Every time I walk the dog, the silence allows me to think, even as ideas run rampant, I still find some time to be both introspective and spiritual.

Nature remains the muse that has always motivated all my creative pursuits. It grounds me and gives me peace, even if I’m not available to accept its amazing benefits.

I describe creativity and how it relates with depression like your mind flying at a thousand miles an hour, your body at one hundred and life somewhere between the two.

HOW I FOUND QUIET

To find quiet, you must organize the constant stimulus into a more digestible fragment. I am learning the discipline of stopping myself before the feeling of becomes overwhelming.

Turn off the TV, I listen to music, I stop doing anything and relax, I listen and walk the dog: all options to find peace and calm.

I learned this on two recent trips. Going on a trip can be overwhelming, the person that is on the trip is a different person from the stressed, overwhelmed traveler who races to the airport, makes plans and stresses about the outcome.

Every view is like an intricate painting or tapestry of rich warms and blues each fighting for dominance

Artybgordon Tucson 2021

WHERE I FOUND PEACE (Recent Photos from Tucson Trip)

I went to Tucson recently, I stayed with a friend, a writer I’ve worked with and never met. Being out of my element, without the ability to stress, to go look at my computer, to escape with useless television and I was able to become truly calm and peaceful.

The desert continues to be a source of amazing peace. I learned to touch rocks, to listen to birds, to notice colors that are not always evident when one is rushing around. I found peace and enjoyed it for almost a week on my return to normal life.

So how does one find a quiet mind? Life is stressful, any life worth living has obstacles and tension, fears and turmoil-we actively find nature and stop long enough not only for it to find us, but for it to get into us and change our minds.

TEN WAYS TO FIND QUIET

Ten things I’ve learned in the last few weeks after amazing and restorative trips across the country.

1. Find tme in every day to do nothing, to listen, to breathe deep, to be present.
2. No one will stop and force you to be present, that is on you.
3. Dare to imagine and be creative without any plans for where a project is going-I am doing a series of drunken frogs, because I want to-that’s an enjoyable departure from the norm.
4. Nature doesn’t change, it is how we perceive and accept or reject it that makes all the difference.
5. Take time to tell people around you, they matter and how valued they are in your life.
6. Enjoy something about every day-all the details will work themselves out in their own time.
7. Realize when you are getting overwhelmed and change what you’re doing.
8. Be grateful for all the things you take for granted every day.
9. Turn off the television, don’t be afraid of quiet.
10. Take great joy in simpler things, walk the dog, play with rocks, listen to the birds, sketch without any expectation.

Just the first on a long journey to find quiet in a mind that is constantly exploring new thoughts and ideas. This blog will be about well-being, creativity, art, mental health, nature, writing and photography. I hope you will join me on this journey-Artbygordon