Empty Spaces, Creative Work

Often there are times, when I ponder that I ought to be spending more time in creative activities. Basically there are creative urges lurking somewhere inside, which want a let out, but don’t get any expression. Because my brain doesn’t act on them. Yes, the brain…..the master commander of my body….the one who directs my hands and eyes to write something, to draw something…to read something….but often doesn’t do it.

Brain is an interesting thing. It always craves stimulation. Looks like there are a hell lot of things that stimulate it — Coffee, Pizza, Movies, Twitter, Whatsapp, Music, Video game, Friends, Puzzles. My brain has been so stimulated lately that it doesn’t want to do creative stuff, because it is slow — like reading a book, writing blogs, thinking about a problem deeply.

So I have started an interesting activity. I have removed lots of instant stimulations. My phone remains in downtime mode from 9 pm to 9 am. Uninstalled all social networking apps. Logged out of Netflix, Prime Video and Youtube. Turned-off notifications for every app. Beverages are down to a single cup of coffee per day.

What happened when I did all this? Got hit by bouts of boredom and a sinking feeling. But slowly interesting things are showing up. My brain craves stimulation. So it is making me do exercises, read books, writing blogs. There cannot be an empty space in the brain. It has to be replaced by stimulation. What kind of stimulation? the choice is mine.