Creativity inspiration
Charlotte Rains Dixon  

A Two-Step Process for Creating Energy

Behold:

Library This is one wall of the new library in my home.  Yes, I now have a library.  Don't be too jealous.  It took hours and hours of clearing, cleaning, and moving books and bookshelves from the living room into the room formerly known as the guest room.

But it was worth it.  The coolest thing in the whole world is to sit in a room surrounded by books.  (The other wall has two full bookshelves on it.) And now that the room is finished, I realize how much stagnant energy was released from those bookshelves that hadn't been rearranged in years.

So often in life we get stuck.  Not just in our writing, though Lord knows we writers struggle with that often enough, but in life.  And sometimes we might not even realize how stuck we are.  Like the old bookshelves, we're harboring stagnant energy that prevents us from moving forward with our writing, our creativity, our lives.

But lately I've been working on a two-step process that helps you to get unstuck.  And actually, I think the process works well for when you want to create some garden-variety energy.  Ready? Here goes:

1.  Vent.  Vent like you've never vented before.  Give it all up.  All the crap from your dark side that you've been hanging onto.  I got the idea from Marianne Williamson, in her new book on weight loss.  She suggests writing out responses about your anger, your greed, your shame, embarrassment, when you feel superior, when you feel inferior, what your worried about, why your heart is heavy…you get the idea.  But take this idea and really run with it.  Don't just write for 10 minutes or so, go deeply into all these feelings you've been carrying around and get them out onto the page.  It might take awhile, but it is so worth it.  You will feel immediately lighter and more buoyant.  (Which is, by the way, my current favorite new word.)

2. Be grateful.  Now that you're all light and floaty from releasing so much dreck, think about what you're grateful for.  Say out loud what you are grateful for.  Write down what you're grateful for.  Saturate the air around you with what you're grateful for.  Kathleen Gage suggests that you feel grateful for the things that are working in your life.  Like your furnace (its very cold here in Portland today and every time the furnace clicks on, I'm grateful.) And your electricity and the water that flows through your pipes at will and your computer and the internet and all the other things we take for granted.  Odds are good that if you are reading this, you have, not to put too fine a point on it, a shitload of things to be grateful for. 

That's it.  Couldn't be simpler.  Or more profound.  It's a great process.  Try it and report back.

0 thoughts on “A Two-Step Process for Creating Energy

  1. Melissa Donovan

    Whenever I see full bookshelves, I feel completely drawn to them, whether in real life or in a picture. Congrats on your new library! You did a great job.

  2. Derek

    Fantastic bookshelf Charlotte. And to think that I’ve just purchased a Kindle to save space. No, really, I have my smaller bookshelves and there I like the books that I have, but have no room for any more.

    In my Zen meditation lots of stuff keeps coming into consciousness, and sometimes it feels like there’s a lot of barriers to get over, but I see that that’s the nature of Zen life. To enter the “darkness” to vent and resolve as you say in step one, and the “light” to celebrate (give thanks – same thing I believe) in step two. Doing this I feel I am addressing the dualism and moving towards at-one-ness.

    The writing out is a great purgative exercise. Providing, as it is in the Zen tradition, there is no seeking to get better, but that we receive the darkness to the same degree that we receive the light. Writing things down without censoring what we write is a excellent method of receiving any darkness that we need to address. I think I must have spent thousands of hours on such writing over the years.

  3. Don

    Wow… your very own library!

    Yes, I’m jealous… I can’t help it, because I just love books, and the more the merrier!

    I love reading them, and even just looking at them. When ever I pass a library or book store I feel so guilty if I can’t go in.

    I love being around books, so if I’m ever in Portland, do you mind if I stop by and just sit in your library for a little while…. like a couple of years!

    Seriously, I’m so happy for you. Having your very own library and being surrounded by all your friends, just sitting there on your shelfs, is one of best ways in which to just relax, reflect and fire up your creativity, so congratulations Charlotte on a job well done, and well deserved!

  4. Charlotte Dixon

    Melissa, thank you, I think it looks quite nice, too.

    Derek, I appreciate, as always, your Zen view on things.

    Don, Come on over! You’re welcome to hang out in my library any time–I’ll throw in coffee or tea or whatever you prefer!

  5. […] for a quick fix, read my post on a two-step process to create energy.  And please feel free to comment on how you maintain a positive mindset for your writing and […]

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