Louis de Bernières, Corelli’s Mandolin

Write: Start Off By Warming Up

“You’re a writer? Wow, I would hate that. Takes me forever to get started and when I do, I can’t figure out what to say. I’m team ChatGPT!”

The number of times I have heard this…

The truth is that writing, like most almost anything of value, is hard. It’s not always a joyous state of flow. But when it’s good, it feels like the best song in the world playing directly to your heart. (ChatGPT doesn’t have a heart, so humans will always be better storytellers. Right?!).

When I feel overwhelmed with a writing task (i.e. it’s a boring work thing or it’s a scene in a novel that makes me pour over every single word painstakingly), I start by just free-flow writing something else. Sometimes it’s a nonsense poem or song lyrics, sometimes it’s a journal entry of what I did the day before.

Getting in the act of writing makes it easier to get started, almost like a warm-up. It doesn’t have to be good or have a purpose. So here’s the piece of 💩 song I wrote this morning before starting this section:

Run down

Down and out

Out of sorts

Sorta tired

Now inspired

I’m not a liar

Now I’m wired

This post will be fire 🔥

- This will come back to haunt me one day

Travel: Comedy in Abu Dhabi

We went to a Dave Chappelle standup show as part of Abu Dhabi Comedy Week along with 13,000 other fans - he made history with the largest Mideast comedy show to date:

While I found his set to be a little… mellow?… it was still thrilling to be in the presence of so many cheering fans. He brought the house down when he gave a lil love to Palestine!

My love for comedy (and comedy writing) goes way back. My college roommate was a comedian and still performs on the side of her day job as a lawyer. My first New York Times story was about the rise of standup comedy in the Mideast… and I ended up interviewing the man who would become my hubby!! The main character in my novel is a standup comedian. It’s a beautiful art form that allows you to speak truth and put people at ease (or make them cringe when it’s bad - but it always makes you feel something :D).

My fave Dubai-based comedian is Emirati Abz Ali - follow his insta for upcoming shows!

Here’s a roundup of cool happenings in the region and random things from the Internet that entertained me:

Countdown to Publication Day:

Timer from emailcountdowntimer.com

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

With kindness,

Sara