Skillful Practices for Creative Work
Skillful knowing
Skillful Understanding – Realizing that creativity is a practice, blocks are temporary, “mistakes” are discoveries
Skillful Intention – Why are you making this music? What do you want to create? Serving the music vs. serving ego
Skillful doing
Skillful Speech – How you talk about your own work matters; encouraging yourself; constructive feedback to others
Skillful Action – Physical approach – relaxed, efficient technique; caring for instruments; showing up consistently
Skillful Integrity – Yeah, the golden rule; building an authentic and ethical livelihood
Practices of attention
Skillful Effort – Balanced energy – not forcing, not giving up; knowing when to persist vs. when to take breaks
Skillful Mindfulness – Present-moment awareness; noticing tension, reactions, mental states during creative work
Skillful Concentration – Appropriate attention quality for each task – expansive for jamming, focused for mixing
More on Skillful Practices of Attention
These are qualities of attention you can consciously practice and shift between as you sense your creative work requires. They represent one key area of the “skillful practices” to enact with EASE. Practice intentionally cultivating and shifting between these states as your creative work requires. It’s not easy, but worth trying (then trying again). This list of attention qualities is neither authoritative nor exhaustive; it is illustrative and inspirational. Get to know yourself and your work to build intuition about the most important qualities of attention for your creative flourishing.
Concentration Practices
Focused vs. Diffuse
- Focused: Concentrated, narrow attention on specific elements
- Diffuse: Broad, associative, relaxed awareness; spacious receptivity
Convergent vs. Divergent
- Convergent: Narrowing to solutions, evaluative, decisive
- Divergent: Generating possibilities, exploratory, expansive
Present-Moment vs. Conceptual
- Present-Moment: Immediate experience, here-and-now awareness
- Conceptual: Thinking about, planning, analyzing
Mindfulness Practices
Accepting vs. Investigating
- Accepting: Allowing things to be as they are
- Investigating: Curious exploration of what’s happening
Perplexed Mind vs. Expert Mind
- Perplexed Mind: Fresh, curious, “don’t know” openness, it is interesting
- Expert Mind: Experienced, skilled, drawing on knowledge, it can be improved
Internal vs. External Focus
- Internal: Attention on thoughts, feelings, imagination
- External: Attention on environment, sounds, others
Effort Practices
Effortless vs. Forced
- Effortless: Natural flow, yielding to the creative process, spontaneous action
- Deliberate: Guiding, going toward, intentional effort
Generative vs. Evaluative
- Generative: Creating, producing, flowing
- Evaluative: Judging, critiquing, selecting
Example Attention Mismatches
- Expert-minded during Jam: Trying to get everything “right” while exploring
- Generative during Mix: Adding instrument parts, not balancing existing ones
- Diffuse during Refine: Not focusing on essential elements that need attention
- Evaluative during Share: It’s time to let go and move on