Scheduled Spontaneity

Scheduled Spontaneity

I like routines. My current second favorite is having attached my qigong practice to putting on my pajamas. Jammies on, practice starts. No real thinking about it, just moving into it. Easy.

My early morning routine flows with a few variations in it, and, depending on the day, other routines come into play.

A routine is a good habit. I think it’s hilarious that writing to you is one of my routines; a routine of spontaneous creativity. Now, that’s an oxymoron.

Many years ago, I attended a workshop on creativity. The husband and wife team were excellent presenters, and had come up with some delightful activities for us to do. And they gave us some outstanding advice: If you want to do creative work, don’t wait for inspiration to hit, practice being creative.

That seemed completely counterintuitive to me, but now I get it. Now I see that by practicing a creative endeavor every day, it’s easy for me to get at my creative mind. It’s easier to come up with solutions. Practice.

When I am writing songs every day, writing songs gets easier. When I am drawing or designing jewelry regularly, that gets easier. Writing to you every day is easy and so fun.

I see a pattern developing.

When I am practicing creativity, I am having fun. I relax. When I relax, I am living my natural life. Natural life is creative, abundant, joyful, easy, positive, well, I think you catch my drift.

I also have places where I struggle from time to time, and those are habit, too. In fact, struggle is pretty much just habit. And it’s all made up in our heads. A thing only becomes a problem when I assign emotional content to it.

So, little by little, I’m replacing old, bad habits with fresh, supportive routines. I think about what I want my new routines to look like, how I want to feel, if I am productive in them, that sort of thing. And implement them with gentleness and patience.

I’m remembering more and more quickly that, when I feel bad, I’m stuck in an old habit. It might be old thoughts, or old feelings, but feeling bad means stop, assess the situation, is there something I could do, if yes, do it. If no, let it go and change the feelings. I listen for phrases like, “I always,” and “I never” and consider whether I want to keep them.

I’m remembering to make time for spontaneous activities. Scheduling spontaneity does crack me up, but it works. And having that time earmarked for spontaneous activity means that I usually don’t spend it sacked out on the sofa watching TV, but actually take the time to think, “What do I want to do next?” Oh, how fun is that question! It means that I recognize my choice in blessing my house with cleaning, or cooking something, or making something, or snuggling with my pets, or going for a walk, or reading, or napping, or sitting on the porch, or, or, or. 

Luxury.

How have I changed from reining my creativity in, to enjoying being spontaneously creative?