Speaking Tree - Make The Time To Engage In Moodling
Creativity is not only for artists -- the painters, sculptors, musicians and dancers among us. Teachers need the power of creativity as do writers, programmers, engineers, scientists and cooks. Actually, anyone who does anything!
But as we know, there comes a time when creativity seems to slip away, take a short break or sometimes even a painfully long holiday.Then it’s time for moodling. The word comes from Brenda Ueland’s classic, ‘If You Want To Write - A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit’ where she wrote “…So you see, imagination needs moodling – long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.”
Moodling, we come to understand, is the dreamy place where one is free to come up with anything - or nothing. Someone interestingly described it as cogitating and composting time. Moodling does make things take longer. That might be why so many people are uncomfortable with the idea. But it makes writing and any kind of creating much more rewarding and alive and deep.
There are certain activities, apart from just doing nothing, that induce and invite your mind to moodle, and this is different for each of us. A refreshing shower; gazing at the incredible number of shades of green in my garden, long walks on the beach early in the day are activities that do it for me. For you it might be riding a bicycle or sketching or even a bus ride. Or as Sam Keene wrote, "When I walk, my mind leaps ahead, skips and steps, and presents me with images and ideas out of nowhere." There is something about the movement involved in walking that encourages ideas to float in and out.
Moodling is really about time spent in the flow state, where you’re enjoying what you’re doing simply because you do it. For some of us moodling time may mean breaking off what we are occupied with and doing something else that requires a different kind of focus. The replacement activity can often be another creative one.
Recently, when I was horribly stuck while writing something, I moved away from my laptop and set about making some finger puppets for some students I work with. The scissors and cutting, felt and foam sheets, shapes and colours coming together with no goal to finish a certain number or to do it all perfectly gave me that space and floaty engagement that often characterises moodling. And when I went back to my writing, ideas came freely; it was smoother and easier.
But many of us may have to learn moodling as a whole new skill. We tend to bring our habitual got-to-get-it-done attitude even to moodling. Goals and to-do lists take over, competition or self-criticism kicks in; other people’s needs crowd us.
Moodle-time is when brain activity slows to a pleasurable pace – when alpha waves operate in our brain, bringing that in-between, meditative state where the mind can weave together conscious thoughts and unconscious ideas and information in order to create something newer. We are less intent on outcome, more present in the now.
We can learn a lot about this from children. Children are naturally creative, playful, and experimental, immersing themselves in things easily, yet just as easily moving on to something else. But as they – and we -- get older, uncertainty and fear creep in, as do doubts, self-censoring and over-thinking. Then comparisons are made and outcome becomes the primary focus. We all need to learn to moodle, relinquishing anxiety about outcome, recharging our batteries, re-direcing attention to what is truly important and so nourishing our creativity.
But as we know, there comes a time when creativity seems to slip away, take a short break or sometimes even a painfully long holiday.Then it’s time for moodling. The word comes from Brenda Ueland’s classic, ‘If You Want To Write - A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit’ where she wrote “…So you see, imagination needs moodling – long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.”
Moodling, we come to understand, is the dreamy place where one is free to come up with anything - or nothing. Someone interestingly described it as cogitating and composting time. Moodling does make things take longer. That might be why so many people are uncomfortable with the idea. But it makes writing and any kind of creating much more rewarding and alive and deep.
There are certain activities, apart from just doing nothing, that induce and invite your mind to moodle, and this is different for each of us. A refreshing shower; gazing at the incredible number of shades of green in my garden, long walks on the beach early in the day are activities that do it for me. For you it might be riding a bicycle or sketching or even a bus ride. Or as Sam Keene wrote, "When I walk, my mind leaps ahead, skips and steps, and presents me with images and ideas out of nowhere." There is something about the movement involved in walking that encourages ideas to float in and out.
Moodling is really about time spent in the flow state, where you’re enjoying what you’re doing simply because you do it. For some of us moodling time may mean breaking off what we are occupied with and doing something else that requires a different kind of focus. The replacement activity can often be another creative one.
Recently, when I was horribly stuck while writing something, I moved away from my laptop and set about making some finger puppets for some students I work with. The scissors and cutting, felt and foam sheets, shapes and colours coming together with no goal to finish a certain number or to do it all perfectly gave me that space and floaty engagement that often characterises moodling. And when I went back to my writing, ideas came freely; it was smoother and easier.
But many of us may have to learn moodling as a whole new skill. We tend to bring our habitual got-to-get-it-done attitude even to moodling. Goals and to-do lists take over, competition or self-criticism kicks in; other people’s needs crowd us.
Moodle-time is when brain activity slows to a pleasurable pace – when alpha waves operate in our brain, bringing that in-between, meditative state where the mind can weave together conscious thoughts and unconscious ideas and information in order to create something newer. We are less intent on outcome, more present in the now.
We can learn a lot about this from children. Children are naturally creative, playful, and experimental, immersing themselves in things easily, yet just as easily moving on to something else. But as they – and we -- get older, uncertainty and fear creep in, as do doubts, self-censoring and over-thinking. Then comparisons are made and outcome becomes the primary focus. We all need to learn to moodle, relinquishing anxiety about outcome, recharging our batteries, re-direcing attention to what is truly important and so nourishing our creativity.
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