Turn Inward: Make Your Own Noise
It’s been awhile since I’ve presented my Reasons To Write series…mostly because I have been writing and working and a lot of other things, so it’s good.
But lately I’ve been feeling the strain of information again upon me—the strangely addictive cycle of spending lots of time on Facebook, reading my tweetstream, getting most of my news, and lots of interesting articles on the arts, even reading books online or on my SmartPhone. After too much of this, I begin to feel like Gulliver attacked on all sides by Lilliputians, pulling on me, tugging me down and in so many directions that even when I’m really doing nothing, I feel tired. I can feel my synapses beginning to hold up protest signs demanding time off.
And this brings me to one of my favorite reasons for writing: to realign, to pull ourselves back together at the seams, collect up all the crumbs of ourselves that the digital ants have carried away.
Creative writing calms our brain waves, brings us closer to that state we enter in dreams and meditation—part trance, part hyper-focus, I don’t know too many writers who can write AND do other things at the same time. Writing requires a profound turning inward, harvesting from the world inside, rather than being at the mercy of the external world.
I think writing is one of the most valuable things any person who also feels swept away in the slipstream of information can do for your brain. As important as making sure to get up and stretch after sitting too long, or exercising, eating healthy and sleeping.
I’m not naïve enough to tell anyone to turn it off, go live in a mud hut in the woods and live off the land, much less to reduce the amount of time you spend swirling in the online clutch, nor; instead I say: turn up the volume on your writing. Make your own noise!
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Check out my online writing classes: www.jordanrosenfeld.net/online-classes/
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