# take a break Breaks are needed to rest and reset. Creativity is a marathon, not a sprint. --- [[illumination|Illumination]] comes after working hard on something and then taking a break to let the subconscious work on the problem. In _The Courage to Create,_ Rollo May shares a story from Jules Henri Poincaré writing about trying to solve a mathematical problem. Poincaré reaches a point where he gives up completely and takes a trip to the beach to reset. It is during this downtime that the solutions arrive almost like magic. Rollo May also believes that the quiet of [[solitude]] is needed to help bring forth the solutions. It isn't enough to take a break, but to allow yourself the luxury of slowing down to be with ourselves. > I propose that in our day this alternation…requires the capacity for the _constructive use of solitude._ It requires that we be able to retire from a world that is "too much with us," that we be able to be quiet, that we let the solitude work for us and in us. > > [May, *The Courage to Create*, page 66](https://aworkinglibrary.com/reading/courage-to-create) --- tags: #creativity #process home: [[! creative process]]