Читать книгу Stoking the Creative Fires - Phil Cousineau - Страница 25

Write down a morning dream. Keep it alive all day. Think about it at breakfast, in the car, at the café, until it inspires a response. Now make something out of it, a song, a poem, a story, a weaving, a mosaic.

Go to an art museum. Pick one painting. Look at it until you see it. Walk around inside it. Lose yourself in it. Imagine you're the artist. Re-create it in your mind so you can always conjure it when in need of inspiration.

Spring open a long-locked trunk. Strong smells and old possessions transport us; they catalyze memory and summon the muses. Let them trigger a story.

Focus and relax. William Wordsworth's secret trick for inspiring himself was concentrating on one thing, then turning away with what he called “soft eyes,” relaxing, until whatever he saw became beautiful.

Spend a day blindfolded. Martial arts legend Bruce Lee practiced his hardest moves with a bandana over his eyes until he could see, he said, with his inner eyes.

Read to children. It sets their hearts on fire and rekindles your own. Remember that The Hobbit sprang out of a single line from J.R.R. Tolkien's “Winter Reads,” his improvised stories to his own kids. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit . . .”