Creating space.

I've been working hard lately, creating space. On my Mac, on my iPhone, in my writing, in my heart, and in my mind.

What I have discovered over a lifetime, is that without space, I simply don't function well. I get in a spin. I get distracted. I lose the plot. By creating space, I find myself in the gaps. I have room to expand, and room to relax.

My Mac was easy. Install Main Menu Pro. Write only in nvALT. Browse only in Safari. Remove extraneous files. Zero inbox. Zero desktop files, folders and disks. Minimalist wallpaper [white, with only my haiku, Zen mind in centre screen]. Ditto for the iPhone. Don't buy into the 'one thing well' approach, that will fill your hard drive with a mass of unnecessary apps. If you have a Mac, you probably have all you need. I used to rely on TextEdit instead of nvALT. Keep it simple.

My writing came easily too. This column is now the only place that I write longer form work, essays, and so forth. Unless commissioned to write editorial, even then, I prefer to write succinct pieces. Over the past month, I have begun to reduce and clarify my literary output to the point where I can call my writing minimalist. I found focus, and I have grown as a writer. I have identified the types of writing that work for me. I write the spiritual and the philosophical, here in my column. I write my haiku, gifts received in moments of spiritual and mental focus. Finally, I have my creativity engine – Create Thing, little creative nudges for the stuck. The release, discovery and space I find, through writing these few short things a day, these things that fill my notebooks and mind to overflowing, is a spaciousness of mind, and of writing.

In order to write well, I need a clear mind. If I am able to do that, I see results across my life. Even as a Zen practitioner of several decades, I still need this daily practice of sitting [meditation]. I sit, noticing the scattered thoughts of my crowded mind. When I do this, inspiration follows, flooding into the space created through sitting.

When I sit, I create a calm centre in myself and spaciousness of being radiates from that. Peace of mind and clarity of thinking results. If I don't sit, I notice, I miss the benefit, and need to bring myself back to it.

Make space for it. Whatever the it is that you seek, it will flood in to fill the vacuum.