Let’s jam about the dichotomy required of a creative life — and for maximizing our time in creative flow!
You may recall that I wrote about this dichotomy in 2009.
Today’s work: Identify the dichotomies already exist for you as you navigate your creative career. Which ones need beefing up in order to strengthen your abilities to endure the trajectory ahead of you? Can you create a gameplan for spending time developing these “both/and” realities? Daily?
I’m away rehearsing for the film I am in. Each different part of the process- rehearsing, hair and makeup, costume is divided into 90 minutes. So I get that time to be in the flow. And because I can get burned out having this concept of flow makes it easy to see -ok, I need this half hour lunch break to stop thinkinking about the film/lines etc and just eat, be mindful and chill. I love this! It’s all about getting the best of me so that I can create more. Wahooooo! X
PERFECT opportunity to build this muscle mindfully! Love that this lined up so gorgeously!
Hm. So this shines a bright, glaring light on what I was struggling with around the time my friend passed away, and that I’m still slowly working on… I hadn’t been tapping into my creative side much (or at all for stretches of time), and was not allowing myself to really fully experience the discomfort of that neglect, and the negative feelings that were cropping up.
It wasn’t until recently that I’ve started getting better with giving myself periods of creative time. I put in my Balanced app that everyday I should be working on my creative/content creation side, and that I should be writing a short story 3 days a week. But on the flip side, I also haven’t gotten back into agent targeting, nor really working on anything business related that helps me work towards that next tier. If I’m being honest, I feel like I’ve been sitting on the sidelines, which doesn’t sit well for me. I want in the game coach!
So I’ve been working on the creative side of things, but I clearly need to beef up the business side. I also need to switch up my creative side to line up with the flow time, since previously it was anywhere from however long it took me to fill out the page in my “finish the story” prompt notebook (maybe 10-30 min tops), to HOURS straight working on a sewing project or story.
Ok. So:
1. Start incorporating business things that move me towards the next tier, daily. 90-120 min.
2. Alter my daily creative work to make sure I fall into the 90-120 min time frame, and if I have the time that day to spend more time in the flow state, make sure I’m taking breaks.
So excited for Thirsty Third Thursday!
Outstanding awareness, girl! Give yourself time to ease into the business part of things. NO RUSH. You’ve got this!
1. I hadn’t yet read this article of yours and it instantly became my most favorite 😉
2. I want to marry this day!
3. Like Alexandra I will start labeling what I do *when* I do it. Just to make me *see* and navigate between the two shores and stay in the centre of the flow (ha! 🙂 ).
Right ON! 🙂 That balance of the dichotomous lifestyle required for creativity, for flow, for this whole business is really key, isn’t it? Excited to hear how it’s going for you!
Addressing the dichotomies of my primary and secondary flow states helped me to recognize that I understand and can switch focus, once I am intune with my intuition and which state I desire to inhabit. BUT! I struggle with the transitionary period between them and that is when I slip into bad habits and self-medicating/self-sabotage, throughout my day. This transitionary period is where I can continue to strengthen my muscles of self-care and nourishment/ healing as i transition out of one flow state and prepare/feel called to explore the opposite. I have struggled with the highs and lows of my day to day, moment to moment, which I can now identify as the space in between states of flow. NOW, I can embrace and lean into the discomfort/transition as an essential part of the process while allowing it to be nourishing and replenishing as opposed to beating myself up for not being as productive-focused-joyful-creative-aware when I am in flow.
I like the work you’re doing here, Alejandra. I will get into one of those transition stages and play solitaire on my phone, or stretch out on my sofa, or just get in the floor with my cat for a few minutes and stretch. I think just labeling the various activities that make up flow and surround the flow states is a great first step toward moving fluidly between them all. 🙂