It is the beginning of August at the end of a workshop day that I sit down to write this. I have been absent, I have been silent. Words and other creative endeavours were locked somewhere deep inside where I could not reach them. It has been that way for more than a year with a few short moments when creativity showed that it was in fact still there but in a long term hibernation. 

Health issues started to plague me as well as insomnia. I had run out of steam after such an intense year or should I say “years” and it is not over yet. Still there is something shimmering, the desire to create is back, it is as undeniable and irrepressible as it used to be many years ago. The urge to create has turned into a need again. Time was needed to overcome the things that had come to haunt me. As with many things in life fighting something sends energy to what you are fighting against which in turn keeps it alive. This is the case with creative blocks as well. You can prime your brain to be inspired once again at some point, but acceptance and self care are needed first in situations like this. 

Our empty home without Kayla is no longer empty. A 6 month old puppy has collapsed on a collection of toys after a day of mischief  and playing. His paws stretched out in all directions. His presence unmistakably and undeniably visible in every room of the house. His arrival in our lives was definitely against all odds, unexpected and even miraculous. Frequent bursts of laughter and suppressed giggles brighten up our days. 

Meanwhile I take more time to be by myself, which had become a rarity since last summer. It seems like a lifetime ago that I spent time on my own with my thoughts, in the forest or with pen and paper in my hands. Being alone is scary to many people, for me it is one of life’s essentials, just as much as filling the pages of my diary. Writing is one of the deepest forms of thinking in my experience or at the very least the base of deep thinking, which is one of the things that form the essence of a joyful existence for me. 

On my long walks I take a small camera with me. No longer do I wish to bring exhaustion and back aches with me on my hikes. No longer do I feel the need to burden my alone time in nature with a tripod in my hand at all times. No longer do I have the urge to expect excellence in everything I do. When I go out for a hike I do this for restorative reasons, to get away from a world driven by erratic human behaviour. I don’t want to waste my time. Time is precious. 

I have learned through the years that hacks to force creativity rarely work. What does work is taking time, accepting what is, priming your mind by monitoring your input, by questioning the almost automatic input which we take in on a daily basis and by asking ourselves the right questions. 

Priming your mind by consciously choosing the right input is a very important part of connecting to your own creativity. Just accepting as a given that one should read every bit of news, scroll through social media feeds and just being bombarded with information that we do not choose, is a shortcut to losing touch with who you would like to be. Inspiration might be fleeting, but one can prepare for it to land on fertile ground. Too much of the wrong input is like an overgrowth of weeds in your garden. To create something, one must remove the weeds and prepare the soil by adding nutrients. The right nutrients will help new plants to flourish, but even then one must keep an eye on the weeds and keep them under control. 

This is very similar to priming your brain to be receptive to inspiration. Too much noise from unnecessary information and too little focussed attention on what can nourish the mind, will  never be the right soil for creativity to flourish on. One must prepare the soil. For that reason it is important to monitor what exactly you have as input during your day. If you do not choose your input carefully, you give away the control over what you can do or be to others, to external sources. 

Choosing the right input will determine your output. If and when you know who you are or who you want to be you can begin to understand which input is beneficial and which is pure noise and distraction. It still takes a great deal of consciousness to become aware of all the input that you allow into your brain every day, some of which can not be avoided. Make sure that what you can control is input that primes the mind for the type of output that you want to bring into the world. The input determines the output which determines where your life goes from this point forward. Either you give away the choice on what you focus your attention on to others or you consider this choice sacred and the key to a fulfilling life. 

Being aware of which input you are letting determine your life, your personal road which in its best and most authentic form is almost always an unbeaten track which you create by the steps you take towards a destination that can never be entirely under our control, begins with asking yourself ( your “self”) the right questions. Choosing carefully what leads you to your own path and omitting that which you can leave to others to follow, means you will have half a chance of priming your brain to be receptive for the next step after input, which is of course the way you spend your life. 

Be very aware of what you let into your mind, because it will either help you get to where you want or lead you away from it. Know who you are, own your unique nature and understand that with uniqueness comes an unbeaten track, which might feel uncomfortable to many, but it is the price you pay for living your best life possible. Weeding is a laborious task, not without its challenges, but nothing worthwhile and rewarding  is achieved by living life whilst having the weeds take over. 

As always I would like to express my gratitude to all of you who have been supporting me, who bought one of my prints, my eBook and who have trusted me to be their teacher.

If you feel compelled to support my work, please consider buying a print or my eBook The Magic of Forest Photography. Prints are now available for many more countries in the EU. If you would like to buy a print and can't find the image in my print shop, please let me know and I'll try to make it available.

 

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