Busy Brain? Here’s How to Make Space for Joy This Summer

It’s August and here is how to make space for joy this summer! The best season of the year is way too short to do otherwise.

Ever notice how your brain always seems to have just one more thing it insists you handle before you can relax?

Answer that email.
Switch the laundry.
Figure out what to do with that weird bin of wires.
Save the world while you’re at it.

And then suddenly… it’s August.

If you’re like me (and many of the people inside MindSketch Lab), you’re not trying to waste the summer. You’re just trying to manage your responsibilities — and your brain makes it feel like joy is something you have to earn.

Did someone once tell us joy is a reward for productivity? I never saw that memo and yet I have felt like I have to earn the reward of time off. Bologna.

Moments of joy are my fuel for my nervous system. I carry these moments throughout my day. These moments protect me against feeling resentful and ripped-off.

Your mind might be lying to you.

When you’re mentally overloaded, your inner voice can start to sound like a bully:

• “You don’t have time for that.”
• “You haven’t done enough to take a break.”
• “There’s still too much to do — later, maybe.”
• “Who do you think you are, the queen?”

This mindset may make you feel responsible. But it’s actually what’s robbing you. I have used excuses in the past to avoid taking time off – until I came to find I am a work-a-holic. For me this means it is very important to take breaks from work.

When your brain is in this constant state of urgency rest feels indulgent. And joy? Joy feels like something for other people.

That’s a lie we don’t have to keep living.

If you are feeling like your brain is overloaded and you can’t afford to take a minute off try this 7 Day Starter Pack I put together.

This simple, creative toolkit helps you pause, reset, and move forward — one small prompt at a time.
It’s about tuning in, getting what’s inside out, and creating space for clarity, peace, and a few moments of joy.

The sneaky cost of skipping summer

The cost of blowing off summer isn’t always obvious at first. It sneaks up on you as:

• Resentment
• Disconnection from your body
• More scrolling and zoning out, but less actual rest
• That low-level bitterness that creeps in around mid-August

And then you find yourself snapping at people. Hating your routine. Fantasizing about quitting everything.

All because your mind convinced you there was never time to stop for an hour or two, or even 10 minutes.

So what I started to do several summers ago was blocking my two hours once or twice a week to do something summery. Often my choice was to grab a pup and hop in the kayak.

This was so worth it to me because after my adventure I contentedly shifted into productivity mode. I felt as though I had just returned from a vacation!

How to shift into summer energy — without quitting your life

You don’t have to cancel everything or pretend your responsibilities don’t exist. But you do need to decide that your joy and presence matter just as much as your to-do list.

Here are a few ways to support your brain in making that shift

Start each week by scheduling your “tiny joy” first.

Instead of starting with appointments, obligations, and deadlines, start by picking one small moment you want to claim:

• Sit in the sun for 10 minutes
• Watch the birds while you sip coffee
• Draw, write, or collage in silence
• Walk barefoot on the grass

Put it on the calendar. Let your brain see it as real.

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Interrupt the guilt spiral with clarity.

Check out the article I found in Pyschology Today 3 Ways to Take Back Your Power to Say No

Ask yourself:

•Will doing this thing I love actually harm anything? Or is my guilt just a habit?
•Most of the time, the guilt is leftover programming — not truth.

I certainly have nothing to feel guilty about if I take 10 minutes plus a day to find some sparkles of joy. The rest of my day is filled with my paying job, caring for pups and my home.

This is my life, not a dress rehearsal. If I don’t grab some joy now when will I?

Use creative practices to clear space internally.

When your mind is racing and you are feeling you have to much to do, it helps to get the chaos out of your head and onto paper.

I use an art journaling practice that includes neurographic art – while sitting in a comfy lounge chair on the sunny deck!

Try this:

• Draw a quick messy sketch of how your brain feels today
• Write one sentence: “What’s stealing my presence right now?”
• Follow with: “What could I allow instead?”

You don’t have to solve anything. You just have to see it more clearly.

Create Your First Neurographic Art Step-by-Step for Beginners is an article I wrote to walk you through the exercise I use art journaling.

Create a “Summer You” reminder.

This can be a sticky note, a photo, a scribble, or a single word.
Something visible that reminds you:
You are allowed to feel alive this season.
You are allowed to pause.
You don’t need to earn it.

Try this quick drawing prompt:

Make a “Joy Map” of your summer.

• Things that already brought you joy
• Things you want to say yes to before the season ends
• One thing you’ve been putting off that could actually be amazing

This is about noticing what’s missing — and inviting it in.

You don’t have to do summer “right.”
You just have to notice when your brain starts lying to you again — when it tries to convince you that your joy doesn’t matter or has to wait until everything else is handled.

It doesn’t.

Joy doesn’t come after life is handled.
It comes with you, while you’re living.

So before the weeks blur past — take a beat.
Name one thing that would bring you real joy this week.
Then go put it on your calendar like it actually matters.

I have a new pup and moments of joy come built in!

Because it does.

Marj Bates “I’ve spent nearly 40 years in addiction recovery, decades with The Artist’s Way, and teach The Artist’s Way Reimagined™, a slower, more supported way to work through Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way – blending creative recovery tools, neurographic art, and community to help people move through resistance and stay with the process.

I’ve also changed careers later in life than most people would dare — proof that it’s never too late to begin again.”

MindSketch Lab