Motivation & Mindfulness

It seems that I have some sort of auto post setting on Posterous and now that the Thing-a-Day project is up and running, the 2nd post (by splashpaint) motivating everyone to join up before Feb. 1st posted both on Posterous and here on my blog (as if I posted it). Bizarre. Scared me for a bit though because I thought a spammer had access to my account!

Having said all of this – I am more than happy to take this as an opening to talk about motivation and creativity. Namely, what motivates me and “reawakens my creativity”, as the original post said. I would like to say that there is a simple off the shelf answer that you can pick up at your local muse shop. But as with so many things in life, I’d have to say instead that it depends.

For me, the struggle with motivation and harnessing the wild flashes of creativity, is just that – it is a struggle and the creativity does come in wild flashes. Part of my own path of mindfulness and acceptance of myself as I am, has been understanding and acknowledging that many of the ways that I process the world are deeply influenced by a traumatic past. And so, a large part of my creative process has had to include a feeling of safety.

What does this look like? Well it isn’t always an obvious thing. Something as simple as routines are helpful to me. With my writing, it helps to write at the same time each day, even if nothing is forthcoming. I’ve found that leaving a roughly sketched idea to explore is helpful or even just a word dangling, ready to launch a new sentence the next day.

When it comes to matters of health and wellness, motivation still requires a sense of safety, if you want to think of it like that, because I am most successful at being mindful of my exercise routines and eating habits, if I am equally mindful of habits of self-judgement. You know the habits I mean – little things we tell ourselves that are just as critical, if not more so, than if we heard them from someone else, about how we look, how healthy we are, chances of success et cetera. These little voices are, of course, not terribly helpful but they can be put to good use.

More on turning the little voices from demons into angels soon.

For now – this was fun – thanks for listening. Amusing what can happen when technology goes awry, in other words this post is all thanks to a goofy autopost feature. Though it is interesting that I was then inspired to write about motivation and how a feeling of safety helps motivate me, considering it all began with a concern that someone else had posted to my blog (which was technically true but not intentionally). Wonders never cease.

Post shout out to January. Check out her blog.

“So Excited” – A Post by Splashpaint

“This is [the] motivation I’ve needed to reawaken my creativity.”  <- Words I didn’t write – but were autoposted from a post by <splashpaint> on Posterous.  Didn’t delete this post, however, because it inspired my own blog post that follows.

Gratitude: What Could Have Been

I am not a big fan of blogging about places of employment, past or present – I don’t think it’s a generally good practice for what should be obvious easons.  And I don’t mean this in a proscriptive sense, I mean it in a i-dont-trust-myself-to-not-say-something-stupid sense.

Having said that, I feel like sharing something I am grateful for.  And it requires posting about a former place of employment.  Someone reading this who knows me really well will know exactly where I mean, but I would thank you to keep that to yourself.  :)

So, visiting said former place of employment last week was a surreal experience for me. The place I used to work at was not the best fit for me and my skills, hence the “former”.  Leaving there was one of the better things I’ve done in my life and really I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my sister for helping me realize what options I had available to me at the time.

Last week I had the very bizarre opportunity to re-visit that place, not out of choice but by chance. Basically the place I used to work at is an environmental lab and this many years later I had need of their services.  I was there dropping off the samples.  I could have mailed them but that would have delayed the results. And, anyway, I guess a part of me was curious.

The building hasn’t changed much from what I could see. Some sprucing up in the entry way but overall, the same layout as when I was there.  What shocked me most though was who greeted me at the desk.  The (second-to) last person I expected to see.  I guess the boss would be the actual last person I’d expect to see (not because he’d have left but because he wouldn’t be at the front desk).

But this person, Former Colleague #1, didn’t appear to have changed one iota. Slightly older, sure, but the exact same mannerisms. And a second person I used to work with was clearly still there (their name was everywhere) as well but not available for a proper reunion. It was just as well – all the reasons I left were apparent within seconds of talking to Former Colleague #1.  And later when I called to get the lab results, Former Colleague #2, was pretty much unchanged as well.  And yet they were both what one could call good co-workers.  Generally nice people, easy to get along with, helped me get up to speed, and weren’t overly competitive.

But the whole experience of walking in there that day was surreal.  Made me feel as if sometimes you do get to travel in the TARDIS. Just for a moment. Crack open the doors and see what could have been…then back home in time for dinner.  No time to ask questions and get sucked into another reality.

 

P.S. Further gratitude and love to a fellow blogger-goddess, Go-Go Rach, for whom this post was written.