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Methods of Re-Creation
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We’ve been exploring ideas regarding inspiring your Muse. We normally think of a Muse as a force, or being, or a part of our subconscious that delivers inspiration from the Mysteryto us. But it’s not a one-way flow from Muse to Artist. You are in a relationship with your Muse and your job is to inspire each other. If you find that your creative wellspring has run dry, that you can no longer hear the Muse’s whisper, and that you can no longer bring forth ideas from the Mystery, you may have been neglecting to properly nourish your Muse.
This series is exploring ways to to just that - to re-create your Muse and yourself so she will, once again, grace your studio, writing desk, or dance space and start inspiring you.
We started our exploration into The Muse a few weeks ago. And, for the next few weeks, I’ll outline ways that I’ve been able to bring my Muse, along with joy back into my life.
If you missed any of the previous articles you can catch up by clicking the article name below:
“Crash and Burn” Journaling
I journal almost daily and most often I utilize a method I call “Crash and Burn.” The name is intended to remind me that the quality of what I write doesn’t matter — only that I do it. I don’t recall where I learned of this idea, but I didn’t invent it. The rules for “Crash and Burn” are simple: you start writing and you are not allowed to stop for at least five minutes (although I frequently write for ten or twenty minutes). No editing. And no stopping to think. If you can’t think of what to write next, then simply write, “I can’t think of anything…blah blah, but I still can’t think of anything.” And keep writing variations of that until something starts to flow. The only inviolate rule is that you can’t stop writing (or typing in my case): You must keep the pen or fingers moving.
I often “seed” these sessions with something I see in the room, or an idea that pops in my head. For example, I might start with something like this: “I’m noticing that my iphone screen has a small crack in it. I recall that crack happened when a lady bumped into me on our last vacation, and she turned out to be a really nice person. In fact, we had drinks with her and talked about…… Anyway, cracks on phones are a bit like scars aren’t they, and we all get scars both mental and physical in this life…..”
I just typed that on the fly while, free form, while working on this chapter. And you can already see that it’s going in a direction that could quickly get deeply philosophical. So any “seed” can lead you in unusual and deep directions. Don’t try to preconceived anything, just start writing. If it doesn’t bear fruit today, it might tomorrow. And if you do this daily, you will have tons of great material soon enough.
Many of my Crash and Burn sessions, with much editing, have become the Reflections on my personal Substack blog. However, as I write them, they are not intended to be shared, and simply exist to open the flow between me and my creative source. This practice is nearly identical to the practice of Morning Pages found in seminal book, The Artist’s Way, although I don’t force myself to do them at any particular time of day (and I often find my creativity peaks later in the day and not necessarily first thing in the morning.)
Nature
When you immerse yourself in and appreciate nature you automatically move closer to your true being of creativity, especially when you allow yourself the freedom to simply enjoy the small, and the big, wonders that surround you every day.
I have been inspired on walks in the park, walks through the neighborhood, by sitting in my back yard and listening to the birds, by watching the sunrise, and by watching the sunset. Even something as simple as taking out the garbage can be inspiring if you pay attention!
As I cart the trash bin to the curb, I’ll see a butterfly flit by, a hummingbird materializes to drink and then disappears again, or I’ll listen to the symphony of cicadas. There are so many amazing things all around us! More on this under Noticing below.
Creative Play
This is a major method of re-creation. Creatives require play. In many ways, art is play. I allow myself to play as much as reasonably possible, to the point that, if I feel stress overwhelming me, I’ll sometimes blow off work responsibilities (temporarily) and simply do what I want instead.
I’ve called this practice Artful Procrastination. But here’s the interesting thing — play points to what your True Essence wants you to do. It points to your true calling. Often, when I allow myself to play, the results of that time pays huge tangible dividends down the road. What seems like “wasting time” often, later in your career or business, turns out to be the most important thing you could have done.
Did you know FASO Artist Webites started as a toy project that I piddled with on nights and weekends? That’s right, the website builder that thousands of artists rely upon today started as play!
This book, The Sovereign Artist, started as creative play! The seeds of it were planted years ago in my journaled explorations about the nature of creativity and spirituality. I was exploring ideas in an attempt to bring myself back from severe burnout: It worked.
Do not ignore or underestimate the power of play! It blows away discipline every day. (Discipline is extremely useful for short sprints, but will lead to burn out if you rely upon it for too long).
Please be aware that what you consider play at one stage of your journey may become draining or required work at another stage, so you may have to change your play activities over time.
While creating FASO, all the programing and dreaming up of new features to add was exhilarating play for me, but as the service matured and became relied upon for an ever increasing audience, eventually it became required work and my “play time” today does not consist of programming, but of other activities. Use your play time to explore new directions.
To illustrate: when I first started coding FASO, the play time spent programming seemed like a waste of time when compared to my gallery director and sales duties. Yet eventually those programming efforts became my required “duties.” Then, writing about creativity and other topics became play for me. And now, those playful musings have revealed themselves to be important to our commercial endeavors! And, I suspect, these writings, in the long term, may be even more important than what I was doing before!
The play you do at each level of your work will likely reveal itself as being the driving force that leads you to a much higher level and a more important calling! Our deep inspired curiosities are resonant signal that lead us home to our true callings. But even if play doesn’t lead us to higher callings, it is necessary for fun, joy and sanity. I can’t wait to see where today’s play time takes me tomorrow!
This piece is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, The Sovereign Artist.
Inside of each of us lies a divine force - The Sovereign Artistwithin - a remarkable force to bring joy, peace, creativity and love back into our lives. This approach to the creative process saved me, and it can save you too, perhaps it can save us all. Connecting with The Sovereign Artist manifests as an explosion of creativity, peace, and quiet inner joy. It transforms the artist into a reflection of itself - sovereign, free, joyful and loving. If that is of interest, please click the button below to join the book’s waitlist.
Creatively,
Clintavo
Sum Ergo Creo
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