Category: Transforming Pain

The other day, while spending time with my mom, she asked how my writing/creating journey has been going.

After telling her, I asked her the same.

And during her response she mentioned this idea of a clearing that’s been circling in my mind ever since.

She essentially said she hasn’t started any of her personal writing/creating projects because she still has a decent project workload that’s keeping her busy as is. And she said what she imagines herself doing to better honor her muse is create a clearing in her schedule where she can just sit and ruminate… uninterrupted and without obligation of any kind… maybe even for days at a time.

And with that clearing, she imagined not binge watching her favorite Ion TV episodes, but letting her creative juices flow and seeing what comes up.

And it reminded me of something Neil Gaiman said when he was asked how he found inspiration to create, to which he said something along the lines of: I get myself bored.

The problem in today’s world, he adds, is that it’s really hard to get bored. There are millions of people online just waiting to entertain us with a thumb tap or two…

But, if we can manage it, boredom is the springboard for ideas. It’s where our mind starts to daydream, drift, remix, and wander… it’s when it starts to actively try to entertain itself.

And so this is the insight I’m currently playing with in my life: how can I create more clearings in my schedule? How can I deliberately get myself into more states of boredom? How can I create a space where my muse will more frequently visit?

“If I can get to a place of pure love, I can tap into a channel where I become a medium… a sort of mouthpiece of stories, and voices, and ideas from all that I’ve ever seen and heard… I just need to get out of my own way.”

Sandra Cisneros

Last night, I attended a live talk given by bestselling author, Sandra Cisneros.

When discussing her creative process, she shared the absolute dime of a line above. And this is 100% what the creative process is about:

1. Getting out of your own way. This includes insulating your mind from the screens, dings, and distractions; taming it with proper routines in ideal environments and with focus enhancers; and investing in inner work that mitigates self-limiting beliefs, self-sabotaging behavior, and all of the natural human resistance that accompanies doing meaningful, creative work.

2. Becoming a medium. You’ll only ever be able to share a composition of what you’ve ever experienced. And when you can truly get out of your own way and open up that channel that taps into the ocean of life experiences that’s deep within, it’s almost as though the work expresses itself. This is the highest level of creation. Creation that’s free of ego… that isn’t concerned with what an audience thinks, what the ROI might be, how “good” or “bad” it might be… that’s simply flowing from somewhere deep within that is a pure manifestation of the Self.

3. And how do you tap into that channel…? By entering into a place of pure love. And anything that isn’t that, well, becomes something that falls into bullet point #1 from above and should be treated accordingly.

My aunt loves sewing.

She loves it so much that she bought a ~$10,000 sewing machine.

And she uses it for every penny she invested into it.

She’ll quilt. She’ll create apparel and gifts. She’ll even create quilted artwork.

When I asked her if she wanted to earn some side hustle money by helping sew patches onto students’ uniforms for the martial arts school I work at… she quickly (and graciously) turned the idea down.

“As soon as I start doing it as a job, I’m going to hate it.” She explained.

And so she doesn’t.

Instead, she follows her curiosities. She challenges herself with interesting projects. She even finds ways to use her unique set of skills to help better the world around her.

Just today, she gave me container with 20 hand made toiletry bags that she wants to fill with toiletries and give to those at local women’s shelters.

Here’s the thing: turning our skills and passion-projects into side hustles can be great… but it can also ruin the thing that lights you up.

Like my aunt, tread that line carefully and dutifully check in with yourself to ensure you’re always fanning the flames of your inner fire—never smothering them with dollar signs or anything else.