So things stall a bit, when we get all too serious. The expectation of producing something beautiful gets to be too much. There has to be a way to reorganize our energies somehow. I have come to really appreciate and value hobbies as an integral part of my creative process.
Just pick up a hobby, something that strikes your fancy – and perhaps something that you have never expressed any aptitude in before. It is good if you are fresh to the table with this little pastime. Or maybe it is a hobby that you have long forgotten how to do, something that you took pleasure in as a youngster.
I have taken to playing the flute, for example, something that I had played as a child. Beethoven said that music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual. As such, this medium works as a wide playing field which I can just relax into, without any pressure to produce something of quality. I don’t really care – or care too much – what I sound like.
The point is to encounter something more primal, that can be carried out with a minimum of fuss, equipment or supplies. The hobby helps to engage the mind in a completely different way than whatever creative pursuit you are into and are driven to make as beautiful as you can. The hobby purposefully has no such built-in expectations.
By incorporating the opportunity for hobby in your life, then the brain gets reordered. There is a little release. The pleasure derived from an activity that is pure process, with no goal in mind, begins to invade our creative endeavors. Those endeavors become a little bit less product-oriented over time as a result. We can breathe a little easier. Whereas, in the past, we have struggled to cope with the seriousness attached to the outcome of the work.
Hobbies introduce the concept of play into our work. At this intersection, interesting things begin to happen upon the page, on the stage or within the lens of the camera. So if you find your brow a bit too wrinkled these days, wondering when the next moment of inspiration is going to strike, then pull your mind out of that mindset by playing a little bit with your creative self.
Photo by Rajesh Rajput on Unsplash
