"what if the creative self-expression IS the burnout though?"
I had to deal with this recently after years of labouring on a manuscript and stressing about criticism and backlash (because writers get loads of negative attention now) and had to basically drop this project and not write for several weeks because that was causing the burnout.
I floundered for a while.
I figured making things with my hands was probably good. As was learning things and exploring new stories by watching movies I'd never seen before, learning about parts of movie history I had never known--found some really good documentaries on exploitation films, 80s horror, nudity and censorship in film, drive-ins--and generally just trying to take a vacation from my profession--which, I realise now, I have never done before in all my 20+ years of writing.
I think the solution to burnout is a vacation. A real vacation. A leave-your-phone-behind, don't-post-about-it vacation. Even a weekend would help. If you can go somewhere else for a weekend, do it. If you can't, well, put your phone away and go to the movies, or just watch an old movie at home. If you can walk, go on a walk around your neighbourhood and explore like you might have if you were a kid. Ride bikes. Roll in the grass at a park. Go to the thrift store and find something you can fix up or decorate and make it yours--we found a little bookcase and painted stripes on it and now it holds all our board games, as an example. If you have a yard, go mess around with it. If you don't, find some containers and put dirt and flower seeds in them--even dandelion seeds, which are free and everywhere! Draw on the wallpaper with sharpies, or get some acrylic paint from the craft store and paint an old bedsheet and hang it up if you rent.
Engage with the world that materially exists and do something that only benefits you, that only you know about--don't post about it! Try not posting about your life for a while, not scrolling. Put the phone down and change your environment a little.
I started really throwing myself into this lately, and it helps.
I think burnout is talked about like some big scary monster that can't be solved by regular people suffering it (because who the fuck has the money to do nothing for YEARS on end???). But I truly think burnout is just what happens when you don't take a vacation regularly.
You don't need a lot of money to take a vacation, you can do it with your regular days off. My mom used to take us on random vacations on weekends. She didn't know where we were going, we just started driving and she would keep turning toward things that were interesting to look at, until we were in Solvang or Idyllwild or somewhere and she would see a neat little motel and we'd stop and stay there for saturday night, and on sunday we'd wander around and go places that looked interesting in that little spot, and then go back home. This was back when gas and motels were a lil cheaper, but the idea is you don't have to plan a vacation and it doesn't have to be very long to be good and fun.
Shake out of your routine of drudgery and play. That, in my opinion, is the solution to burnout. Play. Humans are not meant to live lives without recess.
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