Sunday, November 02, 2003

Get the Chi Flowing!

Yesterday I honored a commitment to myself to begin working on a creative idea I've had for awhile. Boyfriend and I went to the beach to have a late breakfast. He asked if I planned to spend the afternoon there while he went to play golf. I thought about it, but instead decided to start work on a project I've had floating around in my head for quite awhile.

I began the whole process with a mid-day soak in a bubble bath...foreplay for the creative process, I guess. While I was in the tub, I flipped open Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones" at random and started reading. I've had that book for at least 13 years, and it never fails to inspire me.

I spent a couple of hours working on said project, then curled up in bed with a book I was nearing the end of. I finished the book, and fell into a deep sleep. I napped for a couple of hours, got up and started on my project again. A couple of hours later I started dinner, and dined with the boyfriend before he had to leave for a gig. He was gone for 5 hours and when he returned, I was right where I'd been when he left...still "working." That, my friends, means one is enjoying oneself, n'est-ce pas?

I awoke very early this morning, full of more ideas for my project. So I'm raring to get back to it. But here's the great side benefit: I also feel ready to tackle all this hideous housework I've been putting off for weeks. Releasing all that creative energy (rather than keeping it bottled up in my MIND), has given me all kinds of energy to do all kinds of other stuff.

At the risk of sounding too airy-fairy, I really do believe in the whole concept of energy...and how we need to keep it moving.

When my coworker recently left for Florida, I tackled the clean-up of her work area immediately after she'd vacated the office. And since she was a world-class procrastinator (and quite a pessimist, to boot), there was a dire need to "get the energy flowing" again in what had been her workspace. Going through the detritus of her 16 years there--and discarding a good portion of it--made that workspace seem like new. The whole "vibe" of the office feels different now; it feels much lighter.

I KNOW all this, but I still sometimes allow myself to wallow in my valley of unmotivated sloth...even though I know what I need to do to get out of the valley so I can frolic on the hilltops.

So here's your task for today: Got an idea that's been percolating for awhile? Have you felt too drained by your boring day job or personal responsibiltiies to do anything about it? Or too unmotivated to even tackle it because you feel like no one will like it anyway? Well, today's your day: take even one little step to START...and get ready to have a lot more energy for the steps to follow. The most important person who needs to like it is YOU...and if you're doing something to please yourself, well, isn't that what it's all about anyway?

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