Letters in Space

So I went to the Spike Island open weekend, and realised that I don’t feel like I am using all of my creative potential. I am not completely satisfied with my lot in life.
What to do?
The answer was obvious. Use my Alexander Technique toolkit, and bring my reasoning processes to bear upon the problem. Make a plan.

Analyse the conditions present.
This is where I am at just at present. I have been thinking about what it is that I currently do, and what thngs I don’t do that would be good for me.
To begin: things I am doing.
1. Recorder. I am playing in my quartet Pink Noise. We meet and rehearse most weeks, and are preparing new music.
2. Singing. I am having singing lessons, and loving them. They inspire me.
3. Writing. I am writing my main blog every week, and this one occasionally (more occasional than I would like or had planned, sadly…).
4. Knitting.

Things I am not doing, or not doing enough.
1. Practice. I don’t do enough of this, either with voice or recorder, and it isn’t systematic. I read a wonderful blog post on practice recently by a sports psychologist who specialises in working with musicians. What I have come to realise is that, while my music teachers taught me how to play my instruments in a moderately technically correct manner, I was never taught how to practice. I was just told to do it. I could write more about this now, but I have a feeling it is a whole blog post in itself.
2. Writing. By which I mean, writing that isn’t related to Alexander Technique. From childhood, I have written. I have felt compelled to write. Poetry, plays, tv scripts, puppet shows… I dabbled in lots of stuff when younger. Then I wrote a dissertation and stopped writing a,together afterwards. Ouch.
3. Visual art. I consider myself to be truly rubbish at visual art. But when I was in high school we were introduced to Lino and screen printing, and I loved them. I’ve always had a lingering desire to do them again.
4. Exercise. Seem like an odd thing to put on a list of creativity? Maybe. But I think it’s really important to have some sort of physical outlet during a day. It’s a great way of taking your brain away from being stuck and allowing it to range free. And it helps me feel good too. In those erodes where I have done regular exercise, I have been generally happier and more productive.

So that’s the list so far of all the things I do and don’t do. The next step? To think about why I want to be creative in the first place. What is it that I want to achieve? What is my goal?
And what about you reading this? Have you done a creative audit lately? If so, tell me about it.