My last post regarding the space-creation philosophy and practice has caused a fair amount of discussion and interested questions within my artistic community. Having only just launched the idea as a new approach to myself, I am also busily processing the possibilities of what it can bring to my life. So I thought I'd expound on it a bit more.

This is an idea that came out of many conversations, but also arose from direct experimentation with many processes that failed for me. One of the keys for transformation is data-collecting. It's not enough to claim something worked or did not work. There is a value in asking what is missing, what felt wrong, what didn't move correctly, what caused negative reactions as well as what did you like, what really fired you up or made you happy or made you laugh, what are you going to carry forward to the next test. Self-interviewing is a very powerful tool, as is the final question, what about all your answers to the previous questions are actually true and what is self-trickery?

I've tried just about everything to get myself to a plugged-in, healthy, happy place. But I'm easily distracted, spend a great deal of time thinking about the things I should be doing when I'm alone and doing other things, don't take well to manifesting new directions when given the infinite freedom to manifest them any way I want (too much choice and too much space shut me down), and am an expert in devising avoidance strategies. In addition, I have a long history of struggling with how best to express creatively that relates to a long history of working on the process of self-belief and validation and trust. This has resulted in many, many hours and days of energy expenditure to achieve very little actual fun or expression, while also managing to produce a prodigious amount of anxiety around both doing and not doing.

As a result of these psychological lessons, what I've always been looking for is a means to marry some pretty rigid structure with complete freedom, and I've been looking for a way to do this that isn't tied to outcome (self-measurement of worth). The thread that runs through the lot, and through the lessons I have to teach myself and others is Play, so that must be the central theme.

Since I had so much personal success with the idea of treating each entry into Dreamtime as the entry into a unique space and each morning as the waking into a new life (leaving the space, entering a new one), this led to the idea after two days of constant processing and hard work to try to apply the same concept to other areas of living, chiefly or at least initially, with creativity.

How this will work for me is that I'll be scheduling (via Google Calendar) three hour blocks of time that will be designated as Creative Space. During that time, there is no email and no internet (unless I'm working on some creative internet thing), no television or games, phone answering, door answering or the like. I will enter the space through some nonsensical ritual and leave the space promptly at its ending with another nonsensical ritual. And while in that space, everything is equal and possible. No outcomes are expected. Writing is the same as working on music is the same as graphic or video design is the same as dreaming up ideas for workshops.

If the outcome begins to weigh too much, or if the worth of the time is measured in anything but enjoyment and fulfillment (not just personal, but in the feeling of creative/spiritual capturing of the moment), then the space itself is changed or the rules are shifted. The actual activity is largely unaffected, or belongs in a different realm of How To. The focus is on the establishment of the space, and then of the free moment between activities while in it.

No creation, apart from blog postings, happens outside of that space. The exceptions are collaborative efforts, but those all have their own space creation that happens naturally. If suddenly I feel the urge to create, I ask myself if I can schedule a block of creative space and am willing to do so. If not, I quickly jot down the idea for the next scheduled session.

It's also important to note that there's no limit to the amount of blocks that can be created; they just have to be created mindfully. But all of them must be scheduled. None of them can happen randomly without that asking/scheduling step. In that, it's like making a date with a friend. Even at the most spontaneous and sudden, there is an asking phase and some kind of brief schedule process. The same should be true for the self.

Any urge I have to work on projects is now delayed to be collected at a time and space in which I've agreed, and which has been communicated to my psyche, THIS is the time and the space where I will show up ready for anything. We have a date.

Timewise, I'm keeping these at three hour blocks initially, with the idea that four hours is a bit hard during week evenings to try to schedule. I may experiment with other length formats as I go on. I may also establish other spaces, such as Dork space (Dork Matter perhaps) as I see fit, if this process does in fact work for me.

And all that sounds a bit regimented, I know. But the idea here is that this is sacred. It's as sacred as yoga or meditation practice or Sunday service. So it deserves both respect and preparation, to be welcomed in, not just waved to while covered in cheese curl dust with a "hey dude".

You might ask how is that different from other things I've tried. The answer is that the other things have failed and that this thing is, literally, put together from pieces of everything that has come before. It has as its strength the ability to flow freely inside a very practice-like mentality, while using the notion of sacred space as a way to establish a connection that is beyond the self, a connection that also has a parallel in shamanic journeying and the ecstasy of drumming trances.

And it's already working, even though I haven't done it yet. I have no blocks scheduled today, and as a result I find myself free. I'm not allowed to create today. And that means I'm allowed to do a thousand other things that I want to do. Once I post this, I have the evening ahead of me with no shoulds.

When am I allowed to create? I have two blocks scheduled in the next week, potentially three with next weekend coming up. There might be more, depending on how it goes, but I want to keep it relatively low key as I start out.

It's all process though. It's all very hard work. So thank you for your encouragement and your questions and your continued listening