Walking and creativity

I’m a big fan of walking. Yeah, just simple walking. Nothing fancy, really.

I’m often isolated from the world. I work in solitude 90% of the time, listening to ambient music, or maybe NPR. I tend to be a bit reclusive when I create, and enjoy the idea of working in dark privacy. This process is the most intuitive way for me to work.

Staying inside in the dark while hunched over a panel or a laptop can have its drawbacks. One can start going a little bonkers when 2am hits and all you’ve been doing is endlessly rendering the tiny filaments on the flight feathers of a bird, or tweaking a logo in Adobe Illustrator to the point of blindness.

My panacea for a drained brain is a good walk. A walk soothes the “bled out” feeling I feel when I’ve been working on one project too long, and when I need a mental recalibration. Walks relax and ground me.

A good walk isn’t just for when I’m unbalanced, however. When I’m trying to conjure creativity, I walk long distances (and often in the dark) to induce a meditative state. I can then pick ideas out like fireflies in a jar, and bring them home where they can shine. Walking also allows me to listen to the trees, see the clouds curling across the mountains into fantastic shapes, and abstracting themselves into compositional elements in my pieces. I’ll count the number of crows perched on a wire, and make a lighthearted superstitious prediction based on their positioning.

After a walk, I’m stimulated enough to come home, well fed, and create.

Even in days of extreme weather, I try to spend a bit of time outside to recalibrate myself. Oppressive heat makes me feel like a lizard-like creature, pulling my energy from the sun and air. Walks in a deep freeze make my lungs feel fresh and awake. Windstorms and blizzards are especially fantastic, and are almost magical in their energy.

Walking is a simple and valuable resource, one that is often overlooked. In fact, I think I will go for a nice meditative walk right now. :)