Relax , Recharge Then Write

Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon

This afternoon I had a very relaxing experience. I am not at work til Wednesday and did not log on to Facebook this morning. As very few of my Vocal friends are on this side of the Atlantic no one missed me because they were asleep.

But I thought I would do nothing but listen to records I got for Christmas, "Bob Marley in Dub" "Buddy Holly's Greatest Hits" and "Nirvana's Nevermind" all on 180g vinyl and sounding great on my vintage record player that I got from RPM in Newcastle.

The thing is I was totally relaxed.

I had nothing to write but didn’t feel I had anything to write, I had nothing to do, and was just listening and drinking coffee. That was it.

Nothing else

Absolutely nothing.

I had been out for a decent walk, chatted with friends and now I was back home in front of the Christmas tree listening to music and drinking coffee.

I wasn’t even watching television or reading because that would take effort on my part and I was enjoying this almost floating feeling of not having to do things, it was almost a meditative state, though I don’t do meditation as when I try to clear my mind something always jumps in and starts me thinking.

This nothingness was just perfect.

It was like washing my mind and getting it ready for whatever reason it needed to do something.

I know this post is rambling around with little apparent purpose, but I know friends who sometimes have issues with work, family life, and even Facebook, and all these conspiring to give you a headache or send you into a flood of tears because you just cannot cope at all. I sometimes hit the same things and when it happens I have no one to turn to but am lucky that I can step back and reorganize and re prioritize. I know that is not an option open to everyone.

I suppose that in some ways walking becomes a sort of meditation for me , and sometimes I just walk , and that’s it . My mind does empty, especially when I am off road and don’t have to worry about traffic or getting back for anything. Then my mind empties and sometimes ideas start to drop in and there are germs of ideas for stories, then the fire my Muse provides creates a full blown story that eventually surfaces on Vocal.

The point of this is that it is good to be able to create a situation where you do not have to do anything but you are in a pleasant place to actually benefit from not having to do anything. For some people it is lying in a darkened quiet room for a period of time may be concentrating on a single word or image until the stressful and tense feelings are purged. I cannot do this but use my own methods.

It looks like listening to a record is what does it for me, I put on an album and have twenty minutes where I don’t have to do anything. My mind is just letting the sound wash over me, and it puts me in a totally restful and relaxing situation. When the record finishes I am refreshed and ready to do whatever I need to.

I really have to do this more often to really reap the benefit.

As we are in the digital age, YouTube has lots of free soundscapes to soothe your mind, sometimes hitting ten hours or more. My longest video is twenty minutes. I think we will lead with Brian Eno’s “Thursday Afternoon” which resulted when Brian came up with the concept of ambient music. He was very ill and there was a record on but he couldn't really hear it properly as it was too quiet. “Thursday Afternoon” is the embodiment of that, there is white noise, piano notes but no tune, so you hear the sound but are not distracted by it.

So find your way of relaxing, recharge yourself then you can create and write.