Over the years, this blog has taken on many a form. From ramblings to documentation of my own work, to musings on what I’ve believed to be creative truths (not absolute truths, but my own truths as revealed through trial and error) — it’s gone down rabbit hole after rabbit hole.
Then I went on a hiatus — for two years.
This was not necessarily deliberate; it was the result of one of the deepest inner explorations I’ve ever embarked on. This was largely a trek into how I wanted to pursue myself creatively, because I felt what I was doing was actually dancing a bit around the “core” of me. It was also largely spiritual, and spiritual practice had become not just a realm of fascination for me, but a way of life and is largely infused with creative expression. This should not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with spiritual work of any kind — creation is inherent in spiritual development. I won’t belabor what my own spiritual development work has been like here, mostly because I’m still in the process of unfolding that, but I will say it has involved study and practice into many traditions, such as meditation, Reiki, and shamanic work, to name a few.
In many ways, I’m still on this journey, and realize now that it’s ever-going; it may not have a destination outside of the here and now.
Ok, that out of the way, here’s what I’m getting at — I have many things I am working on, would like to work on creatively and spiritually. And so it hit me recently: why not dig deep into some of these and report on the findings? I hesitate to use the word “experiments” — that word makes this feel as though I’m trying things out because I’m curious, which is true, but I also don’t mean to belittle any of these efforts by putting them a “laboratory” setting, and I’m not really trying to look at any of this through a scientific lens. This is more of a “dive in and report” experience. My intent is to finally dig into these things I have been meaning to work on for a long time and report my notes from each trek. So, instead I feel it’s more appropriate to refer to these efforts as practices, and the results, “practice notes.”
The motivation behind this effort is many-fold. Part of the inspiration came from the wonderful site known as Raptitude, a blog of wisdom which features its own series of experiments conducted by the site’s owner, David Cain. I’ve found many of these experiments telling and inspiring. And after reading I have often wondered what it would be like to try similar efforts myself. I thought maybe there is a way I could adapt the idea but apply it to some of the creative avenues I have been meaning to explore. My own efforts are a bit more narrowed down to creative and/or spiritual pursuits, but the idea is the same — try it and report on what comes out of it. This is just one of many inspirations, and again, I want to emphasize I am not trying to focus on these practices in a scientific-method fashion. I am simply trying to embed these practices into my life and report on the initial experience.
One caveat here is that many of these practices may initially overlap. I’m doing this deliberately, rather than focusing on them one by one in linear fashion (I’m an INFP, so working linearly isn’t exactly my thing — I tend to work better in circles or in a spiral-like or mosaic fashion). Likewise, I don’t plan to force these efforts into specific time frames unless they call for it, or unless I feel it’s appropriate for that particular practice.
For example, one idea I have brewing is to work through the exercises in Ursula K. Le Guin’s guide to writing, Steering the Craft. Instead of trying this every day for a month, the experiment would focus on each exercise in the book and report on the results and takeaways. This could stretch to 6-10 weeks or more, and would likely be broken down by exercise.
Comparatively, another effort would be to embed daily meditation into my life, and to build that in, I would focus on 30 days of meditation as a jumping off point. In fact, as I’ll get to, this will be one of the initial practices I try out.
Each effort will have its own form. All practices will live on my Practice Notes page.
Another caveat I should note is that I still plan to post regularly here outside of these practices, still plan to share updates via my newsletter and on Twitter (I’m focusing just on Twitter for now, but I’m still lingering on Instagram for the time being). And I will still be working on my own writing and deeper creative and spiritual work. These documented efforts will ride on top of those other outlets, and my hope is that by doing them they will embed themselves into my life as a result. I’ll let them decide; I’ll simply open space for them and let them make the move from there.
The other thing is I expect these practices to be slow-going until they pick up regular momentum. I have a day job and family on top of all this creative and spiritual work I am trying to do, and needless to say, they hold priority. That said, even with a full plate of responsibilities, I do believe there is more time available than I have led myself to believe — this is all about opening space and being present with it. It’s about showing up with pure intention.
I also plan to be pretty gentle and flexible with myself throughout all of this. Rigid experimentation is not the goal here — it’s simply a matter of finally embracing what has long called to me, and what I have avoided due to my own fears, anxieties, and misguided conditioning. Much of the inner work I have been doing over the past several years has been to explore the origins of these fears and shadows, which has at times been equally staggering, unsettling, shifting, transformative, revelatory, and light-flooding. And again, this remains ever-going; to think I would have crossed some finish line would be the height of my own ignorance and arrogance. I feel humble enough to see that this is but a dance, and I’m just getting my footing.
Now, onto the practices themselves. I’m actually kicking this off with two overlapping efforts, both of which will take place within a 30-day time frame. However, the aim is not to try these for a month then be done with them. Ideally, the 30 days will help lay the foundation for longer-term practices. Both of these are areas I have intended to put more focus on for a long time, but have hesitated to do so.
Practice 001: Meditate twice a day for 30 days
This effort aims to build, albeit slowly, the practice of meditation into my daily life. The guidelines are explained on this effort’s practice notes page, but in general, the idea will be to meditate in the morning and at night (or, twice daily, however that unfolds). Optimal time is 20 minutes per meditation, but 10 minutes will work if short on time. The form of meditation can vary from Reiki-based meditation to trance to a form I’ll call “drop-in” meditation.
Practice 002: Read 4 books in 30 days
This practice will be to read four books in 30 days. For this particular time frame I’m including a novel, a book of short stories, a book of collected poetry, and a nonfiction book. Whether or not I can or will finish all of them in this time frame will yet to be seen. This will likely follow a weekly breakdown (as I plan on average to read about a book a week), but I’m not holding to a specific daily page count or a weekly quota. Simply to read these four books in 30 days.
These particular efforts will overlap concurrently, but I’m documenting the experiences separately. Again, both are meant to build the foundations for practices I intend to expand upon later on — with reading, it may not be sustainable in the long run to read a book a week, but I do believe I could be filling more gaps of my day reading books versus checking my phone or doing mindless activities (and by mindless I do not mean moments of silence, I mean wasted minutes in front of the TV or other screen).
In any event, we’ll see where this goes. Notes will be updated on a regular basis for each. Following these practices, other efforts may come one at a time, or again, they may overlap. I’m following my gut here, so we’ll cross each bridge as it arises.
More to come. Cheers, all.
UPDATE (3.31.20) — Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, my efforts to sustain these practices have been, well, thwarted, for the most part. After moving through some significant anxiety during the initial part of this situation, I am reattempting these practices as of April 1, 2020, with the intent of maintaining these through the month of April.
