Can't get started on your art? Introduce a ritual

In last week’s newsletter, Camey Yeh shared her rituals for art making (matcha and a chill hop playlist).

Making a cozy or refreshing beverage before making art, a tried & true ritual

Since then I’ve been thinking about how pervasive rituals are to get us primed to start an action. Some examples from my own life:

• Reading a few pages of Pema Chodron’s When Things Fall Apart before I meditate in the morning

• Filling up my water bottle before entering my workspace

• Making an iced matcha after lunch to usher in the second half of my day

• Starting a new sketchbook with a cacophony of color swatches and material testing

• Entering “focus mode” in Sunsama and starting the timer before hunkering down on a project

Time is ticking (screenshot from Sunsama’s “Focus mode”)

And some examples from others:

• When visiting Eugenia Mello’s studio, she shared how preparing papers for painting can get her mentally ready to create—one of the benefits of working traditionally

• Beethoven counted sixty coffee beans every day to make his perfect cup before sitting down to compose

• Maya Angelou rented a hotel room to write, insisting on no decor or art on the walls so she could "feel as if all [her] beliefs [were] suspended"

The key to a ritual before a difficult action is to make it feel good. For me, the notion of accurate time tracking tickles my analytical Virgo brain so I want to get started as soon as the timer begins. For you, maybe a delicious caffeinated drink or a good journaling session is what gets you primed to begin.

Do you have any particular rituals before creating? I would love to hear about yours in the comments!

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On a logistical note, I’ve reorganized my Substack homepage to include a top navigation for Meet My Art Friend interviews and my Ask CYOO advice column! I haven’t sent one of these in a good while so aiming to get it started up again. You can leave any question or dilemma you have that you’d like some support on in this form here :)