When Distraction Is Killing Your Creativity (and how to stop the spiral)
I have been looking at and re-examining my relationship with distraction and presence in all parts of my life but particularly in regards to my creativity.
Specifically, when a distraction is for the good of my creativity or at its detriment and how I can cultivate more deep presence to allow for the channeling of more of my creativity.
When I am resisting my creativity I notice there are certain thought patterns I ruminate on, memories I think about or "non-expansive" daydreaming (daydreaming that keeps me stuck in certain old cycles vs. dreaming of different possibilities).
I also tend to suddenly have a very long to-do list, an over focus on my business and the over-consumption / non-intentional consumption of others' thoughts and creativity (i.e social media) disguised as "inspiration."
None of these usually feed my creativity and often times continue to feed the cycle of avoidance and the shame spiral that "I should be doing something more creative right now" or "other people are more creative than me."
Understanding how I can cultivate more presence (I've been inspired by some of Prentis Hemphill's work), is not only helping me shift out of unhelpful distraction but it also helps me see how I can turn distraction into inspiration.
For example, scrolling on social media mindlessly and calling in "presence" reminds me that I can either change my energy around my scrolling to actually look for points of inspiration or I can actually stop what I am doing and choose to do something creative.
Alternatively, I am noticing that when I choose to bring in more presence to *anything* I am doing, it immediately brings in more possibility for creativity:
If I am doing "non-expansive" rumination, how can I shift to more possibility based day dreaming?
If I am working on my business, what's one way I can bring more creativity in in this moment?
If I am going on a walk, how can I notice the flowers? The sky? The wind against my face? Nature is the forever creative source.
If I am doing something I don't historically like doing, how could bringing in more presence make it more creative? How can I add some razzle dazzle?
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