Do You Feed Your Muse Well?
Writers are typically desperate to find inspiration. They seek creativity like a desert cries for rain. They quest for the perfect undiscovered angle, turning over ideas like a grub-hunter turns over stones.
I know this to be true, because my life is much like that – at least, half the time it is. I’m either overflowing with fantastic ideas and thoughts about everything under the sun, or I’m staring at a blank page thinking my muse went and died on me.
I wasn’t even invited to the funeral.
I try the usual tricks to combat periodic flashes of writer’s block. I go outside to play in the sun. I take a shower, hoping the white noise stirs up THE BIG ONE. I drive my car in wide open spaces listening to the hum of the tires on asphalt.
Lately, I’m trying something new – and it’s working.
I Was a 70s Child
One of my most favorite television commercials from those years was that of Bill Cosby playing with a bunch of little kids. They whole gang drove around in pretend cars like maniacs, making all sorts of noise and giggling their pants off (Cosby included).
Then something terrible happened. Those racecar drivers would sputter, jerk, slow down and then fall to the floor, rolling around in some state of agonized energy meltdown.
Their cars had run out of gas.
Very carefully, very gravely, Cosby would pick himself up off the floor and explain to the kids that their bodies were just like that. Kids needed to fuel up each morning so they could zoom around all day.
This was serious stuff. No one was laughing, and I was riveted to the television.
Too Busy, Too Bored, Too Stupid
Of course, I didn’t pay much attention to Bill. I became a teen, way too cool to eat proper, regular meals. After that came adulthood, and I just became busy. Now I’m a web worker, and I simply forget to eat.
Literally.
Web workers are people with some of the worst eating habits I’ve ever seen. Our perception has changed, and our sense of time is skewed all to hell. Two hours is a whole afternoon, two days feels like two weeks, and if you haven’t heard from someone in a month, they’re probably dead.
Meals? Real, proper, healthy, unprocessed, brainfood meals? Forget it.
Half the people I know are just like me – they forget to eat, skip meals or just don’t have time to grab some food. The other half eat all the time, snacking continually and not on carrot sticks either.
It’s stupid, really – because when we don’t eat or eat the wrong food, we tie up our creativity, inspiration and motivation in chains so tight the circulation gets cut off and we just burn out.
Like Bill Cosby said, we run out of gas.
Your Brain Is All You Have
Tony Lawrence mentioned something important recently in our comment section. Our bodies and brains are amazing machines. They make money for us, entertain us, write ebooks, design sites, mentor clients, get friends to laugh, tell stories, think up fantastic ideas…
Our brains need fuel. Food helps us get inspired, fired up, and sparking with creative ideas.
For seven days, I tested the theory. I grabbed a bowl of granola and milk every morning and ate it whether I felt like it or not. Why granola? Carbs, baby. Creative gasoline.
I didn’t do anything special or change my habits beyond that. I ate at the computer while reading my morning email. Some days I had to put up a sticky note just in case. For web workers, time flies by in the blink of an eye.
And for seven straight days, my brain was on superpower.
Just three weeks in and the results are all systems go. I’m less tired. I write easily. Ideas flow. So do the words. My creative muse wasn’t dead. I’d just been starving her – literally.
Food for thought, no?
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Very true. I’m just getting back to eating a proper breakfast after two years of calling my first coffee of the day breakfast! It really doesn’t work and it’s very noticeable when a person does eat a proper breakfast.
I personally prefer protein to carbs in the morning, a 2-3 egg cheese omelette is the BEST start to the day!
Hiya
As I sip my morning shake (today it’s soy milk, banana, peaches) and enjoy your post a few things come to mind.
That eating brekkie thing is critical. Don’t know where I was in the 70′s, lost in space or something, ’cause I don’t remember the Cosby thing. However, now I’m in my 60′s and finally a few years ago started eating breakfast regularly after a lifetime of believing I didn’t need it. Wow! What a change. And now that my body has become used to it, does it ever tell me the occasional time I forget. Cranky, headaches, unable to focus, lightheaded. Definitely not prime ‘creative’ territory!
I initially clicked on your link because of the ‘Feed the Muse’ title. Wasn’t thinking that it would be so literal a take on the topic. I offer a 2-week retreat in The Algarve, Portugal called ‘Feeding the Muse’. It is an exploration of personal creativity where I use a series of guided meditations on the chakras to help people discover their innate creativity or to expand their existing creativity through painting (whether they’ve ever picked up a brush before or not). But that’s not the point of my comment. My point is that we need to ‘feed’ our muse in many different ways.
Certainly it starts with sustained good nutrition which is rather like building a solid foundation for the house called You to rest on. If the foundation weakens and starts to crumble, you can bet that the house is going to have more than its fair share of problems.
And we need to feed other aspects of our Muse as well. We have to expose it to great new thoughts via reading, traveling, conversations, and engagement with the outside world. And we have to challenge it to press its boundaries through personal growth work. As a Life Transition Coach I have years of experience working with highly talented and creative people who limit their access to the potential and possibility they carry because they remain stuck in the same habituated paradigms about who they are and how the world works that they adopted very early in life. Now this is not a commercial for my services, rather an encouragement to find a blog, find a book, find a mentor or coach who will invite you to become more than you ever thought possible.
Don’t let your investment in a good diet, in building a strong foundation for yourself go to waste by playing a small game in life. Pretty much all of us, sadly, know how to use only a fraction of the potential that we can become. Take your Muse out for a wild ride and discover how much more awaits you! …and don’t forget to pack a lunch!
Gwen McCauley
The most important meal of the day is the breakfast because it gives us the nutrients we need to go through the day. Not eating regularly is not good at all because it can affect our thinking and in time it can destroy our stomach. I know lots of people who are drinking coffee and smoking instead of breakfast. I don’t think I need to say how unhealthy is this. Another thing very important which makes our bodies to work better is exercise. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week and if I not take my vitamins in the morning I feel very fainted all day. Even if I am working I am trying to eat regularly. Healthy food, 5 meals a day, vitamins and minerals are a must if we want our brain to work at 100%.
I always have breakfast, even if I’m late for a meeting. I regret for the rest of the morning if I don’t.
BB Kent´s last blog ..Deal