I took a break from violin and HOLY COW it felt good.
It felt good to not be constantly, and I mean ALL OF THE TIME, worrying about my intonation, phrasing, not being good enough.... I could go on and on but you get the point.
So yeah, it felt pretty dang nice to take the pressure off of myself and to reset. Because really, I'm ultimately the only one creating that feeling.
So for the past month instead of stressing over my practice and my playing, I spent my days working out, and cooking, and eating, and drinking, and watching tv.
I revamped my resume, launched this blog, organized my music library, and began reading again.
This week I unpacked my violin and began practicing again - well sorta: Scales with drones and an etude or two...
I'm hoping that at least for a while I can approach my own playing with much less personal judgement and much more joy.
I can so relate to "I took a break!" It takes such hard work and dedication to be a really fine musician. But personal judgement can be very destructive if it takes over. I think you'll find that if you have more balance in your life, your musicianship will blossom. There really is so much more to life than music and violin.