I've found myself to be burnt out on puppetry and puppet making for the last few months. Instead of pushing myself, I'm working on different things.
Maybe you should try going back to something you loved before puppetry for awhile. Or return to whatever made you love puppetry in the first place. For me, I'm returning to some of the special effects and mask making stuff I was into before getting into puppet making. Sometimes a fresh outlook helps.

Maybe you should try going back to something you loved before puppetry for awhile. Or return to whatever made you love puppetry in the first place. For me, I'm returning to some of the special effects and mask making stuff I was into before getting into puppet making. Sometimes a fresh outlook helps.

I was actually going to say the same thing. Sometimes I fight "writers block" when trying to write a new show so I do something totally different for a while. Check out a good book from the library, listen to oldies on the radio, re-organize my puppet room and other things like that and soon I find that I have been inspired!

I'm planting a small garden this year and plan to devote some time each day outside. Sunshine and fresh air will help with the depression after the winter blues. Feel free to take a puppet friend along and lounge in the sun. Your puppet may give you some new ideas for Summer projects. If not sip on your favorite beverage and enjoy your day! Don't forget sunscreen for the puppet LOL

To Na: no offense taken. I did mean (even if I might not be too precise at expressing this- not being a native speaker does have its drawbacks) that one has to cope with feeling a bit "under the wheather" by their own methods while clinical depression (or insomnia) should be treated by a pro.
To be quite honest: I even had hypericum percribed while a felt not too well (also valeria while I was having problems with sleeping), but it might not be so in other countries. And, of course, even with a cough you can hardly say: this is the one and only way, much less with psychic diseases. I did think that the question was if other people had experiences with depression and how they did overcome them (if at all). All of this did in a way work for me but if I did not put this right I will say it again:
 
If you have any symptoms at all (psychic or corporeal) that don't go away within 2 weeks OR that are severe: see a doctor.

To Billy: Yes, Gardening is also great after the long dark winter.

Rikka,

You are so right, the language barrier can sometimes make it hard to understand a post.    I am so pleased that people here understand that and give others the benefit of the doubt. 

BTW:  I think your English/American is pretty good. 

Thank you Shawn, that is very encouraging.
you even get it speaking your native language to somebody of the same tongue. Sometimes people are so far apart in their words that even talking to a friend I would like to ask: what colour is the sky in your world? (Dan Millman wrote something like that I really liked it)
And that is even a way back to the topic: we don't feel all the same, not even one person does. So if you get a thunderstorm in you psychical wheather: don't feel bad about it! ;-)

To Na: no offense taken. I did mean (even if I might not be too precise at expressing this- not being a native speaker does have its drawbacks) that one has to cope with feeling a bit "under the wheather" by their own methods while clinical depression (or insomnia) should be treated by a pro.
To be quite honest: I even had hypericum percribed while a felt not too well (also valeria while I was having problems with sleeping), but it might not be so in other countries. And, of course, even with a cough you can hardly say: this is the one and only way, much less with psychic diseases. I did think that the question was if other people had experiences with depression and how they did overcome them (if at all). All of this did in a way work for me but if I did not put this right I will say it again:
 
If you have any symptoms at all (psychic or corporeal) that don't go away within 2 weeks OR that are severe: see a doctor.

I think you expressed yourself fine. I just think that quite often people get misled about medical conditions on the internet, even if the person responding is honestly giving advice based on their own experiences. For instance, my personal experience with anti-depressants was a bad one; but I certainly wouldn't recommend living as I do (without any treatment at all).

I just wanted to suggest that this isn't the best place for discussing treatments, good or bad; but rather to encourage support without treading on someone else's medical issues.

Maybe you're right. I just thought that often people feel that they are the only ones not "functioning correctly" in the whole world. This does not help. Sometimes it does help to hear that other people went to that deep valley, too.
 Of course you are right: lots of terrible stuff does go around in the internet or between friends, pure misunderstanding, concerning psychical diseases: triple the amound of nonsense circulating. (I've heard: "just get to work, you're just lazy/overreacting!" a bit too often myself). It just didn't seem right just to say: "go see a doc, it worked for me, too."
And if anybody has a serious issue just starting a new project will probably not work.

Thanks for the advice guys. I need it.

Rikka, I totally agree. It's very easy to fall into the trap of thinking you're the only person in the world feeling the way you do. Talking to others is often a surprising comfort.

Thanks for the advice guys. I need it.

And this brings me to one other obvious thing: I have had many kind comments by people here on this site, just when I was feeling the worst. The past several years have been mostly bad for me, and time and again the people here have been super supportive.

So if you're feeling upset or frustrated, there are always plenty of people here who will offer kind words