From Nothing - Something

Last week I ended by saying that if you practice being you’ll find your creativity. And you probably thought, “ugh, there she goes again – she’s always talking about practice…as if practicing my harp isn’t enough work, now she wants me to practice being quiet!”

And many of us don’t want to practice something new. What if we’re not good at it? What if it’s hard to do? What if we fail? What if everyone else thinks we’re being silly? All valid questions, and all questions you probably asked yourself before you started playing the harp. But you didn’t let those questions stop you then – and you shouldn’t let them stop you now.

Being quiet doesn’t necessarily mean becoming a spiritualist – a wise monk once told me that many of us miss the point – the being quiet is not for the sake of being quiet. The point is to get to the quiet so you can pay attention. To see what is at this moment in time. You don’t have to become a yogi or a sufi or a sage…you just have to pay attention to right now. Sometimes this is called being present. You can be present in a lot of ways. You can sit in lotus and chant. You can go for a walk. You can knit a scarf. You can pray. The point is to do something that allows you to focus…and once you’re focused you can grow.

And that growth is what you’re trying to get to – so you can grow your creativity! So practice making nothing (remember that silence is the sound of nothing)…and with enough practice you’ll be able to create – in other words, you’ll make Something out of Nothing.