Every morning, within the first hour of waking, I go for a walk.
It doesn’t matter if it’s raining, or if there is 5 inches of snow to trudge through. It makes no difference If I didn’t sleep well, or have a list of things demanding my attention when I get back. I put my shoes on and step outside regardless of how I’m feeling that day.
The walk gets me out of my head and into my body. It’s what I physically need to do my best creative work.
We tend to think of creative work as something that happens in the mind. The words we write, the ideas we develop, the abstract concepts we shape. But what we create emerges from our physical experience of the world. What we’ve seen, felt, heard, touched and lived.
The more we fully inhabit our bodies, the more resources we have to draw from when we create. Moving gets us out of the loop of our thoughts and back into contact with our sensory experience. When we’re grounded and present, we can tap into our creativity in a way that can’t be reached through the mind alone.
If I’m stuck in my head, I can spend an entire morning circling the same thoughts without actually starting. I’ll open my laptop to look something up, then find myself browsing another site. A notification bell rings and I check my phone. I’ll make another coffee, tidy my desk, tell myself I’ll start once I’ve done a little more research. After I have a clearer idea, or once I feel ready.
When I'm tired or not in the mood, it's easy to get trapped in limiting thought patterns and stop noticing what my body is telling me. I miss the cues. The tension in my shoulders when I’m forcing something, the way my stomach tightens when something feels off, or the flicker of excitement when an idea resonates. I become disconnected to whole swaths of intuitive information crucial to the creative process.
But when I lace up my shoes and step outside, I notice the cold air on my face, feel the ground beneath my feet, the slope of the trail, the rhythm of my breath. It helps me reconnect with my body and surroundings, interrupts the thoughts keeping me stuck, and I return with more presence. The problem I’m working on doesn't magically solve itself, but I’m no longer approaching it from the same state of mind.
Sometimes, what you need isn’t a better solution. It’s a tiny shift in how you’re experiencing the moment.
The same way athletes train to build strength and stamina through repeated physical effort, and learn how to respond to physical cues. Creative work asks for a similar practice. Moving our bodies is just one way of becoming more present, and creating the conditions to be in our most creative state.
So my invitation for you this week is to notice when you’re stuck in your head and experiment with changing your state. Engage in some form of activity that brings you back into your body. Go for a walk or a run, get on your bike, do yoga, hit a CrossFit class if you’re feeling exceptionally fired up. It doesn’t have to be first thing in the morning either. We all have different rhythms that work for us. The important thing is to recognize what you physically need in that moment to feel more grounded, more present. Notice what changes when you return to the work.