A spontaneous life is a better life:

Nap thoughts

A thought while taking a nap at the airport:

The Goal is Spontaneous Creative Activity

What does this mean? Let me share my thoughts:

I think the problem in modern life is that we are trying to maximally extract ‘productivity’ from ourselves. No longer do we allow ourselves to go fallow, or even do “nothing” (quite literally nothing, like sitting somewhere, or napping somewhere, with no music or audio-visual stimulation).

Furthermore to be idle is seen as a vice and sin. Any moment you’re not being ‘productive’, according to modern Utilitarian thinking, you’re ‘sinning’.

Even when we are “relaxing” or “recovering”, the point is to relax and recover in order to become more ‘productive’.

Why is this line of thinking bad? Well, it no longer allows us to create from a source of SPONTANEOUS and self-directed energy. We are using our energies trying to please others, and we are always in ‘defense mode’, or we are simply reacting to outside stimuli.

For example if you wake up in the morning and the first thing you’re doing is checking email, you’re already in ‘defense’ and ‘reactive’ mode.

My thought:

The goal is to allow yourself to go fallow for long periods of time, in order for you to become spontaneous, and engage in spontaneous creative activity.

Spontaneous creating

On not forcing yourself to create.

The idea is this:

The best artwork you create is SPONTANEOUS. Meaning, not forced. You create in a spirit of fun, and super-abundant energy within yourself, which desires to be expressed and outpressed.

Art-creation as anti-utilitarian

The problem with utilitarian thinking:

I can ‘quantify’ my progress in art, with metrics (followers, likes, money, etc).

Furthermore:

We think we can force ourselves to be more productive.

But this is the funny thing with myself: the less I force myself to be productive, the more productive I am! Perhaps this is because when I don’t force myself to be productive, I only create things and produce things which I really care about, or am genuinely interested in.

For example, it is effortless for me to spend hours deep in philosophical thought or writing. Why? Because it genuinely interests me! It doesn’t feel like boring or tiresome/toilsome labor! It is a creative labor of love. Perhaps this is the only type of creation we should do — only creating in a spirit of spontaneity, a spirit of play, and not ‘forcing’ ourselves (the Taoist wu-wei approach to photography, life, and art).

CREATIVITY

Re-discover your inner-child like PICASSO:

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