The Anticipation Letters No.6 – How to stay sane as a Creative
I find the act/art of arranging things quite comforting and a good way to start any creative session. Here a morning ritual on our Elevate podium.
How to stay sane as a creative
– the comfort of daily rituals
We all know that having a deadline can focus our actions and move us forward with conviction. But to feel stressed is clogging the way in for the creative spirit.
At the moment I’m doing the very last finishing touches on a project for the Vasa museum, creating a storytelling and fund raising exhibition for the the biggest project since the ship was salvaged – Stötta Vasa. I’ve come to term with some anxiety to show up at the last phase of a project, when I’ve sent all the production drawings and original artwork and it’s time for the production team to do it’s part. I even share it.
But it’s important to find the rituals for how to stay sane as a creative and not let that stress take up to much space. It’s there, but you got to keep on moving and stay on your path of what you want to create.
I find it so intriguing to study how for many creative people (for example very productive painters and writers) rituals play an essential part of their day, one they never miss a beat from.
This is very much a note to self, but I also hope it inspires and makes you reflect. Here’s a list of things that seems to work for me and many others.
Une Liste de Cinque
A few things that seems to work for me and many others
Meditation – I’ve found that meditation for me works best after yoga, when the body is awaken and already a bit focused. Zen meditation or the more active Kundalini style.
Repetition – To be a creative, is to fill your whole day with creative choices, and you don’t need more. Add one more and you lose it. Repetition can be both about comfort, and simplicity as well as rigor and a sense of direction. To dress in the same manner each day for example. David Lynch apparently always had the exact same lunch.
Awaken the senses – Scent in particular awakens the creative spirit. When I meditate, I light incense, letting it fill up the space so that a to empty nothingness becomes a something to stay in. I also roll on my For the Love of Pine natural perfume oil before I start working, or before a meeting or an important task that needs a higher energy. Scent is a powerful sense, because it connects us to our olfactory bulb where memory is stored, so a certain scent might repetitively take you to a desired place. But our senses mingle with each other and mix with memory. So be mindful of the input. Think of each sense and what would lift your spirit for each one. Then do it everyday.
Visionboard and arranging things – I find the act/art of arranging things quite comforting and a good way to start any creative session. To collect whatever you need or get inspired by nearby, an espresso cup, some incense to burn, and on the day of the photo above, a small newly awakened lilac branch, broken from early, heave snowfall… whatever you want around you that can create the right vibe, be it a chrystal, a beautiful pen...And creating (and revisit!) a Vision board focuses your direction in the same way, bringing forward your long term direction.
The rhythm of nothingness in movement – what do we even do when we do nothing, when there’s a nothingness? The constant scrolling has deleted that from our lives – because most of us take out our phone and start to scroll immediately when we’re finishing a task, those moments are hard to find, almost forgotten, and uncomfortable… Instead, to find a soft movement, clearing the table, waiting for the coffee to brew or taking a slow walk (with or without music or a podcast inspiring you), but even better the simple act of tending to your plants. This almost always gives me an impulse for the next thing to do, and the next (rather than taking that big first step to start the work from “nothing”/from scratch). I guess it’s that one foot in front of another thing, to just start moving.
A creative ritual can be so many different things, but the repetitive aspect seems to be of value. Writing Morning Pages is one. Have you tried those and the other beautiful rituals from The Artists Way?
I’ve done this in periods, and loved it. Starting each day writing three pages of whatever wants to come out is like a detox, enabling a fresher start. I also recommend the Artist Date (take yourself and only you, out on a creative date to something that inspires you).
In one episode of the Fashion Neurosis podcast (that I’ve previously highlighted here), Nick Cave is on the couch and shares that he always wears a suit, yes, every day he gets dressed in the same stern look. Partly because the suit in particular does something with his body, his character and spirit. And partly because it’s a ritual, a repetition, a uniform, that never needs a morning filled with multiple choices or doubts.
I’ve heard so many creative masterminds say the same thing (but with their own look, their own uniform).
I too appreciate a very repetitive way of dressing. I use a lot of black. More and more crème. Simplistic though avant garde clothing, just a few pieces in great quality. I have a painter’s coat that’s not really a painter’s coat, rather a very long Comme des Garçons shirt, which I love. It’s so closely connected to my love for colour and paint. I almost always put on a large necklace round my neck to get ready.
Since we left our studio this Summer, I’ve been working from home, and while I still kind of use a uniform of sorts, it’s really become a too sloppy one. The first very early spring light has come back and it’s time to shape up. Aspirational outfit: this Skipper jacket and pants set in recycled denim, by Toogood. Doesn’t hurt to bring in a little marine vibe as well. That’s a big part of me as well.
The Comme des Garçons “Painter’s shirt”
Do you dress repetitively in a kind of uniform, or do you love to be creative and choose new outfits each day?
To engage with your senses plays an absolute essential role in connecting with the world and opening up for creativity. It quiets our constantly working and sometimes a bit too judgmental mind opening up more intuitive new paths.
Georgia O’Keeffee’s Hands, by Alfred Stieglitz.
A sense that inspires me more and more is sound (hearing). In Weird Sensation Feels Good – an exhibition about asmr – ArkDes and Design Museum explores this semi-new and wildly popular creative scene.
If you don’t know what asmr it is, the intro text for the exhibition at ArkDes is quite good. And if you do know, and use it, do share your favorite asmr-channels from your platform of choice (and I will share mine)! It just awakens something in me. Listening to the right kind of music also does just that.
This illustration “Ranges of the Senses” by Malnar and Vodvarka, gives some deeper understanding on how we engage with your senses, relating to the space around us, whether walls, doors, furniture or trees.
This model doesn’t use just one word for touch (tactile perception, but gives more dimensions like kinesthesia (position and movement of body parts), haptic (contact stimuli), skin – sense of air (passive touch, air movement, temperature, humidity).
Joy Monice Malnar and Frank Vodvarka, Ranges of the Senses, from Sensory Design, University of Minnesota Press.
During covid, when we were forced to give digital lectures (I’ve been a guest design teacher for some 12 years at Träcentrum for their introductory design course – colour, shape, design history, process, project) I first felt restricted, but then recognized that we were all actually not just in the shared digital space, but each and everyone had their own surroundings. And we started to tap into that, to arrange our own workspace, make space for creativity.
Our Elevate podiums/plinths were designed as a platform to curate your things on – sculptural pieces, perfume, a coffee cup or a cocktail glass, beautiful stationary, chrystals or symbolic tokens…
They come in four sizes, cut in one-piece massive ash or oak, with an angular shape suggesting an upwards-forwards movement. Each one handpainted in our signature paint finishes, unique artworks in themselves, and you should always choose the one that speaks to you, acting as a starting point to create on.
About arranging things. For a full year I kept a ritual practice, starting every Monday morning in the studio with putting together an inspirational moodboard or rather material board.
While themes varied and sometimes were connected to a project, often they were more intuitive, what struck a cord – a colour combination, a loved object, an image – became the starting point.
While it took a lot of time, I see now that I miss this ritual in motion, collecting things to put together.
A Sunday Note to self (to create anticipation)
To design your own rituals, isn’t that in itself one of the most important acts of creativity?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this! Please share your rituals, struggles, solutions, thoughts, methods!
xxx Charlotte Ryberg
In Pursuit of Beautiful Concepts
Thank you for reading The Anticipation Letters – The new Sunday ritual. A more personal and intuitive letter on design, life, work, philosophy, inspiration, creating anticipation for the week ahead. Words by ENTIÈRE founder Charlotte Ryberg. If you wish to receive it in your inbox each Sunday, subscribe below.