Creativity needs empty moments to process

Good ideas don’t happen when you’re continually filling your head with other people’s words. Meditative regular (ostensibly non-creative) work done with reverent attention will unblock you. Ideally, once you’ve given it time to process, you can go toward what feels most alive.

References

The Second Brain - A Life-Changing Productivity System . Directed by Ali Abdaal, 2020. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP3dA2GcAh8.

Let projects simmer in your back brain over time, rather than sitting down and powering through something.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist’s Way . Penguin USA, Inc., 2010.

Doing meditative, regular work can help. Cooking, needlework, if it’s done with attention and intent.

Quiet, alone time is necessary. The most common form of self-sabotage is self-sacrifice. It makes a virtue out of deprivation. Self-destructive means “destructive of your true nature.”

Lui, Herbert. “Forget the Computer — Here’s Why You Should Write and Design by Hand.” Medium, 3 Aug. 2019, https://uxdesign.cc/forget-the-computer-heres-why-you-should-write-and-design-by-hand-19031089138f.

In his book, Orbiting the Giant Hairball, author Gordon MacKenzie likened the creative process to one of a cow making milk. We can see a cow making milk when it’s hooked up to the milking machine, and we know that cows eat grass. But the actual part where the milk is being created remains invisible.