Another of the artist’s best practices is daydreaming. I am still learning from the book ‘Wired to create’ by @Scott B. Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire (2015). They are telling me it is OK to do things that I was told not to do as a child and an adult. Under the right circumstances, Kaufman and Gregoire say that daydreaming is a positive activity because it takes us away from our negative thoughts. Another benefit of daydreaming is that our inner thoughts are directed towards goals, aspirations and dreams. We work out our ideas, learn to understand ourselves and work out social situations.
For artists, daydreaming helps us sort out our ideas or process our ideas. The best ideas seem to come out of the blue, when we are doing something else or thinking of something else. Our minds may seem idle but they are actually working out ideas. Kaufman and Gregoire suggest taking a walk, doodling or cleaning when you are stumped or frustrated with a project.Daydreaming should be part of the artist’s toolkit, they insist.
Kaufman and Gregoire maintain that by turning our attention to the inner world, we build a sense of meaning and hope as well as tap into our deepest levels of creativity. Research shows that dreaming about the future helps us reach our goals.
One of the gurus of daydreaming is @Carl Jung. He came up with a technique called creative visualization. He advocated that we should look into our subconscious to help solve problems in the conscious mind. Jung said that with practice, we could train our mind to shift between conscious and subconscious. Remembering our dreams is one way of doing this.
Other ways to access our subconscious mind is to have a nice long, hot shower. There, we are more or less free of distractions, we are relaxed and it insulates us from the external world. No one can distract us.
Another way is to take a walk, preferably in nature. Philosopher, @Immanuel Kant, advocated walks for ideas as did @Charles Darwin and @Henry David Thoreau, @William Wordsworth, @Freud, @Hemingway, @Jefferson and @Aristotle, just to name a few famous names.
Immanuel Kant was an influential Prussian German philosopher in the Age of Enlightenment. In his doctrine of transcendental idealism, he argued that space, time, and causation are mere sensibilities; “things-in-themselves” exist, but their nature is unknowable.
The connection between subconscious and conscious is also related to mindfulness. Mindfulness is an awareness of our environment and where we are in the moment. Mindfulness is the psychological process of purposely bringing one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment without judgment, which one can develop through the practice of meditation and through other training.
To me, mindfulness is paying attention to my painting process. I become aware of every paint stroke that I do. I carefully put down layers until I have what I want. I put on low music with no words or no music at all and I focus only on my task.
There are hundreds of articles on mindfulness. They basically say similar advice. Learn to eliminate distractions and focus only on what you are doing. Here are a few that could help you if you want to know more:
I hope this helps you.
Doris’ website: www.dorischarest.ca
I have creativity courses and art courses online at: https://www.udemy.com/user/dorischarest/
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Thanks for reading, and please do recommend, like, share, comment, etc. Thanks.
Till next time …
All photography and artwork by Doris Charest
