Do the next indicated thing...

You know how something just sticks? A saying, a face, or a place stays with you? For me ‘do the next indicated thing’ is one of those. It’s one of my ‘go to’ phrases. Decades ago in my first days and weeks of sobriety, I struggled. A new friend listened as I told her how difficult it was to get out of bed. I found it hard to face my day. “Do the next indicated thing”, she said. I didn’t get it. “What are you doing right now?” I told her I was in bed. “The next indicated thing is to put your feet on the floor”. Okay. Done, now what? “Stand up”. And so on. Simple. It came in handy over the days, years and decades when life threw too much my way, or I felt stuck. It’s about simplifying and not over thinking.

Last month I set a goal for myself. “I will make more art, or music, or dance – whatever moves in me.” And yet, I’ve found myself a bit stuck. Back to my bookshelf I picked up another dust-gathering book, Writing the Sacred Journey by Elizabeth J. Andrew. It is a guide to honouring your inner self through writing your spiritual memoir. Not quite what I had in mind until I read this:

“We are compelled by our encounters with pain, doubt, rebellion, and revelation to dialogue with these memories and release them from the bonds of our bodies onto the page. Even an unpublished, unread memoir exerts influence on the world. Stories, in and of themselves, matter.”

This is what the creative process is all about, releasing memories and ideas from the bonds of our bodies. Making our stories count and have meaning through whatever creative exploration draws us. In the chapter Honoring Teachers, Andrews instructs “make a list of people who have contributed to your spiritual development in simple and profound ways. Then, as concisely as possible, write down the primary lesson each person taught you.” I am forever grateful to Shirley for ‘do the next indicated thing’. I am constantly surprised at how much we continue to learn about ourselves when we dive into our creativity! I’m inspired by people’s capacity to heal when engaging their body, mind and spirit in living fully – even under difficult circumstances. If you are curious about the benefits of creative arts, there are several opportunities this October to 'do the next indicated thing’.