#074 - Doing nothing is good for our creativity

Hey, Hitzbutz family, this is Shelly Hitz, the owner and founder of ChristianBookAcademy.com and today I want to talk about how doing nothing is good for our creativity. Yesterday I talked about improving our focus. And I've been thinking a lot about this for my own life and how, like, I really want to change my brain so that it is not addicted to all of this technology. And, you know, sometimes you just feel like you have a crazy brain. And I have also been thinking about how it's easy to want to fill every minute of every day. You know, if. If you're. If you have time in the line at the grocery store, how easy is it just to take out your phone and feel like, okay, I need to do something. I need to look up something, be productive. And yet sometimes the most productive thing you can do is to take some deep breaths, to allow yourself to not do anything, to not reach for your phone in that moment where you are feeling restless. I know I have been feeling this way lately as I've been trying to fast from some things. Like, I've been fasting from watching television, especially hdtv. I've been fasting from fiction, novels, and I find myself like, okay, well, then what? What do I do? What I do, what I do? You know, it's like my. My spirit is, like, restless and yet learning to do nothing, learning to be quiet. That's when we're going to hear the still, small voice of the Lord. We can connect with him in those moments instead of feeling like we want to connect or we need to connect with our phones, our other people, through social media or texting or other groups or whatever. Take a deep breath and ask yourself. Dig deep. Are you able to sit and do nothing? It is hard. Try it. Set your timer for like, five minutes and just see if you can sit and do nothing for five minutes. They also say, I was reading some articles yesterday on Focus, and they were saying that if your phone is even within sight and you keep seeing it, it'll make you, like, nervous. As not nervous, but like, wanting to check it, wanting to see what's going on. So actually, like, maybe put your ph in a drawer or put it out of sight, put it in another room when you're, you know, wanting to be more creative and do some writing or do some work. And also when you're sitting and doing nothing and, you know, just praying or meditating, put your phone in a place where you can't see it because you're going to keep your. Your mind is Subconsciously going to pick it up, pick it up, pick it up. Um, but if you can just sit for a few minutes in silence, allow the waters to settle, allow yourself to connect with Christ. I've been memorizing Ephesians 3:14-21, and it talks about so that Christ can dwell in our hearts through faith, you know, so we can be rooted.

And grounded in his love and know his love that surpasses all knowledge. But it's hard to really comprehend that and to think about that when our brains are always busy, but also to come up with creative ideas, to really do things. Like our brain needs space to think. Our brain needs space to. To really bring, you know, to it gives it space to bring forth the ideas for your writing or the ideas for marketing or whatever it is that you're working on. And so my challenge for you today, you don't even have to start with five minutes. Just do one minute. Maybe set a timer for one minute and just see if you can sit and do nothing. Just, you know, maybe just do some deep breathing and just allow yourself, your brain, some space to think and so that those creative juices can flow. You know, some of my best ideas come when I am doing nothing, when I'm on a walk or when I'm taking a bath or, you know, driving somewhere. And it's. You're not doing nothing, but you're doing automatic tasks, you know, doing things that don't require you to think about it. And then it opens up the space for that creativity. So instead of picking up your phone every time you feel the urge, see if you can start picking it up less. Instead of keeping your phone next to you every single time, especially when you're trying to write or do work on, you know, your marketing or whatever it is, see about putting it in another room. And if you're waiting for an important call, keep the ringer on so you can still hear it, but keep it out of sight. Just see what will happen. I know I'm doing some experimenting for myself too, to see what will work best. But I hope that this encouraged you or inspired you to try some of these things. And I will talk to you in the next episode. Bye. Bye.