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Category: Creating Art

I Hiked The 1984 Olympic Luge Track

One of the highlights of my trip to Bosnia was a hike that allowed you to walk inside the bobsleigh and luge track that’s situated on Trebević mountain overlooking the City of Sarajevo, built for the 1984 Winter Olympics.

The track was about a mile long, had about a 10% grade incline, and 13 turns. It cost about $8,500,000 USD (563,209,000 YUD) to construct in 1981 and took a little over one year to complete. It’s still mostly in tact today, even after the Yugoslav and Bosnian Wars, and has become an incredible relic and spectacle for modern day explorers.

Today, it’s filled with overgrowth and graffiti and provides a fascinating backdrop for hikers that contrasts beautiful green natural scenery with massive concrete track slabs that are filled with colorful and vibrantly sprayed artistic expressions and images.

As I was walking down the massive track, feeling the quality of the concrete under my feet, imagining the effort that went into the track’s development, visualizing the incredible experience thousands of people had as a result of its realization… I couldn’t help but wonder, what else could we have created by now if we didn’t spend so much time, energy, effort, and money trying to destroy, conquer, and steal…

Heard And Found

What’s interesting about exploring other people’s art… is that in so doing… you get to explore the art within yourself.

What resonates becomes a little louder.

What doesn’t fades into the background.

And after enough of that… you start to hear the tune of a different sound.

A sound you haven’t quite heard before… a sound that feels like some type of remix… a sound that feels raw, un-molded, and like a divine delivery from some type of muse or higher up.

And it’s through the cultivation of that sound… that flavor… that style…

Through the creation of your art… your remixes… what makes you proud…

That we… as feeling and seeking creatures… get heard and found.

Using “Blank” and “Empty” To Invite Fresh, Future-Focused Living

The interesting thing about blank page and canvas, is that it invites creation.

The interesting thing about living with blank walls, is that it invites art/decor.

The interesting thing about empty furniture, is that it invites use. Tables want to be filled, chairs want to be sat in, bookshelves want to be lined…

The interesting thing about this time of the year, is that it invites us to reset our living environments. Spring is a time for cleaning, for donating, for reorganizing, for tossing, for selling… it’s a time to turn the page on how we’ve filled the blank/empty spaces in the past and invites us to take a fresh look and reflect on how we want to begin anew in creation, art/decor, and use.

Inner Work Prompt: Does your current environment feel “done” or does it invite fresh, creative thinking?

Inner Ponds Need Outlets

I uploaded a quote today to MoveMe Quotes that read, “Art is a safe place to explore and express all emotions. No feeling is taboo. It’s about being sensitive to what your body is telling you, then using your art to set the emotion free.”

Without some form of an outlet… our emotions continue to pour into a type of static, stale, toxicity-prone pond within.

Art is an incredibly powerful means of creating an outlet for that pond.

And slowly, slowly… as you explore and express your art… your emotions converge into more of a river and flow through your body and out into the medium of that chosen art.

Without this type of outlet, don’t you see how the emotions can swell within? Don’t you see how all of the grief, anger, frustration, loneliness, and sadness can intermix into a type of toxic stew… contaminating the whole vessel carrying it? Don’t you see how most passive entertainment and social media and news outlets only exacerbate that toxic stew…?

…Don’t you see how important it is to have an outlet?

…Don’t you see that’s what this daily blog is for me?

…Don’t you see that it’s about time you create an outlet for the inner pond within you?

Human Touch

This coffee shop I’m sitting in—

…the one with the crooked neon signs, big bold sharpie-drawn posters taped to the front windows, and thrifted furniture where no two pieces are the same

…the one with Santa on the cabinet in April, that displays Amy’s soup cans for sale right across from the Pope Francis action figures, and has the dying indoor plant next to the thriving bamboo growing out of an elephant’s back

…the one with the over-baked cookies, where the smell of crushed coffee beans lingers next to the hipster Spotify tunes, and instagram QR codes are posted throughout so even when we leave their art isn’t something we just forget

—the one that reeks of human touch…

Is something I’m not so sure us humans will ever be able to program into 1s and 0s and artificially recreate.

In a world that threatens to replace humans like cogs in a machine… be so much more than 1s and 0s.

The Problem With Living Reactively To Emotions…

Most people live reactively to their emotions.

They go about their day, have their interactions, make their choices, and then feel the feelings consequentially arise while trying to maintain the scheduled busyness of their day.

Which leads to bottling, pressurizing, and exacerbating.

And of course, once you’re all the way in your feels, you’re usually clouded, spiraling, irrational, overthinking, and knee-jerking—and it isn’t usually until much later… after you’ve said and done things you regret… that you realize you actually were any of those things.

The solution to this frustrating reality is to simply add something proactively creative or inward focused into your day.

That’s it.

It can literally make all the difference in the world.

Simply block some journaling into your morning routine. Or some drawing into your lunch breaks. Or some music creation or dancing into your evening routine. Or some martial arts into your after work schedule. Or some unplugged outdoor walks into your before work schedule.

The problem isn’t the emotions. The emotions are what make us human.

The problem is the bottling of the emotions—it’s in their restricted flow and continued compression.

Creative work/ inner work time allows those feelings to flow. And feelings are something you should expect daily (to expect otherwise is silly).

…It’s in this one simple act that we can reclaim our emotional calm within even our craziest of days. Don’t underestimate it.


P.s. I write these daily as a free gift to the world. If you’d like to support my ongoing work, you can buy me a cup of joe, here (you can also make it monthly now). Thanks for reading :)

Gustave Flaubert Quote On Being “Regular and Orderly” To Produce Your Best Work…

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

Gustave Flaubert

Whenever I travel or experience any “violent” changes in routine… my creative work suffers.

…Simply because the time blocked for creative work shrinks in proportion to the amount of time exploring, problem solving, or engaging in unique experiences—expands.

And the days when creative work is the hardest is when I’m doing it at the end of my day, right before bed, when I’m exhausted, and as a last minute obligation because it’s a commitment I want to honor.

…But you know what?

I have yet to regret a post I’ve published.

Even one of the posts I’ve written at 3am after a long night out.

…And you know what’s more?

I have yet to regret an adventure I’ve taken.

If anything, it’s the adventures that have lead to some of my best creative work.

…But you know what most people miss?

It’s the time blocked after the adventures, where I’m able to unpack it all and do some creative work, where the vibrance and meaning of the adventures come to full fruition.

See, it isn’t the “regular and orderly life” that exclusively leads to the “violent and original work” just like it isn’t an adventurous and spontaneous life that would only lead to “regular” work.

It’s the harmony of both elements that we need in our lives: the adventure and the ordinary; the violent and the regular; the spontaneous and the routine.

This is where (and how) our best work lives.


P.s. ICYMI you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.