{"id":27638,"date":"2016-03-05T02:00:25","date_gmt":"2016-03-05T10:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=27638"},"modified":"2016-03-04T15:38:45","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T23:38:45","slug":"follow-your-intuition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/05\/follow-your-intuition\/","title":{"rendered":"Follow Your Intuition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Berkeley,
Berkeley Art Museum, 2016 #ricohgrii<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That quiet voice inside your head that says: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That might be interesting\u00e2\u20ac\u201d why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you take a photo?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Then your rational mind goes: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, that will be a boring cliche\u00e2\u20ac\u201d don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take a photograph.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The more I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been studying and learning about creativity, artistic process, Zen Buddhism, and the habits of productive creatives\u00e2\u20ac\u201d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve become more and more convinced that following your intuition<\/strong> is much more important than being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rational\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in life.<\/p>\n

In the West, we revere \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rational thought\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d ever since Plato invented the concept of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153naming everything.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

However in the East, they have always revered following intuition\u00e2\u20ac\u201d very similar to Lao Tzu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concept of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wu-wei\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (action without action) in Taoism. You can see a lot of Eastern arts which promote meditation, using the force of others (Judo), and going with the flow of the river (instead of against it).<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have goals<\/h2>\n
\"Fort
Fort Bragg, 2016 #cindyproject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a goal in your photography or life. If you have set and rigid goals, you become a prisoner and a slave to the plan.<\/p>\n

Life is messy. Life is random. Life never goes according to plan\u00e2\u20ac\u201d so why make these concrete plans about the future?<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say follow your intuition. If you want to pursue a certain genre of photography\u00e2\u20ac\u201d go for it. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re passionate about street photography but suddenly nature and landscape photography interests you\u00e2\u20ac\u201d just go for it. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need an explanation for following your intuition, and what naturally interests you.<\/p>\n

Children play for the sake of playing. Children paint for the sake of painting. Children never have to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153work hard\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153creative\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that is just their natural state. They simply follow their curiosity and create art based on their intuition. I almost feel that this is the perfect state of an artist: being a child.<\/p>\n

Once we grow up and become adults, the schools crush the creativity and curiosity we have. We are told to follow rules, tick boxes, stand in line, and to follow answers.<\/p>\n

I feel that one of the big reasons why we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see as much creativity in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world (as we should with all this technological innovation) is that the school system still promotes too much rote learning and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rational\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thought. We aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t given enough freedom to pursue our own natural interests, curiosities, and passions.<\/p>\n

Some of the greatest ideas have come from thinkers who went to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Montessori\u00e2\u20ac\u009d schools \u00e2\u20ac\u201d schools that encourage children to think on their own, to play on their own (with some guidance from adults). I like this idea\u00e2\u20ac\u201d it is like letting a plant grow naturally on its own (but also supporting it, and preventing it from being killed by predators).<\/p>\n

Incubate<\/h2>\n
\"Fort
Fort Bragg, 2016 #ricohgrii<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another very important thing in creativity and coming up with new ideas is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153incubation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. A lot of ideas need to sit in you and distill in you for a long time before becoming fully-mature.<\/p>\n

For example, if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re making your own wine at home, you need to let your wine sit in the cellar for a very long time\u00e2\u20ac\u201d generally the longer you let it sit, the better it tastes.<\/p>\n

Similarly, when you pickle vegetables or make Kimchi (my favorite, being Korean-American), you need to be patient and you must not<\/em> rush the process.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t \u00e2\u20ac\u0153force\u00e2\u20ac\u009d yourself to be creative. Rather, just pursue whatever interests you, and surround yourself constantly with art. Not only that, but interact with other curious and artistic minds. If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have access to any \u00e2\u20ac\u0153creative\u00e2\u20ac\u009d people in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real life\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d there are always libraries, art books, YouTube, social media, and the Internet.<\/p>\n

The knowledge and inspiration is all out there already. The only question is whether we are hungry enough to search it out, and grab it.<\/p>\n

3:35pm, March 4, 2016 @ \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Babette\u00e2\u20ac\u009d cafe at the new Berkeley Art Museum<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Cultivate your creativity<\/h2>\n
\"Berkeley,
Berkeley, 2016 #ricohgrii<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
    \n
  1. Zen in the Art of Street Photography<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Taoism and\u00c2\u00a0Street Photography<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Have Creative Confidence in Yourself<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. How To Find Your Unique Voice in Photography<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Beginner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mind<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. There is No Wrong Way to Shoot Street Photography<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. You Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Control the Results, Only Effort<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. On Capturing Beauty in the Mundane<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. On Searching For the Maximum<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. The Beauty of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Creative Constraints\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a><\/li>\n
  11. How to Stay Curious<\/a><\/li>\n
  12. Enjoy the Process<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    That quiet voice inside your head that says: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That might be interesting\u00e2\u20ac\u201d why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you take a photo?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Then your rational mind goes: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, that will be a boring cliche\u00e2\u20ac\u201d don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take a photograph.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}