You Don’t Have to KNOW. Just NOTICE. (The magic of creativity and the alchemical art of attention.)
I found it powerful to hear legendary music producer Rick Rubin speak in this recent On Being podcast about how he views the creative process as one of magic, alchemy, and connection to the universe, saying things like:
“We are all translators for messages the universe is broadcasting” and “There are tiny fragments of the vastness of Source stored within us. These precious wisps arise from the unconscious like vapor, and condense to form a thought. An idea.”
He, as a longtime meditation practitioner, touches on lots of mindfulness-ish themes ("The world is the doer and we are the witness." “We can quiet our inside so we can perceive more on the outside, or quiet the outside so we can notice more of what's happening inside.”).
One that I particularly loved was:
He doesn't know things. He just NOTICES them.
This is what our mindfulness practice is about in its purest, simplest essence. Tuning our attention into subtler and subtler layers of perception of what's happening in this moment in actual, unfiltered reality.
Not “knowing things” through our conceptual minds; simply noticing them in as close to objective reality as possible.
The more we can lean into noticing and soften our mind's preoccupation with knowing — in some illusory, fixed, certain, permanent way — as we go through the moments and wonders of the days of our life, the more loving and life-affirming our attention becomes.
Rubin goes on to say:
“I don’t really know what I’m doing on any level, but I trust in what’s going on in my body and the feelings that come up. And I do my best to be as true to myself as I can be.
And it’s not intellectual, it’s not based on looking at any charts or any analysis. It’s only based on a feeling in me of what are the things that make me lean forward? What are the things that make me laugh? What are the things that make me excited? What do I find beautiful today that I didn’t notice yesterday? What are those things?"
This also brings to mind a quote I've always loved from one of my core meditation teachers, Tara Brach:
"Attention is the most basic form of love."
How both profound and profoundly simple the choice to follow our attention toward what it's naturally interested in can be. To let our presence and attention be an expression of love in and of itself.
And the more we can tune into how that noticing reverberates in our bodies, the more juicy and rich the exploration becomes.
What makes you lean forward?
What makes you laugh?
What makes you excited?
What are you finding beautiful today that you didn't notice yesterday - because perhaps you're tuning your attention in with a bit greater care and intention today?
What are you noticing in your attention and in your body right now, in this moment?
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How about now?
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How about now?
Here's to us turning our attention more lovingly toward noticing than knowing in every moment.
And if any of this is sparking interest within you, I'm finding Rick Rubin's new book, The Creative Act, to be wonderful as well.
Lots of Love,
Melissa