CULTIVATING CREATIVITY
Abandoned Masquerade
We live in a noisy world. There is the radio, the TV, the mowers and blowers, planes passing overhead, the dog down the street, cars whizzing by, the car alarms that seem to always be going off, the beeping of a truck as it backs up. The noise is not only outside of us…there are also noises in our heads. “I need to mail this letter, go to the store, pick up the kids, and did I remember to pay all the bills? What will I make for dinner, and when was that next doctor’s appointment?” The thoughts race through our minds at lightning speed. How can creativity be cultivated in such cacophony? It can’t. Creativity needs calm and silence to exist. Your first job, if you are to be creative, is to calm the noise. I will offer three ways to do that.
Rainbow
The first is as old as the first glimmer of religion in the history of man. It is called by many: Meditation. In order to start, you must find twenty minutes of time when no one bothers you and find a place that is quiet to outside noises. A good time is early in the morning before the phone begins to ring, maybe even before the alarm clock goes off. A soft cushion in a small space is the only prop needed. Meditation at its simplest is merely sitting quietly, usually with eyes closed, and paying attention to your breath. It sounds simple but is difficult to accomplish at first. The noise that runs through your head will continue to break in to the peace you are trying to establish. You will be tempted to think of things in the past or future. You need to recognize the thoughts as they appear and let them go and refocus on each breath as it goes in and out. Make your breathing slow and regular. With daily practice, you will become better at focusing and clearing your mind.
Looking Out the Window
The second way to calm the noise is to write. This time the props needed are a spiral notebook and a pen. Again, you need about 20 minutes of quiet time to yourself. Your goal will to write three notebook pages a day. What to write? Whatever comes into your head. This time you can let the internal noise flow out of your head and onto the page. Do not worry about what you are writing…this is not the great American novel and you do not have to be a creative writer to do it. Do not reread what you have written. The goal is to free your creative self of all the flotsam and jetsam that fills your mind most of the time. You can complain about the clerk at the store who treated you badly, you can write about all the things you have to do today, you can worry about the financial issues that concern you, you can go on about the sorry state of the nation. Anything is OK to write in these three pages. This is a purging of the things that get in the way of your creativity.
Walking the Dog in Ely
