A friend gave me some valuable advice this past week. He was reading through some pages of fiction I have written over the past couple of months. He had a notable observation. My friend asked me if I had ever taken a hot yoga class. Although it has been a while, I have ventured, from time to time, into one of those yoga studios with the fired-up furnace. It can be an exercise in endurance. But I always enjoyed the experience once the ninety minutes was finished, and it did get easier over time, as one became acclimated to the overwhelming heat. He reminded me of one of the principal rules of hot yoga, especially when first starting out. No matter what, just stay in the room. You can just lie there on your mat for the duration of the class if the heat is too much to bear. It might be too challenging to get into the postures at first – the 110-degree temperature might be unbearable. I was always encouraged to remain in the room, so that I would receive at least some benefit from the session.

I had forgotten this guideline until he mentioned it again to me. He said that the same could be true of the artistic process, especially when you are deep in the weeds and have lost some perspective on the project that you are working on. There is often an urge to retreat from the essential aspects of the work. Following a tangential element seems inviting in the moment. Just jumping at something bright and new and different seems tantalizing. You come to believe that this outlier of an idea will fix whatever challenges are coming up for you. And maybe working on this idea will open up a new vantage point upon which you can better understand the work.

But it can often be more beneficial to just stay in the proverbial room. To really focus on the elements of the creative endeavor that are already before you. It may be uncomfortable to sit there with the given set of conditions your work has presented to you. But just practice stillness; see what deeper meaning emerges from this meditation.

We have been charting out this territory for a number of months now, so reckon with the value inherent in the topics and themes that have already surfaced. There is no need to go looking further afield for inspiration if you are feeling twitchy when pondering your work. This discomfort means that you are onto something powerful. See what happens when you focus intently upon what is already before you. Tease out new details, fresh shadings of your project, but make sure that they revolve around aspects of your creative endeavor that have already been fleshed out on the written page or the canvas or the musical notation, whatever the artistic medium.

Have the courage to stay in the room, no matter how hot it might feel. That discomfort means that you are getting at something meaningful and powerful. Let the sweat gather on your brow. We have been deeply enmeshed in our creative endeavors for long enough that the first blush of inspiration has given itself over to real resonance if we just stay the course.