All of these, yes! Sometimes we just have to move. Reading Rebecca Solnit's "Wanderlust: A History of Walking" is a great reminder of how closely tied walking, writing—and creativity—have been. I've also written about some of these as ways of practicing and improving intuition here https://bowendwelle.substack.com/p/what-is-intuition-a-whole-and-open
I really love Rebecca Solnit! I often think of these lines from Wanderlust: “I like walking because it is slow, and I suspect that the mind, like the feet, works at about three miles an hour. If this is so, then modern life is moving faster than the speed of thought or thoughtfulness.”
so interesting... I find that if I run, I can't seem to get to that zone in my head. Walking, instead, does the trick for me (maybe I'm not fit enough)
I hear that. And - yes... my creativity does become active while running, sometimes, but definitely more so when I am feeling very running fit. Walking, on the other hand, seems perfectly, and naturally aligned with the emergent nature of creative consciousness.
I’m a big fan of the Franklin Method. Check it out if you want to have a better experience of being in your body. It’s an anatomically and neurologically informed way of clearly and playfully being with your body and letting it lead the way. I’ve just done a short session and I have no bla-bla in my head at all (for now!)
Annie Murphy Paul, I do alot of my "default mode" thinking inadvertently in the bath. But your 5 suggestions, esp the disonance one, is rather surprising.
thanks for the work that you do. big fan of your books since cult of personality testing
Thank you so much, Daryl! Yes, so much about creativity is paradoxical, it seems: creativity can be evoked by an experience of fluidity, and *also* by an experience of dissonance . . . It's such a mysterious state. Not to say that it can't be scientifically investigated ;-)
All of these, yes! Sometimes we just have to move. Reading Rebecca Solnit's "Wanderlust: A History of Walking" is a great reminder of how closely tied walking, writing—and creativity—have been. I've also written about some of these as ways of practicing and improving intuition here https://bowendwelle.substack.com/p/what-is-intuition-a-whole-and-open
and here
https://bowendwelle.substack.com/p/how-to-keep-from-fucking-up-your
I really love Rebecca Solnit! I often think of these lines from Wanderlust: “I like walking because it is slow, and I suspect that the mind, like the feet, works at about three miles an hour. If this is so, then modern life is moving faster than the speed of thought or thoughtfulness.”
love this quote by Rebecca Solnit. I got her book Paradise in Hell by chance, and then heard her on On Being podcast.
so interesting... I find that if I run, I can't seem to get to that zone in my head. Walking, instead, does the trick for me (maybe I'm not fit enough)
I hear that. And - yes... my creativity does become active while running, sometimes, but definitely more so when I am feeling very running fit. Walking, on the other hand, seems perfectly, and naturally aligned with the emergent nature of creative consciousness.
I’m a big fan of the Franklin Method. Check it out if you want to have a better experience of being in your body. It’s an anatomically and neurologically informed way of clearly and playfully being with your body and letting it lead the way. I’ve just done a short session and I have no bla-bla in my head at all (for now!)
Interesting, Micahel—I had not heard of the Franklin Method.
You can find out more here https://franklinmethod.com There are a bunch of short, free videos on the youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@Franklinmethodch
Annie Murphy Paul, I do alot of my "default mode" thinking inadvertently in the bath. But your 5 suggestions, esp the disonance one, is rather surprising.
thanks for the work that you do. big fan of your books since cult of personality testing
Thank you so much, Daryl! Yes, so much about creativity is paradoxical, it seems: creativity can be evoked by an experience of fluidity, and *also* by an experience of dissonance . . . It's such a mysterious state. Not to say that it can't be scientifically investigated ;-)
totally agree. paradox is revealed everywhere, even in the microcosm of a 3 min song.
I previously thought of dissonance within as something to resolve. I have to look into this further.
for now, I wonder if it has to be *intentional* dissonance rather than it being an involuntary state.
"Simply moving the body through space is itself a loose kind of metaphor for creativity". - Love this!
Matter, itself, is a kind enactment of the imagination.