9 April 2010
by 
Take time to stop and smell the roses….
How many times have you heard this in your lifetime from family, friends – or even your doctor?
Life is so busy, so hectic. If the phone isn’t ringing, someone’s at the door. Meals need to be prepared; laundry and dishes demand attention. Appointments beckon. Shopping won’t do itself – so many chores, so much to do, so little time.
Don’t let this depress you. Life will always be busy. That’s just a given. There will always be something else you could be doing while you’re tending the task at hand.
When the sun sets each evening and our to-do list is already growing for the next day, it is easy to feel pulled in a gazillion directions. As we live our busy lives, darting to and fro and fulfilling obligations, assignments, and scratching items off our lists, our muse can become lost.
How can we hear the inspiration through all the chaos? Oh, we can strain our ears until we hear the faintest musings. But is that good enough – really?
Hearing through the stresses of day-to-day life can be nearly impossible. Even if we manage to struggle enough to squeeze out decent work, do the words flow like they once did? Do sentences, paragraphs, stories weave seamlessly?
5 Reasons to Stop and Smell the Roses
- Clear mind. If you never allow your mind to be quiet, you’ll get burnt out – and fast. Even if you manage to push yourself for a long time, why would you? There’s nothing better than tamed thoughts, still moments.
- Health. It isn’t healthy to go, go, go all the time without a moment to catch your breath. Your body can only go so far, do so much. And without a strong, healthy body, how do you expect to maintain – or start a freelance career?
- Inspiration. With a clear mind and healthy body, your muse will have an open pathway through your vessel, she can dance in the idea waterfall. This means words and ideas will literally come and flow like a river through your entire being, and purge themselves onto your paper or keyboard.
- Peace. If your body and mind are clear and you’re writing freely, you’ll feel more at peace. You’ll have that balance you crave and desire so deeply.
- Encouragement. As everything falls into place; centered, strong, and balanced; you’ll begin to feel more and more encouraged in your writing goals. And the more encouraged you are, the more inspired you’ll be.
By following these tips and caring for yourself – mind, body, and soul – your writing (and you!) will flourish.
So, see, stopping to smell the roses is not only something you can do for yourself – it’s something you can do for your muse.
And I assure you, their perfume has never been sweeter…
How often do you stop and smell the roses?
How do you make time to recharge your spirit?
Photo Credit: 02-15-2008 © splityarn
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[...] Gardening is definitely therapeutic and as I recently wrote, you can be reinspired by stopping to smell the roses. [...]
Somebody told me Wallace Stevens, the poet, used to walk a lot, and that’s when he came up with his poems. Walking is a great way to escape from stress, especially if you can walk in a natural setting. It also seems to inspire ideas. Maybe it gets your blood flowing through your brain.
That’s awesome, Russell!
Yes, I believe it does. It’s SO relaxing!
.-= Michele L. Tune shares: Organic (Companion) Gardening, Sunny Days, Flowers, Fresh Air!!!! =-.
I think one of the reasons “stopping to smell the roses” works is because we’re using our body to BE in the world. To live and experience. Life is the greatest inspiration for writing. I find just opening my eyes in the morning can fire up the creative juices but sometimes it helps to step outside my front door or to get away from the mundane of daily routine and do something different. New experiences, like the unique sent of a freshly blooming rose fires neurons in the brain, creating new memories and connections, compost for the next great idea.
I agree, Rebecca!
And that’s exactly it – I think once we write day in and day out for an extended period of time, it becomes (gasp!) mundane in a sense and that’s when we begin to lose the “umph” to our writing that we had in the beginning.
But it’s definitely pretty easy to fix.
I love how you say it: New experiences, like the unique scent of a freshly blooming rose fires neurons in the brain, creating memories and connections, compost for the next great idea.
That. is. beautiful!!!!
.-= Michele | aka Raw Juice Girl shares: Organic (Companion) Gardening, Sunny Days, Flowers, Fresh Air!!!! =-.
Music, Prayer and above all time. Time for me has been the hardest. I try with much effort to give myself time just to think and wait. I don’t want to write something that is not true to myself.
[...] forget to stop and smell the roses - you may even want to plant your [...]