Greetings ✿ It is finally spring where I am at, seeds are planted, garden is watered, flowers are in bloom. The energy of new beginnings is so abundant I have to hold myself back (but why?) from bursting into dance in some stranger’s lawn on my walk to work.
Speaking of new beginnings, I have been thinking a lot about how to best begin. When I walk into my studio to start my creative process, or even when I sit at my computer to work, I notice that the way I begin, or prepare to begin, really affects the quality of my experience.
I want to feel grounded, clear and in flow when I am creating. Otherwise it’s a fairly frenetic and spiritually disconnected experience. I can not just will myself into having a pleasant experience, though. Willpower, and even intention, are not enough to fully manifest that, but there are some things I can do that can shift my state of being first, allowing action to arise from a more connected and clear place. And then, I can trust that there will be some authenticity in my art as a result.
This is directly connected to my daily practice and more specifically an ongoing yoga sutras study group I am in. At the moment, the discussions in the group are centered around changing behavior and habits. Last class, our teacher reminded us of a central guiding concept present in the sutras that relates to each moment in daily life: The state we are in has a huge impact in the way we perceive and respond, and changing our state makes it easier to take the actions we want to take.
Lessons like these are so universal, and I am often naturally seeing them play out in creative practice. I have noticed myself so many times accidentally rushing into my process in a less-than-centered state, without any kind of preparation. The whole time is so disjointed, the flow is more of a choppy mess, I feel mostly anxious, and then what I make isn’t even that satisfying. (Sometimes I just need to go through that to get to the other Side. To remember what not to do. Wink wink, such is life).
In situations like these, I think the root is that I am focusing more on anxiously maximizing my time that I am on prioritizing the quality of my experience. I am choosing quantity over quality, doing over being. When the time is up, I ask myself, did I actually enjoy that? Do the results of this session feel genuine?
Then there are the other times, the better times, when I remember the value of taking as much time as I need to gently shift into a more clear and prepared state. Even though this absorbs a few moments of the overall time spent in my studio, the resulting experience is more rich, more full of care, and I make things that I truly love and feel connected to.
I like to think about shifting my state in terms of tending to my workspaces. There are two. Internal and external. It’s an easy concept to know the value in preparing your external workspace (a clean table, all the tools you need, not too much clutter, an assessment of space). But there is the same, if not more, importance in preparing the internal workspace.
TL;DR: Shift your internal workspace. Life may feel better.
Shifting your state of being before you begin may allow your creative practice to unfold with more ease and peace in significant ways. Here are some suggestions for how to positively shift your state as a way to prepare for creative practice.
Sit quietly and focus on all of the myriad of sounds around you, let that ground you.
Sit with your eyes closed and tune into what you see in your internal mental vision board. Be curious about that and stay there for a bit.
Breathe deeply and uniformly. Sometimes 10 counted big long breaths is sufficient, or of course any breathing practice you’ve been taught that helps your individual system find energetic balance would also be great.
Lay on the floor and feel the sensation of gravity pasting the body to the earth.
Morning pages or journaling. Sometimes I do morning pages in the middle of the day, like when I am shifting from working on my computer to painting in my studio, it’s so good for transitions.
Stream of consciousness doodling with non-attachment and no goal. Like morning pages but with lines and shapes instead of words. This can help in similar, less verbal, ways.
Go on a walk around the block, on a nearby trail, or in some other environment than where you currently are.
Put on music and dance or move intuitively.
Some people may find cleaning and preparing their external environment is also enough of a connective ritual to help shift their internal environment as well.
Even 10-15 minutes of any of these things can be dramatically effective.
I would love to hear if anyone else has any suggestions.
Keep practicing ♡
-Kristen