Good points Toby. Yes. Distractions and the despair of that, the world at large whether in macro or micro. I do switch on radio 4, yes, and really do reach for phone - insta, facebook, emails, messages - not twitter though. And I do it most often before I'm even fully awake. Dawn, birds so lovely but far too quickly eclipsed by the world's worst and best and the chat and ideas, the wars and the powers and money and ups and downs and fires and deaths, all the noise. And you're right to suggest we protect those first moments for our mind so it's more free and unpolluted. I promise myself, but then succumb to the lure of media. I bet my writing would improve if I could do it. Sometimes I do it, coffee then maybe chant first, then write or vice versa without switching on. Ideally I'd do the - up, coffee, chant, walk on the green by my house, stretch breath, yoga maybe then write and all in a very compact sequence before any radio or phone checks. And we all know it's much better that way. I have friends who do that, stay pure. And it works. I think I only really managed it by waking early during those first silent and awful yet magical weeks of the pandemic. Then it was like that. We had to take the news in batches and perhaps not first thing or we'd be too overwhelmed & despairing. The presence of nature, birds and sky was all more apparent then, in the quiet, it was very good for mental space.
I did it! this morning I rose at 5,30 am - okay I did check phone and listen to the radio but very quick and then switched to radio 6 at least, and with coffee, I wrote without checking phone or emails again until 7am so your writers diary entry on this subject actually worked Toby!
Good points Toby. Yes. Distractions and the despair of that, the world at large whether in macro or micro. I do switch on radio 4, yes, and really do reach for phone - insta, facebook, emails, messages - not twitter though. And I do it most often before I'm even fully awake. Dawn, birds so lovely but far too quickly eclipsed by the world's worst and best and the chat and ideas, the wars and the powers and money and ups and downs and fires and deaths, all the noise. And you're right to suggest we protect those first moments for our mind so it's more free and unpolluted. I promise myself, but then succumb to the lure of media. I bet my writing would improve if I could do it. Sometimes I do it, coffee then maybe chant first, then write or vice versa without switching on. Ideally I'd do the - up, coffee, chant, walk on the green by my house, stretch breath, yoga maybe then write and all in a very compact sequence before any radio or phone checks. And we all know it's much better that way. I have friends who do that, stay pure. And it works. I think I only really managed it by waking early during those first silent and awful yet magical weeks of the pandemic. Then it was like that. We had to take the news in batches and perhaps not first thing or we'd be too overwhelmed & despairing. The presence of nature, birds and sky was all more apparent then, in the quiet, it was very good for mental space.
I did it! this morning I rose at 5,30 am - okay I did check phone and listen to the radio but very quick and then switched to radio 6 at least, and with coffee, I wrote without checking phone or emails again until 7am so your writers diary entry on this subject actually worked Toby!