MUSE AND FLOW

This is a subject that I think about for many hours of each day. Where is my muse? What is my muse? Is it a person? A place? A singular idea? It can be many different things, so its said. If I were to go by my personal understanding of the word. Muse is a dimly lit room, food in my belly, energetic music and a cup of coffee by my side. That's what always seems to work no matter what the mood of the day is.

For me, it consists mostly of weeding out the crap in my brain. Muse will be something different for everyone but creating a proper flow seems to be universal. You may also know this as "the zone". I rarely find myself here. My when I have no muse and terrible flow, the art is forced and contrived. When I am in the zone, my breath is slow, my mind is calm. I fear nothing and do not feel the passage of time. Most experts on the subject say that you need to have put in ten thousand hours of practice before you are even able to feel this. I can say without a doubt that I have not put in that much practice. That's to say every time I've been in the zone, found a good flow, or am on a roll, it has been purely accidental. But I've found several ways for the everyone out there to at least put it on the right track.

• Eat (that's three meals a day, plus what ever your favorite snack is, the brain needs nourishment in order to function. Just search for good foods for cognitive function and pick your favorite.)

• Sleep (this should be a no brainer, if you are struggling to find flow, there is no harm in a nap or simply going to bed and trying again tomorrow.)

• Be Happy (this is a bit out there, but if you are anxious, lost in your head, or simply depressed, flow will be near impossible to find.)

I want to touch on that last bullet point a bit. It may seem like something obvious.

You may be thinking, "of course being happy will help, but we can't decide when we are happy or not!"

It is as simple as this. We are in control of how happy we are. Do you want to be an athlete? Artist? Writer? Do you want to own a bookstore in the hills with just you and your dog? Do you want you and your band to hit it big and tour the nation? Whats stopping you?

The answer? (and keep in mind I just realized this this year myself).

The answer is you. Yes, you.

You stop yourself, almost every time. Your life? It's yours. You may have family members pressuring you. You may have a financial situation that makes you feel like an absolute piece of shit. There are so many variables of why we excuse ourselves from the situation of being a creator, or a productive person in general. We simply say, I can't, or even "we" can't.

So, do that which makes you happy. That's what I'm saying here, being happy is simply doing what makes you happy, and never letting anyone damage that. Whoever it may be, no one deserves your attention if it damages your progress at feeling better within yourself.

Being happy is essential to achieving flow, because there is always something in the back of our mind saying. "you're terrible, how could you have said that, what are you doing? This is crap and no one wants it or will buy it, you're not in your element and you need to go back to stocking shelves at Lowe's."

A good friend of mine, calls her's the "mean girl" she will often tell me things like. "Mean girl is being especially hard on me today." I normally tell her to slap mean girl and shut her up so she can go back to being fabulous. This same friend found ways of doing this. When faced with a wrecked house, she literally put on Mad Max style war paint and cleaned the house to the soundtrack. I imagine this being an intense, energetic flow state. She killed the voices and made her day great.

We are all capable of this. Which brings me to my next major step.

• FIND OUT WHO THE HELL YOU ARE.

This too is one thing I found out very recently. We can never achieve that which we desire with a half realized version of ourselves. This can take a god damn lifetime. It takes a lot of inner thought to find out what you are doing to yourself to make you feel like you are terrible. You're not, not even a little. Shutting up that voice that's saying otherwise is paramount but you cannot do that until you know who you are.

In closing, I'am by no means an expert. These are just observations of a crazed mind looking upon a doomed world. These are some things that have helped me, and I hope that they can help someone else continue to fill the world with beautiful things.

What are some things you do to achieve flow or find your muse?

Or more importantly, whats stopping you?