"be silent because the world of silence is a vast fullness." - rumi

dear one,

sometimes the reason we can not hear what our hearts are trying to tell us is quite simply too much outside noise.

daily we swallow up our fill of words and images. we have to work to avoid the junk, but so much of it is great wisdom and inspiration. yet, even too much of a good thing can clog up our system and strangle the flow of our own inner knowing and creative outflow.

today we are going to make space for your inner artist to breathe and just be.
this is such a powerful tool, i am not going to call it an option. just do it:

24 hours of reading deprivation. no reading, or written/spoken media of any kind. for 24 hours. a whole week is what we are eventually shooting for to get the full benefit, and i highly recommend trying it sometime. but for now, let's start with a very doable 24 hours.

resistance is going to say it's impossible. that part of our very important work will always include reading. i challenge you to be honest and admit how many times procrastination has found a way to avoid the "very important" work until the last minute.

tap into that very creative spirit of finding a way to avoid reading, only on purpose this time.

you will notice what a powerful addiction reading is and how we use it to avoid thinking our own thoughts and feeling our own feelings, or bringing forth something of our very own.

if you are not reading, soon enough, the mess of information that has been filling up your existence will start budging and moving, unclogging the wellspring of your heart.

two further suggestions for clearing out the heart sludge. optional:

1. write a few pages of stream of consciousness writing. no judgments, no objective, just write until you've filled 3 pages and never look at it again. burn if it you'd like.

2. spend an hour just being. no judgment, no objective, again. feel through what you want to do and flow with it. change your mind if you want to. follow your senses. that's it.

as usual, take the prompt as a guideline. follow the rules at first, and then make it your own. see what arises for you.

without anything to reach for to fill up the void, what you want will start pouring out of you. you might end up re-potting some plants, or rearranging a shelf, sharpening all of your colored pencils with a knife, dancing, or mending a favorite sweater. you might be surprised at what comes through your art journaling.

one thing is sure to happen: when you have no reading to reach for, eventually you will run out of work and end up playing.

see you on the other side, lovelies!

-anca.