Ch. 7 // Creative Practice
📚 The Practice of Attention Book Club 📚
Hi, friends! Welcome to Be Where You Are. We only have a few chapters left in our low-key book club on Cody Cook-Parrott’s The Practice of Attention. Here’s the last post on Ch. 6, “Movement Practice,” and here’s the post with the framework for how we’re doing this. Beyond the paywall, you can register for our meet-up on July 22nd with the author, Cody Cook-Parrott! If you’re a paid subscriber and you’d like to join us for the accountability threads & meet-ups, just send me an email and I’ll get you on the list! 💥
This week’s chapter is about Creative Practice. Beyond the paywall, I’ll share a few highlights from the chapter and how I’m processing it. But this week, what struck me most was the power of reading and discussing a book with other smart, thoughtful people. I’m grateful for the questions and ideas and strategies you all are sharing, and today, I want to share a few that I think might benefit others as well.
Violeta shared in our thread about a moment in which she could have gotten stuck in old habits when she was trapped for ten hours at the Emergency vet’s office waiting for news of her sick dog (who is now on the mend). Instead, she was able to remember that her “phone couldn’t offer a genuine escape… that the phone is a tool, not an escape.” To me, this is the goal of this work of reflecting on our attention: to be able to pause and know from thinking and reflecting, from evidence, from how our bodies feel, that the old ways don’t work for us. We need a new way.
One way forward is to create a sacred space, even if your time and space are limited. Heather Lanier published this piece, “You Must Have a Room or an Hour,” about building a sacred space for your creative self. She writes, “we all need a time when the noise does not drown out our guiding compass, our inner voice.” Yes.
Bethany Rohde shared a craft she developed as a fun way to keep herself off her phone. She wrote this fantastic piece about it at tspoetry: “New Year Reset: Giving My Phone a Nap.” Sometimes, my usual ways of thinking about phone and digital addiction feel like some grim form of diet culture. BLAH.
Bethany’s craft brings in what I’ve been missing: DELIGHT! (What would Ross Gay Say?) Bethany’s craft brings actual creativity to this work of untethering from our digital addictions.
Bethany writes: “it’s been more fun to cast my phone aside when there is a playful doodley aspect to the experiment.”
I love how Bethany’s craft started with a simple sticky note reminding herself what she actually wanted to do rather than dive into her phone. Then, she took it another step further and brought in colors and designs that brought her delight. I’m also struck by how this craft relies on leaning into the wisdom of her wise self and using that to help the part of her that forgets what she actually needs. In her piece, Bethany shares a few ideas for how to creative your own variation. Check it out and give it a try!
As always, though, if you just can’t pay right now but could really use these offerings, please just email me and we’ll work it out!