A Day Well Wasted

Photo by Seth Ryan Photography

It's Sunday morning and I wake up hazy-eyed with a headache the size of my appetite at last night's Crushbrew Festival in Scottsdale - double IPA's, Three Amigos Tequila and beer cheese as far as the stomach can stretch. After starring blankly into the ceiling, pondering my life choices for a moment, I open up my phone and take a cold shower in the abyss of social media. Initially, I'm looking to see if anyone posted some footage of our performance at the festival because we played really well and I want to see how it looked/sounded from an audience perspective. I usually try to do this after all of our shows, whether for a little bit of affirmation of a show well-played, an opportunity to learn from mistakes, or a little bit of both. I sift through a few shaky and distorted videos of the band that were good for a few laughs and proceed to become engrossed in my social media feeds, leading into "the best of Will Ferrell" clips on YouTube, which finally segue into an It's Always Sunny binge that wipes out most of my day.

...A day well wasted?

Okay, maybe I'm being a little dramatic. Sometimes it's nice to have those days where you just get to chill out and unwind into a slew of easy entertainment. It's just that lately I've been trying to appreciate my time a little more and take full advantage of each day as an amazing opportunity to be alive. So what's the secret recipe for approaching each day in this way? I'm still searching for new answers to this question, but from my experience, it's all about how I start.

For me, I like to start my day off with some instrumental music, usually whatever genre immediately comes to mind. I make myself a cup of coffee and sit down for 20 min to write whatever is on my mind. This is a practice I learned from a book called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, commonly referred to as "free association writing," which is simply allowing your pen to trail in the wake of your free thoughts. Don't think about what you want to write, just write whatever you're thinking. What this does is it connects your initial waking mind, which has yet to be influenced by the world around you, with the act of making it unfold onto paper. You watch your thoughts become concrete and decipherable, which can stimulate creative thinking for the rest of the day.

For me, a successful day is one that's full of ideas that manifest themselves in my music, writing and any other medium that grows my brand as an artist and music industry professional. If I'm not tapping into my creative well, which can seem to temporarily dry up without the attention it needs, I feel incomplete. It's so easy slip out of focus and develop habits that divert my attention away from what matters to me the most. In an age with an infinite amount of distractions literally at our fingertips, I feel like I'm not alone in this struggle.

It was a little daunting for me at first because I usually would have to be in a specific mindset to feel that "flow" and write freely, but after a few awkward mornings searching for my voice, it now comes much more naturally. If you are searching for ways to start your day that stimulate your creative side, I highly recommend this method.

What is your ideal start to a "successful" day? Is it with a gallon jug of coffee? 10 minutes of breathing and meditation? Starring at your reflection, beating your chest and chanting some tribal ritual like Matthew McConaughey in Wolf Of Wall Street? I would love to hear your approach so please leave a comment below if you care to share!

Thanks for reading.

Joey
RIVIR.