I picked up on the subtle and gigantic impact of my own consumption again recently…
I noticed I wasn’t using my creativity much and instead of being like a tap gushing open when I choose to turn it on it was a slow inconsistent drip. I was using lots of tools and didn’t feel as “on fire” as I could have!
I absolutely LOVE Instagram but in terms of other channels I consume very little information… if I’m listening to the radio and the news comes on I knock it off, we don’t have TV, I don’t buy magazines or newspapers, I don’t have Facebook. 🌷
Reading for me is mostly for pleasure, self development listening is for people and inspiring podcasts and seeing is for the beautiful things in life… this way of life works great for me, most of the time…
Except all of a sudden I was creatively stuck!
How could it be?
I help my clients with this very thing all the time… what had I missed in my every day?
So I took out my post-it’s and wrote down where my inspirations were coming from and worked out what and where I was consuming each day…
- Podcasts
- Emails
- Driving
Hmmm nothing unexpected then!🧚♀️
So then I consciously noticed how my body reacted and how I felt to each channel as I thought about them…
- Podcasts – inspired, enthused, excited, wishing for a pen.
- Instagram – sometimes inspired, mostly overwhelmed! Oh!!!
- Emails – pragmatic, productive.
- Driving – unaware how I got from a-b, concentrated on podcasts, trying not to get run off the road by land rovers on the school run! (We live in Northumberland where every other person drives a 4by4) 🤣
So very subtly, my choices of consuming we’re blocking my creativity, I knew that… but where? When I looked at my list I could instantly see the pressure points…
- Podcasts – although inspiring and a lovely way to pass the time the podcasts were throwing me into the future – wishing for a pen, excited about what I wanted to write. There’s nothing wrong with this per-se but it meant I was missing out on the moment. Four hours driving per week = 4 hours listening!
- Instagram – I was following too many people. It had gone from an inspiring space to a space of overwhelm and if I’m honest comparison at times. Adverts for things I’ll never buy, reading through long captions, forgetting why I went on in the first place! I un-followed around 300 accounts and I think I’ll do this more often!
- Emails – even though I felt fine here I still unsubscribed to a few things – mostly emails I’d subscribed to during our building project for discounts!
- Driving – time to turn off the noise and do some mindful driving!
So I’m happy to report this set of changes and exercises sent me back into conscious consuming and catapulted me into the creative space I needed to be in for work and for my inner rainbow to shine all the colours! 🌈 Phewf!
Self awareness is such an awesome thing – it’s within reach to us all and I hope you’ve found it useful to understand more about how I sharpen mine!✨🌷