Lovely post, Medha - and I'm not only saying that because you so very kindly linked to me! Your fabulous cartoon of my squirrel safari makes me grin every time I look at it - again, thank you sooo much!
How lovely that you rediscovered something when you switched off the exogenous sound on your walks! I'm not doing nearly enough walking at the moment (thanks to the weather, which is currently persistently and unreasonably British!), but it's the act of doing the walking, moving my body, breathing the air and drinking in everything around me that gets the conveyor belts in my brain's ideas factory turning. I flipping love it! It's amazing how something like that can awaken creativity.
Now if only spring would just arrive, I'll get back out there for more than ten minutes (in the rain) at a time....! 🤣
Being in the opposite hemisphere I can hilariously report that we are having a thunderstorm right this second. I'm actually going to come back to this topic, because the comment above yours helped to me discover somethign important. The other place that I can access that same creative opening is the shower and also driving in the car without any music or other stimulation. HIghly recommend!
YES to showering! YES to driving! I used to find that swimming, too, was a brilliant opportunity to generate and distill ideas - there's something about the repetitive nature of it that could get my cogs whirring!
This is also "being in the opposite hemisphere" - these states are associated with right brain hemisphere as per Dr Iain McGichrist's "divided brain" work - here is a cartoon about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI
Beautiful! LOVE the cartoonifications, wow!! Immensely enjoyable, your cartoons and your stories. Yay You! Well I feel lucky because I already am a paid subscriber, Yay Me! I was wondering how the very first panel (with you feeling a void in the pit of your stomach) ties into the rest of the essay? I understood the clarification between stress learning vs curiosity. But then we pivoted with you, and went on your phone-free walk and new ideas for your subscriber options... and I wasn't sure whether you wrapped up the earlier panels? Maybe I missed something. Hmmmm - inquiring minds would like a Part II please! :)
You are tops. I love how you think deeply and share your feedback super generously. In my head the connection was clear but I can see now that I didn't explain it. But deeper than that, as I pondered your comment I uncovered something else going on under the surface that I didn't realise what there.
I love discovering things I couldn't see before and your comment helped me with that.
I think there WILL be a part 2 now! Thank you x 1000! xxx
Great post Medha. I absolutely agree with your need to be distraction-free during walks for the ideas to flow, and what a result for you after you turned off the inputs! It is a constant struggle to turn off the never-ending stream of wonderful podcasts to give myself time to think. I also love your drawing of Rebecca's meeting with the squirrel: they both look immensely happy!
It's so funny how it's a lesson I've learned about 1329 times, and I still keep forgetting and the remembering and then forgetting and remembering! As long as I keep remembering when I forget, then it's all good!
Oh those sneaky ways we trick ourselves....i've noticed this myself and having the quiet during my walks makes such a difference in my ability to create.
Another great post! Thank you for sharing your journey. I'm linking your last article on intuition in my next post at: https://scottweinzirl.substack.com/
That's a generous thing to say! And you'll be sharing your experience of it so I don't think you can go wrong! Thanks again for the support. It means a lot.
I'm a new subscriber and so happy to be here! Gosh, I love what you're doing here. The infusion of your artwork is so different and creative, and your message of course reigns. Cheers! 💜
I rarely go on walks--especially by myself (though I LOVE walking!) so I can't speak to if the ideas flow in the silence then, but I AM definitely a shower thoughts kinda gal. I'll come up with so many ideas when I'm showering, haha! But not recently... because I've been bringing my wireless earbud into the shower to listen to audiobooks while I get squeaky clean!
Thanks for this reminder! I can remind myself to STOP doing that haha. Allow some quietness and electronic-free time in my day. I don't usually have music playing in my room or anything either. Just those showers just hit different for ideas!
And I've sorta had some experience with energy work! I was getting my NLP certification and when we were releasing anger and sadness for the certification with a partner, I'm sure my partner was reiki certified too. When she got to releasing sadness for me, I felt a warm melting down my body, and we were on ZOOM! It was wild! Next thing you know, I naturally didn't react to situations that usually left me explosive in an argument! I immediately turned to curiosity without prompt of thought. It was so wild!! Only other energy-ish thing I loved was during the certification we learned an extreme version of building rapport, where your partner thought of a memory and you matched their body language exactly, and were able to see most if not all of what their memory was about! I did it at least twice with two different partners on different days, and had the same done to me twice and we were all close or right!
I think the thoughts hit differently in the shower than when I'm walking around without listening to anything because I'm not doing anything that requires concentration, so it frees up my mind.
And ha. That's super cool! I love when magical things like that happen to remind us that the world really IS magical!
Lovely post, Medha - and I'm not only saying that because you so very kindly linked to me! Your fabulous cartoon of my squirrel safari makes me grin every time I look at it - again, thank you sooo much!
How lovely that you rediscovered something when you switched off the exogenous sound on your walks! I'm not doing nearly enough walking at the moment (thanks to the weather, which is currently persistently and unreasonably British!), but it's the act of doing the walking, moving my body, breathing the air and drinking in everything around me that gets the conveyor belts in my brain's ideas factory turning. I flipping love it! It's amazing how something like that can awaken creativity.
