You are such a wonderful human being @CathyTea <3 Thank you for setting this up, I cannot imagine the community here without you! <3
Regarding feeling slowed down and restricted:
I think the most important thing is to not try to fight it and listen to your energy flows. From what I've read, you're more in tune with that then most, which means you've already got a head start!
We have it tough, since we're constantly trying to battle two restrictions - the external ones (such as work projects and other real life responsibilities that carve away from our time and creative energy) and the internal ones, when inspiration is generally at a low. When those two meet, which happens often to those of us with busy lifestyles, it's important to embrace it. Don't beat yourself up. You need rest to become refreshed again.
I went to a spinning class the other day and the instructor had some surprisingly insightful advice. Towards the end of the class, he made us alternate between 10 seconds of very high intensity exercise, where you were going really fast and at a really high strength setting, and 50 seconds rest, when you were either going slowly or just stopped altogether. He said the idea of these quick bursts from a spinning perspective was to increase our stamina, but that he felt it was an important reminder for today's lifestyle too; that people often think they need to go at a 100% all the time, but rest is needed and not something you should feel guilty about. Allowing yourself to have that time to recoup is the only way you can give it your all when the next burst of high intensity comes along.
