I recently wrote about checking in with myself.  

There’s another practice I’ve been able to form into habit quicker than anticipated. It’s called saying hello to your feelings. In Peace is Every Step, Thick Nat Hahn talks about sitting with your feelings and acknowledging them instead of berating yourself for having them. 

A mother holding her baby is one with her baby. If the mother is thinking of other things, the baby will not calm down. The mother has to put aside other things and just hold her baby. So, don’t avoid your feeling. Don’t say “You are not important. You are only a feeling.” Come and be one with it.

I’ve come to really love this practice and have found that, in relation to my art and business, naming my feelings and finding what needs lie inside them has helped to guide me to sustainable practices. 

For example, yesterday while I was saying hello to my feelings, I began to understand how they are pointing me toward ways to do my best work.

The first need I identified was loneliness. This is not always the case, but loneliness seems to be popping up in the circle more and more often lately, so I ‘m paying attention to that.

I identified some of the reasons loneliness has shown up today such as I need to feel understood. I need to feel appreciated. I need to feel loved. Etc.

But it was more than that. This loneliness was directly related to support. 

It’s the loneliness all artists feel, all Legend-seekers, when they’re alone at their work, knowing they must be, believing in what the long solemn hours will eventually bring forth, sometimes wanting someone to share the load but knowing they can’t. 

The loneliness that wants someone to believe in us, in our potential, and at the same time needs to know that we’re not in this alone. 

Another feeling that showed up was tiredness. 

Not a physical tiredness because I’ve been careful to meet my body’s needs for sleep, rest and energy through a certain schedule. The tiredness I felt was residing almost entirely in my head.  It was a second feeling that contributed to this theme of needing support. I’ve been tired because - or at least my mind tells me it’s because - of a lack of support. 

In yoga class, the teachers often remind us that our mind will always give up before our bodies. It’s just as true during physical exertion as it is during creative exertion. What Seth Godin calls our “lizard brain” will always complain that it can’t go on and needs to stop - or needs support. 

I dug further and found that, ultimately, behind this tiredness and my mind’s claim that I need support, is fear. Fear that I will not be able to sustain this amount of engagement in life. 

I realized that my energy levels and needs are significantly different than they ever have been in the past. That is because I’m putting all of my energy and mind power and strength into everything I do now. There isn’t anything that’s half-assed, that I slack on, that I decide I don’t feel like doing. Every feat in my life is accomplished with love and purpose and as part of the search for something believed in and desired. 

If you’re life is centered on those kinds of things, there won’t be much reason or desire to let things slack. So it’s all in, 110%, gun hoe, full steam ahead, giving it your all and then some. 

That’s enough to make anyone feel a little drained sometimes, but in the best possible way! It’s an amazing feeling to know you’re giving everything you’ve got, and in order to make sure this remains true, I need to maintain my internal fuel levels like a ninja. I need to make sure the fuel for that level of total engagement in life doesn’t drop off. 

I think that maintaining my fuel levels and doing the work will combine to produce flow in my life, and that is what I’m after.

If I know I need to maintain the fuel and the work I want to make sure I’m clear on what both of those are. 

The work I know. For me, right now, it is writing and engaging. Creating and sharing.

But what exactly is the fuel? The things I need in order to do my best work?

I identified these things as fuel in my life : 

Routine

Enough sleep

Regular workouts

Regular yoga practice

Reading time

Reflection time

Art time

Release time

The regular presence and practice of these things in my life produces the regular presence and practice of my best creative work.  Since that is paramount, so are the things above. 

I must find flow in both.

What about you? I’m curious to know if this way of thinking about your craft and the fuel for your craft resonates with you. Would you be willing to share your experiences in the comments?

Understanding the fuel for my work has helped me simplify what’s important in my life as an artist. It could help you do the same thing. Would you be willing to try it?

(Source: flow)