Creative folks have monkey mind. It’s just the way it is. But the secret is how to capture and harness those monkeys’ energies.

 

 

Anyone that studies with me knows every

day I sit down and write for ten minutes to download what I am thinking. I learned this from The Artists Way and have practiced it now for 10 years. The simple act of recording  the mundane, the irate and flashes of brilliance on paper is how I discipline a very busy mind. Odd thoughts, in between the line thoughts that lead to something interesting. Or nothing at all. The Funny. Creative. Horrible. Delightful. The whole catastrophe is all grist for the mill.
The amazing choreographer Twyla Tharp has her own version of this. In her book, The Creativity Habit she says she gets up every morning and goes to her studio,  stomps her foot and says BEGIN. The simple act of saying BEGIN gets her creative juices started. Whether her mind is putting up a fuss or her body is protesting, she literally puts her foot down and gets started.

Another technique I use from her book, is creating a box for each project. When she is putting together a show, she put all of her ideas in one box — images, index cards,  pictures of what she is thinking, dreaming about and being inspired by.  Everything that goes into the box feeds the dance idea she is working on. And even if the images she included didn’t make sense she trusts that the sub-conscious mind is creating themes for her. Cutting and pasting ideas together in ways she doesn’t yet understand.
Ideas are like eyeballs. Everybody has a couple. To me it seems God opens up the heavens and I have an aha moment. But if I am not listening the idea fades and and I can spend months trying to Braille back to the initial idea.

But a practice helps circumvent that.

TIPS TO TRAIN THE MONKEY!

1) Set a ten minute practice of writing and dreaming ideas into existence. ( and there will some writing that sucks big time-but it’s the practice you need to do.)

2) Get a big lovely box to contain the ideas you are trying to grow. ( and it will be a great way to keep what you’re doing in one place. AND very importantly keep it sacred.)

Let me know how it goes. CLICK BELOW TO COMMENT

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