How To Still The Mind To Connect With Your Muse
A consistent connection with your muse is hardly possible if your days are filled with hectic client engagements. When you pen articles related to every aspect of living, from washing machines to debt and everything else in between, you can quickly burn out. When we plunge to the darker corners of our bad-assed conscience we lose touch with our muse.
To re-connect with our creative self we first need to still the busy mind. When the mind is still, we can focus on our dreams, our aspirations and our journey while getting rid of useless mind clutter all the same. Sometimes we hardly recognize that we are stuck because we are too busy getting ahead. So how do we become aware of our need for a mental break – a much needed shift to re-align ourselves with the muse? Read on to find out…
Typical signs of impending burnout
A classic sign of being overworked is when you are restlessness at night. If you have trouble going to sleep, and wake up in the middle of the night screaming because of nightmares or simply find yourself consistently tired – even after a long night of sleep – then these are all very strong signs to stop and take note of your current situation.
Other indicators of possible burnout could be a short fuse; you might blow up easily; nervous energy, you can’t sit still for even five minutes; or you feel depressed without any apparent reason.
Dealing with the situation
To first thing you need to do if you find yourself in this situation is to stop and analyze what brought this on. Perhaps you are battling an increasingly hard to handle workload. It could also be a case of constant distractions in your home, making it hard for you to think and concentrate.
Once you know the culprit/s you can take pro-active measures to deal with the situation. The following suggestions are ideal exercises to claim back your muse if you find yourselves stuck:
- Listen to guided meditation.
- Go for a long walk.
- Keep a diary or daily pages.
- Work out.
- Take a short break (it doesn’t have to be the weekend either).
- Spend some time in solitude.
- Start a creative journal (stick mementos, write prose, brainstorm ideas, etc.)
- Dance like a mad man/mad woman.
- Sing at the top of your voice.
- Meditate.
- Do yoga.
- Cuddle a pet.
- Indulge.
- Luxuriate.
- Insert your own ideas…
Regardless what you end up choosing to re-connect with your muse, the most important thing you can do is to distance yourself from your current problem; the one that is keeping your mind hostage. By keeping some much-needed space between you and the issue at hand you will learn to recognize what is important and what isn’t. Once you get rid of this mental clutter you are once again free to write.
Feel free to share your ideas of how you re-connect with your muse. Thanks for visiting.
Monika
Image credit:laffy4k
About the Author: I'm a passionate freelance writer and problogger. To further build my business I'm also in the process of building my own niche empire which pays me residual income.
Davina | Jun 25, 2009 | Reply
Hi Monika. Great list — especially your suggestion to dance like a mad woman. Are you speaking from experience?
I understand this all too well. Many nights recently I’ve gone to bed around 1 am after working since before 8 am that same day. I lay there wide awake. My body is tired, but my mind is racing ahead as if the gas pedal is stuck. Burnout is a result of not listening to the signs early enough; too much “doing” and not enough “being”. A very easy pattern to fall into these days.
John Soares | Jun 26, 2009 | Reply
I love this list.
I do many of the things you mention. A couple others that are:
–Do some tai chi.
–Snuggle with my sweetheart.
Monika | Jun 26, 2009 | Reply
@ Davina: I think it is a sign of the times. Back in the age of our grandparents they didn’t have the computer, just hard repetitive work tending to the fields to grow crops. These days we have too many distractions that have us vibrate at such high levels that many individuals simply spin out of control – just look at all the violence around.
You bet that I dance like a mad woman. Give me a good beat, turn up the volume and I can dance for hours while nursing my soul and the occasional sip of water.
Monika | Jun 26, 2009 | Reply
@ John Soares: Oh John, I loved the snuggle with your sweetheart suggestion. How could I have forgotten to mention this myself.
Thanks for adding to the list. I’ve actually done tai chi myself many years ago, it was very relaxing.
Brett Legree | Jun 27, 2009 | Reply
I like your list Monika. I always try to keep an eye on what I call “the trinity” (not the Holy Trinity, or the one from the Matrix).
Health, home, and heart.
Health includes physical and mental.
Home, your lover(s), family, friends. (Had to put the “s” on lover because it takes all kinds…)
Heart, the virtual heart, your hopes and dreams.
All three are linked. If one suffers, the the others will try to compensate but ultimately they will suffer.
There are many ways to look after the trinity, and you’ve listed a lot of them.
It doesn’t really matter what we do, as long as we do.
Barry Walls | Jun 30, 2009 | Reply
Hi Monica…Nice post. I think “the release technique” is exceptional for making the mind quiet. Lester Levinson is definitely on to something in my experience.