Finding My Way

Tonight I attended a yoga class for the first time in what must be 5 or more years. I used to attend classes pretty avidly but at some point the demands of entrepreneurship on both time and money made this important activity seem much more like a luxury.

After pulling up to the parking lot, I checked the messages on my phone and almost carried it with me.  I realized I had no use for it in the class and left it in the car, unplugging from my social network.

This is no easy task for someone in my industry. I have built a career around interconnected, always-on, 24/7 relationships. The same phone that connects me to Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest/WhateverNewAppComesOutTommorrow is my alarm clock and my jukebox. It calculates my distance and speed when I run and serves up the books I read before sleeping each night. I have not been truly alone in years. But for one peaceful hour, I was alone tonight.

I learned recently that a new friend has more than a fair talent for oil painting. During a slow moment during today’s lazy, rainy wind-down to 5 PM, I asked to see some examples of her work. I found the postcard-sized images impressive, although I’m sure hardly represent the actual paint-on-canvas recreations of Georgia O’Keefe’s work. We soon moved on from talking about the paintings themselves to talking about the process of creating.

“The best part for me,” she said, “is pouring a glass of wine and spending the entire day in the garage working on a painting. Even if I don’t finish it, I’ve accomplished something. At the end of the day, I’m more relaxed, and all those problems buzzing around inside my head seem much less important than they did before I started.”

Art occupies a special place in our society for a reason. Not because artists are all that special. Anyone can create if they give themselves the time and mental freedom to do so. Unfortunately, precious few of us create that time, that space, in our lives. Instead we strut and fret away every hour we have and complain at the end of the day about our dissatisfaction with ourselves and how our lives are going.

Art represents the essence of connecting to something within ourselves and something bigger than ourselves. Creating art requires unplugging from our environment even if that environment serves as our inspiration. The creative process requires three things: inspiration, focus and time. Once you become inspired, the only thing holding you back from creation are the limitations you place on your time and your attention.

As much as I love technology’s ability  to connect people on a broader scale, I must remember that breadth often exists at the expense of depth. This post wouldn’t exist without a real-world, look-you-in-the-eye conversation, a good strong hour of muscle-shaking yoga and my own desire to disengage from the world around me while I sit down and write.

The best part is that my head will be clearer and my ability to make decisions in the rest of my life will be stronger after taking this time.

The next time you wonder why the crazy, stressful thoughts won’t stop running through your head, consider what you did that day to unplug…and then make really make plans for how you will unplug tomorrow.

** Image provided by  QuinnDombrowski  License Some rights reserved.