I can’t believe I skipped two days of 31 Days! Last year, even when I was on vacation, I still posted projects. But this week, sickness got the best of me. During my daily “creative” time (my kids’ nap time), I napped instead. It was desperately needed, and I’m feeling much better.

When I first started looking into “creative habit“, I found an article, “The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People” at Zen Habits. I had forgotten about it until I opened up Twyla Tharp this afternoon and read through her first few exercises. Exercise 2 is “Build Up Your Tolerance for Solitude”.

Now, I’m an ENFP. I enjoy being with other people. But I’ve come to realize, as I get older, that I also enjoy quiet time by myself, at least a little. (Some weeks are crazier than others, and I crave quiet so much that I begin to wonder if I’m really an Introvert. Maybe I should retest?)

The most interesting idea Twyla said about it, at least to me, is this:

“[Solitude] is the exact opposite of meditation.”

You’re not trying to quiet your mind, to get rid of your thoughts, but to pull thoughts out.

So this afternoon, while trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with a piece in my “sewing projects” box, I pulled out my journal and sat with my thoughts. Within 4 minutes, I had come up with three possibilities, two of which had never occurred to me, and probably wouldn’t have if I’d just started cutting and sewing. But giving myself some time to just be quiet and think – ALONE – brought out all sorts of different ideas.

Maybe this will be my new ritual – to start my creative time with some quiet, not doing anything or creating in any way, but just being alone with ideas.

Check back tomorrow to see what I do with my ideas from today!

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This post is part of a 31 day series. Find all the posts in this series here.

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