How to stop monkey mind and unlock your creativity
By Kerryn Vaughan
19th January 2021
So, here we are in 2021 facing yet another year of uncertainty. We all vowed this year would be better than last, and for us in Australia, Covid seemed to have moved its little butt on.
We made New Year's resolutions with confidence. But by now most of those resolutions have started to fizzle, and particularly around food intake as we realise we’re in for the long haul whether we like it or not.
Last year we all refused to believe the pandemic would deeply impact us. Well, at least for the first few weeks. Then suddenly we realised this wasn't something that would be resolved in a few weeks, and not even in a few months. Some of us knew deep down it was likely to be two or more years.
We then crazily threw ourselves into a frantic search for how we could do things differently, while at the same time accepting the situation we couldn't change. The word ‘pivot’ became the most used word on earth, then very quickly the most despised!
But now, as we've hit the new year, we need to go way beyond pivoting and all the dreaded emotions that go with it. We need to find some acceptance and slow down our frantic rampaging.
So many of us have wound ourselves up so much that if we release the spring suddenly, we’ll fling to some far-off corner of the planet and face-plant the ground like never before!
We’ve been head down and bum up for the entire year, trying to frantically unhinge that emergency boat from the shed roof, work out where we should aim it, try to decipher a foreign map and the instruction manual, while simultaneously navigating 3 metre waves, AND somehow adjust those heavy damn sails!
Frankly, most of us have experienced burnout from trying so hard to manage the change, stay upright and cheery, and play constant catch up. My 8 ball went down the drain the minute travel was cancelled, but it gave me a good realisation kick in the butt that I was relying too heavily on one area of work.
By the end of 2020, I was completely exhausted. It was as if my right brain had completely deserted me and jumped on a plane to Bora Bora, leaving my left brain to sit and stare at the screen with only enough energy to mindlessly scroll.
Unable to articulate where I was heading and exactly what my precise niche was, despite being extensively familiar with what I specialise in, that negative, chatty monkey mind started giving me hell.
I know I’m not alone with this, and I’ve watched too many crash and burn because they have been trying to pretend they were A-OK, and ‘on top’ of their game. I just don’t understand why we feel we need to do that. Nevertheless, let’s move on…
For the last few weeks of the year I battled with thoughts of defeat and even considered finding a mindless job working for somebody else. Again, I know we’ve all been there!
But there’s something about the entrepreneurial spirit, the optimist, that just won’t let you go there. That spirit that’s always breaking its neck trying to peek around the next corner truly believing the next big thing is about to reveal itself in an electrifying display of hypnotic fireworks.
So we keep pressing on…
When I finally found some downtime over the Christmas break, I recognised that it was nothing more than pure burnout. My right brain had indeed gone on holidays because that's exactly where it needed to be. I didn't have a creative bone left in my body. Not one fancy word!
No blogs, no content, no jokes, no newsletters - nothing!
Still with me? Good! Because this is where it gets better.
Almost out of nowhere, everything changed. By accident, I stumbled upon a mindless little app called Happy Color.
For a bit of fun, I downloaded it and completed a couple of pics. The first was fun. The second was fun. The third was boring. The fourth morphed into mindless scrolling, but by the time I was doing the fifth and sixth, I noticed something happening with my mind.
I started dreaming up a bunch of fantastic ideas. Suddenly words and ideas and concepts that I just couldn't find for the entirety of 2020, were flowing effortlessly through my mind and out my mouth. I’m not going to say my partner was loving it, but I was!
My creativity was back!!
Only because I gave myself permission to simply stop, and to engage in mindless activity. We hear so many things about mindfulness, taking time out, resting the mind, meditating and all those ‘in the moment’ things, but we rarely do it.
We don’t have to sit there with our legs folded, fingertips touching and poised, and chanting OM over and over while the birds make a nest in our hair. The simple act of just surrendering and switching our brain off, colouring in or whatever else takes your fancy, also constitutes meditation.
So this year, make a pact with yourself not to let the days fold into one big hairy ball that chokes your dreams. Find something mindless or mindful to do, and commit even a tiny slice of time each day to just stop.
I’ve given myself permission to just sit with a cat on my lap and allow the creativity to flow, while enjoying the wonderful colours as they drop onto the screen as if my fingertips behold some kind of magical power.
What will you give yourself permission to do?
Kerryn Vaughan is the author of ‘Magnificent Kids!’ and ‘Get Off The Bench!’, founder of One Planet Classrooms, co-founder of Girls With Hammers, and host of Get Off The Bench Podcast
Kerryn is also a DISC ADVANCED® accredited consultant.