The tension in my shoulder grows as I pull back my right arm. My left is tensed, poised just right, braced but passive. I breathe in. Pause. The world slows. The target lines up. I hear the click and the twang of the release. The thwap of the arrow down range is one of my favorite sounds. Standing there with my bow, I am at peace. I breathe again.
This month I have attempted to take a few side roads into where I find inspiration, where I pull stories from the ether. Today will be a little bit different as well. Have you ever had a really great idea come to you right before you fall asleep, or when you are in the shower? Then you cannot grasp those ideas again when you get a chance to write them down? Sometimes it feels like our best ideas come when we are least able to capture them! You might be wondering why this happens and how you can get your brain to stop playing this cruel trick on you.
Our brains are amazing. It is a hive of near-constant activity, even when we are bored our brains are doing a million things all at once. It has evolved to keep us safe from predators and find food. Yet it was designed with the capacity for imagination, personality, and communication on a level not seen in other parts of the animal kingdom. Impressed yet? Well, think about this then, your little noddle has more neurons inside of it than we have stars in the night sky. There are around 100,000 miles of blood vessels inside of your head! This three-pound organ at the top of our spinal column uses twenty percent of the oxygen we take in! Your little brain hamster generates about 23 watts of energy when you are awake! Did I say our brains are amazing? Because they are!
Our brains are predisposed to keep us alive and upright most of the time. Yet at the same time, it is absorbing everything it can around you. Sights, smells, sounds, touch, taste are all sending constant signals to our brain. Registering, measuring, and evaluating our surroundings. Sorting out threats, potential threats, and food from our surroundings instantly, twenty-four seven. With all of that activity, it can be hard to sort out the noise and just be sometimes.
Then there is the problem of our eyes. We are constantly distracted, especially these days with a screen in our pocket and on every wall. I try to write with my phone tucked away, but that still doesn’t prevent me from meandering around the internet on my second screen! We are driven with an almost pathological predisposition to seek out distraction. We fill every moment with something to entertain us, is it any wonder that we sometimes can’t even think?
This is why some of our greatest ideas come to us when we are least prepared. They come when we are free from most of the distractions and constraints of the day to day world. Our ideas are generated when we feel safe, secure, and relaxed. This is why an idea will pop out in the shower when you are not distracted. Or why right before sleep you have a brilliant idea because you are totally relaxed. In these moments our brains can focus on something else. In these moments all of those inputs and distractions get sorted and categorized and a beautiful idea crystallized and takes root. But we are not ready for them because we have spent all of our time rushing around doing things.
I brought up archery at the start of today’s message because this is one of the practices I use to gather inner peace. Prayer and mediation are other ways in which I do this. I don’t always get ideas when I am doing these practices but I feel as if it gives me a chance to breathe. I give my brain the chance to relax. To just be. Even for a moment. Even if it just a second after the release of the arrow, it is worth it. In these moments the body falls away. Peace reigns. I can relax and just let my mind do whatever it needs to. It is fine to try and find things that inspire us, that stretch our imaginations to the horizons or through time. But we must also find the time to relax, the time to process those experiences into ideas. For our ideas to truly flourish we need to learn to breathe and be.