Creating something meaningful is not a race to the finish. Rather, it’s a journey of discovery that takes patience, focus, and an open heart.
We live at a pace that is not conducive to creating. Our minds are too sped up and overstimulated; our bodies are numb and our hearts are often ignored. But to create anything worthwhile—a great painting, a beautiful piece of music, a powerful audition—requires that you calm the mind and wake up the body and heart.
Here are two tools you can use to help you slow down and shift yourself into a more creative gear.
Become aware of your breath.The breath offers the clearest indication of how we feel in our bodies. For example, when we are living at a pace that speeds the brain up and disconnects us from the body, we can find that we’re barely surviving on short, shallow breaths produced from the upper chest. These are the breaths that send a signal of anxiety up to the brain and produce feelings of jumpiness in the body—not fertile ground for creativity!
So before you begin your creative process, check in with the breath and breathe in a way that opens you up by taking five deep inhales and exhales in the stomach. This lets down the defenses and sends a
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