Today, close to sunset, I went for a meditation walk across a bridge in Ravenna Park, the neighborhood I live in. During my meditation practice, I bring myself back to the present moment by focusing my mind on an object in nature. As someone whose mind often feels scattered by a long list of priorities and thoughts about the goals I’ve set for myself, I notice myself being shifted to past and future thoughts—or just thoughts about myself and my place in the world.
Noticing my surroundings by focusing on a visual thing, often a tree in passing, helps me shift thoughts away from myself, and get out of my own head. This is relevant to my creative process, because my favorite artistic experiences as a viewer create a similar effect: I feel lost in what the artist has produced and it takes me away from my everyday experiences. I also think about how much of my thoughts in my own head relate to control: setting a goal, being in control of time and responsibilities, creating a specific outcome.
In opposition to that, in creative pursuits I have always been drawn towards improvisational ways of creating, because the outcomes of these works feel less controlled. As someone who seeks balance in my life, I hope to be able to channel both the controlled and the less controlled parts of myself in my creative and professional endeavors.