If you’re floating around on this big, beautiful rock with me, perhaps you’ve felt the shifts swirling around in the air, too. It’s no surprise to me that all of my 1:1 clients so far this year have said ‘I can feel a change coming’ or something to that effect — totally unprompted, all on their own. How interesting is that?
So here’s my question of the day:
What are we going to do with this feeling?
How have you removed the old to let in space for the new?
Are you welcoming in the change or fighting it?
It’s one thing to make a statement about what you sense is going on/how you’re feeling about your work but it’s an entirely different thing to put action behind it.
We usually don’t put action behind our ah-ha moments because we love to just think, think, think and worry, worry, worry and sit and stare and tune out and do nil about it. I’ve noticed this super uncomfortable shift in my own practice — a complete disconnection to the work I’m creating BECAUSE of this uneasy, earth-bubbling feeling that won’t stop poking me in the back. So yeah, I’ve been ignoring it, too. I’ve been too busy with attempting (and failing) at meeting my deadlines, I haven’t had time (or so I’ve told myself) to step back and play.
Recalibrate.
Look at what’s working and chuck out the rest, baby and the bathwater style.
We tell ourselves we don’t have time to do the very things that will help us grow.
And then we look back and wonder why we feel so stuck.
So this is where the action part comes in.
Ask yourself this question:
- How are you consciously tuning out of 99% of what’s going on, just for a few moments each day, so you can actively tune into your work, your process and the meaning behind it all? Autopilot isn’t going to work this season if you ask me (and the cosmos, apparently). How are you taking time to connect and click in?
Action steps if you’re failing at the above:
1. Give yourself just 20 minutes before your next session to actively NOT go into autopilot. This will take conscious effort because it’s not natural to you. Look at your space with fresh eyes (this is why it’s important to do it first thing) and assess.
2. Reorganize, declutter, dust, sweep, in silence. We need those pings + intuitive thoughts to flow through and guess what? There’s no room for them to reach your brain when you’re constantly drowning them out with music and podcasts and other dopamine hits 24/7 *cough cough, me*
3. Give yourself permission to explore/entertain ONE tactic you’ve been wanting to try in the studio that you’ve brushed off 100 times already in 2024. Mine will be more printmaking tactics, including hand-pulled prints like the days of yore aka when I was in undergrad.
What’s your thing? What will you excitedly bring into your practice to freshen things up and shake up your process?
The same old, same old ain’t working.
I don’t think we need to throw everything out.
I simply think we need to unclench our jaws a bit, remember how to explore as artists and have more fun throughout the creation process.
We are all meant to be evolving right now —
Resisting the change will only create friction and where there’s friction, there’s fire.
xx,
Allison