First Steps With Fear

Here is Leo Babauta a well-respected seasoned blogger talking about what he does when he has run out of ideas for a blog post. Something that happens to me rather regularly.

Fear stops us from figuring out the best course of action….start by calming down, and don’t run around like a chicken without a head. I like to relax myself with a small meditation — just watch my breath, then my body, then the sounds and light around me. I can do this wherever I am. By being present, I realize that everything is OK, that this moment is perfect, that my life isn’t about to come crumbling down.

From When You Run Out of Ideas – Zen Habits

When lost for an idea for a post Leo consults his ‘ideas list! Something I’ve periodically kept but not reliably. In the quoted article there are a number of ideas on ways to stimulate ideas for posts. The following is his last way to find ideas.

I look inside. Again, I’ll sit still, and turn my gaze inward, and try to see things about myself that I hadn’t noticed before, or haven’t noticed in some time. I’ll reflect on things I’ve learned, things I’ve been doing, new practices that have been useful. This is the most useful technique of them all, by the way, because often the answer has been inside me all along, but there’s so much going on inside us that we forget to notice.

This advice is about finding ideas to write about and I’ll take up some of them, especially the ideas list. Your contributions to that list, via email, would be appreciated.

I’m returning to that first sentence, Fear stops us from figuring out the best course of action….start by calming down.  But fear excites doesn’t it. Or numbs.

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