Now if only spring would just arrive, I'll get back out there for more than ten minutes (in the rain) at a time....! 🤣
Being in the opposite hemisphere I can hilariously report that we are having a thunderstorm right this second. I'm actually going to come back to this topic, because the comment above yours helped to me discover somethign important. The other place that I can access that same creative opening is the shower and also driving in the car without any music or other stimulation. HIghly recommend!
YES to showering! YES to driving! I used to find that swimming, too, was a brilliant opportunity to generate and distill ideas - there's something about the repetitive nature of it that could get my cogs whirring!
I think of it like this: when I move my body, I move my energy and when I create space (by not ingesting stimulation), the ideas come!
This is also "being in the opposite hemisphere" - these states are associated with right brain hemisphere as per Dr Iain McGichrist's "divided brain" work - here is a cartoon about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI
Ha. High-five to you for the witty wordplay AND excellent point. Loved the delivery too. Did I mention I'm a fan of cartoons? 😁
Beautiful! LOVE the cartoonifications, wow!! Immensely enjoyable, your cartoons and your stories. Yay You! Well I feel lucky because I already am a paid subscriber, Yay Me! I was wondering how the very first panel (with you feeling a void in the pit of your stomach) ties into the rest of the essay? I understood the clarification between stress learning vs curiosity. But then we pivoted with you, and went on your phone-free walk and new ideas for your subscriber options... and I wasn't sure whether you wrapped up the earlier panels? Maybe I missed something. Hmmmm - inquiring minds would like a Part II please! :)
You are tops. I love how you think deeply and share your feedback super generously. In my head the connection was clear but I can see now that I didn't explain it. But deeper than that, as I pondered your comment I uncovered something else going on under the surface that I didn't realise what there.
I love discovering things I couldn't see before and your comment helped me with that.
I think there WILL be a part 2 now! Thank you x 1000! xxx
Awwww that's incredible! I love being a part of your process. <3 Can't wait to hear more about it!! xoxo
It's still percolating, but it might be this coming week? We shall both have to wait and see.
Great post Medha. I absolutely agree with your need to be distraction-free during walks for the ideas to flow, and what a result for you after you turned off the inputs! It is a constant struggle to turn off the never-ending stream of wonderful podcasts to give myself time to think. I also love your drawing of Rebecca's meeting with the squirrel: they both look immensely happy!
It's so funny how it's a lesson I've learned about 1329 times, and I still keep forgetting and the remembering and then forgetting and remembering! As long as I keep remembering when I forget, then it's all good!
Oh those sneaky ways we trick ourselves....i've noticed this myself and having the quiet during my walks makes such a difference in my ability to create.
and I friggen love the cartoon vision board!
Thank you! I updated it recently to incorporate my dreams for substack! And aren't we humans hilarious?
Another great post! Thank you for sharing your journey. I'm linking your last article on intuition in my next post at: https://scottweinzirl.substack.com/
Thanks again for all the inspiration!
Well that's lovely! Thanks Scott!
Ps I just subbed to your so I can see it come through.
Thanks so much!
The post comes out tomorrow. After I link to it, I give a brief description of it. I hope I do it justice and didn't miss the point :)
That's a generous thing to say! And you'll be sharing your experience of it so I don't think you can go wrong! Thanks again for the support. It means a lot.
I'm a new subscriber and so happy to be here! Gosh, I love what you're doing here. The infusion of your artwork is so different and creative, and your message of course reigns. Cheers! 💜
Oh Sue - you just made my day! The warmest of welcomes to you. Make yourself at home here. I look forward to hanging out with you in the comments!
Happy to hear I made your day. I look forward to hanging with you as well in the comments! Can't wait. 💜
I rarely go on walks--especially by myself (though I LOVE walking!) so I can't speak to if the ideas flow in the silence then, but I AM definitely a shower thoughts kinda gal. I'll come up with so many ideas when I'm showering, haha! But not recently... because I've been bringing my wireless earbud into the shower to listen to audiobooks while I get squeaky clean!
Thanks for this reminder! I can remind myself to STOP doing that haha. Allow some quietness and electronic-free time in my day. I don't usually have music playing in my room or anything either. Just those showers just hit different for ideas!
And I've sorta had some experience with energy work! I was getting my NLP certification and when we were releasing anger and sadness for the certification with a partner, I'm sure my partner was reiki certified too. When she got to releasing sadness for me, I felt a warm melting down my body, and we were on ZOOM! It was wild! Next thing you know, I naturally didn't react to situations that usually left me explosive in an argument! I immediately turned to curiosity without prompt of thought. It was so wild!! Only other energy-ish thing I loved was during the certification we learned an extreme version of building rapport, where your partner thought of a memory and you matched their body language exactly, and were able to see most if not all of what their memory was about! I did it at least twice with two different partners on different days, and had the same done to me twice and we were all close or right!
I think the thoughts hit differently in the shower than when I'm walking around without listening to anything because I'm not doing anything that requires concentration, so it frees up my mind.
And ha. That's super cool! I love when magical things like that happen to remind us that the world really IS magical!
Thank you Jan! I'm a fan of it too hehe.