I have recently been extremely busy and it was only today that I realized that I had slipped back into old patterns of elevated stress and overthinking. These type of mind-states are extremely counter-productive, as I end up worrying so much about the future that I forget to live in the present. Without residing at least partly in the present, it ends up taking twice as much time and effort to finish that story. Or plan that report. Or leave time for making a decent healthy dinner 😉
When I push myself like this, the thing which I find most centers me, is poetry. Writing poetry is in of itself an act of self reflection. The poet is often trying to craft a story, but the reflective surface of their inner world shines through in the imagery of the poem. This surface is like the water in a deep well, you see yourself (or the story) in the surface but there is a depth which allows for its reflective quality. The imagery, flow and the overall essence of the poem comes from those depths.
Haiku go a step further. There is nowhere to hide with a Haiku, as you are writing a tiny poem it is essentially like a diamond covered in mud. If you don't clean well, the sparkle just won't show. I find writing a Haiku a great way to practice a form of meditation through writing. There is the exercise of writing which demands a purity of thought, a mindful focus on a single concept or idea. This is kind of like finding a presence of focus in meditation, where the inner-dialogue that we have with ourselves fades, leaving space for clarity.
The act of counting the syllables (Haiku should be 5/7/5) brings the analytical mind into the process which helps to balance the creative brain and polish the poem into that fine cut diamond. I particularly like the fact that having so few words to play with encourages good writing practice as there isn't enough space for too many adjectives or adverbs. It is also true that you have to focus the core of the poem around a single act of observance, whether it be conceptual or sensory. A dear departed teacher once wrote:
When in a new place, first look around you, then close your eyes and listen. Train your imaginative powers by challenging yourself to put each new situation to some creative use. Among the silt you will find gold, that moment when you say, 'I can use that'.
Edmund Cusick, The Writer's Workbook
This advice transfers into my poetic practices and routines. When I first feel the urge to write poetry, I enter a state of quiet observance quite naturally and then proceed to try and pin down the overall feeling/theme of my creative focus. Often when writing Haiku, I am inspired by a picture I have taken at a location where I practiced this exercise of mindful observance. In these instances I draw on both the trigger of memory the picture elicits and a summary of imagery/sensory impressions I wrote on my phones' notepad app at the time. This all ties in with what I was saying earlier about finding your center through writing poetry.
The mind is everything. What you think you become.
We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.
Buddha
For me, the very act of writing Haiku is a cleansing of the mind, escaping the chatter of the ego through mindful observance. Below, there are a set of Haiku which show this process of observation in settling the mind. I find a huge amount of healing energy and spiritual nourishment in nature. These pictures were taken at my allotment yesterday at a point in time when I really needed to escape from my work stresses and inner mind chatter.
