Blue Mind: Unlocking Your Creative Potential with Water
Issue #51 🎁 Win a free deck of Creative Quest prompt cards + illuminating links to explore.
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Written by Sam Furness and delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
Dear Questers
Trying something new this week! You can listen to me read this week’s newsletter. Anyone who knows me personally or has joined one of our workshops knows that I am Type A Yapper. Let me know if you enjoy the yap!
In this weeks newsletter:
A competition to win some Creative Quest prompt cards
Blue Mind: What I learnt from swimming a marathon
8 links that will inspire and delight!
🎁 Competition time!
I am giving away x3 packs of our Five Pathways quest cards - as used at Latitude Festival this year. 25 prompts (five per pathway - Noticing, Moving, Making, Imagining & Returning) that will add a playful dose of creative connection to any event or party you are hosting! You can use them for daily personal inspiration too.
These are not for sale (yet) while we test out the concept. So you are getting an early prototype :)
All you have to do is comment on this post answering this question (or any of the other questions in this newsletter):
What is a creative intention you are setting for yourself for
September → December.
I will pick x3 winners before the next newsletter.
🏊♂️ Creative life lessons from swimming a marathon
This morning I attended a sunrise yoga class and gong bath on the beach near where I live.
As I listened to a mix of waves lapping and bowls singing I found myself thinking of this weeks newsletter (how mindful of me 😅) and reminded myself of personal Quest I took on last Summer exploring the theme of Water. Having just moved from my home city of London to the southerly seaside town of Margate - Water felt like a theme that would invite me closer to my new home.
Some Quests stick with you more than others. And it’s safe to say I’m still feeling the ripple effects of this one (pun intended).
Quests are powerful tools for connecting you to your environment in creative and intimate ways. A way to re-map your psychogeography* and reimagine your centre of gravity in a place
*Psychogeography is the exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes.
If you were to spend a month Questing on a theme to connect you closer to where you live - what would it be? Let me know in the comments!
In our Quest programme, something we prompt people to do very early on in their theme exploration is ‘Rewild Your Algorithm’ - a simple way of training our digital overlords to serve you things that will inspire whatever theme you are Questing on.
After sufficient following, liking and commenting on various Water based accounts - my Instagram feed was an entirely BLUE place. Surfing, Swimming, Free Diving, Marine Biology, Coastal Wellbeing - blissful!
Then came a sponsored post from the charity WaterAid that would shape the next 3 months of my life… this is how the Quest Life goes.
’Swim a Marathon over 12 weeks!’ Gulp…
Years of Questing and exploring the creative unknown has taught me the huge power of taking on long term challenges which feel profoundly beyond your current capacity - be it physical, artistic or skill.
The journey of growth is so full of learning and the pay off is so huge - that these big challenges feel irresistible to me these days. The fear of failure has become my fuel.
So: armed with a big idea and none of the gear - I set about becoming really good at swimming and really connected to the Ocean by swimming 42km over August, September & October. With much advice and encouragement from friends (who could actually swim well) - I got better, stronger and eventually even got some great goggles.
Over 12 weeks I swam and I swam - almost every day. About 80% in the North Sea. 10% in the local swimming pool. 10% on holiday in Portugal.
Throughout my 3 months in the water, I had a lot of time to think and reflect on the challenge at hand. Here are some things I learnt along the way:
💙 Blue Mind
The ocean looks and feels different every day.
Maybe that’s because I feel different every day.
We are 70% water after all.The more I learn about the ocean and its vastness - I become simultaneously more fearful, more in awe and more drawn to the water.
In moments of physical struggle and panic - the best thing you can do is relax into your movement.
Even when you cant be bothered to swim (or create), 5 minutes is always better than 0 minutes.
I have developed a new emotion: a longing to be in sea water.
Jellyfish are beautiful friends. I am grateful for them.
You never forget swimming in the rain.
The ocean doesn’t care if I’ve not had a productive week of work.
The ocean doesn’t care if I’m broke. It still exists for me.
How we show up on the grey days is more important than how we show up on the blue days.
Choppy waters are sent to test us.
The sea is a school.
On a clear sunny day - there are moments where I’m unsure whether I am human, sea or sky.
Realising you are a watery being feels like unlocking a new part of yourself.
Something that was always there.Just hidden, like treasure, down in the deep blue.
During this Quest I also FINALLY committed to reading the book of a man whose work I have long admired. As I wrote about at the time.
"Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do" by Wallace J. Nichols
This stunning book explores the profound effects that water has on our well-being. Combining scientific research with brilliant stories, Wallace illustrates how water can have a calming and healing effect on the mind and body.
💙 I was really sad to hear the news of Wallace J Nichols passing earlier this year. I had long dreamt of a moment where we might get to have chance to talk at length about his passion for Water and how it can deepen our creative capacity.
To me he has always been someone emblematic of living ‘The Quest life’ - he saw the world through a watery lens and spread his passion for Blue Mind wherever he went.
Every day that I am Near, In, On, or Under Water - I think of Wallace and thank him for giving vocabulary to Blue Mind and expressing something we all knew deep down.
Water is life.
A round up of curious finds from our Quester world.
✂️ Deep dive on the history of words with Etymology Nerd
🫁 Curious Humans podcast host, Jonny Miller has launched a new cohort of his course, Nervous System Mastery. I absolutely love the website design and this video on Life as a Video Game is A+.
⭕️ Female Founders Sharing Circle is an open-source index and initiative designed for knowledge exchange between female founders in the creative industries and beyond. Founded by Quester, Ana Grigorovici.
🚸 9ft in common is an investigation of an infrastructure of alleyways, Belfast’s wild & liminal spaces.
🏞️ Public Work is a search engine for public domain content. Explore 100,000+ copyright-free images from The MET, New York Public Library, and other sources.
🧀 You thought
🧱 LEGO and Nike announce a multi-year partnership aimed at blending the worlds of creative play and sport.
🗣️ A Quote: In the week that Manchester legends Oasis, reunite after 15 years… some great life advice from the opening lyrics of their track Supersonic:
- ’I need to be myself, I can’t be no one else.’
Finally…
I love hearing from readers in the comments, and always value feedback.
If you enjoy The Quest Digest I’d love it if you shared it with a friend or two; you can send them here to sign up.
❤️’s and comments make me feel good too!
Big love,
Sam
Quest Guide / Founder
@saaamfurness
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
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Oooh thanks for the invitation to reflect with your juicy question! This Summer I have been coccooning with my creative inspirations, nesting into a new space building fertile creative routines, and now I am ready to create magic in the Fall. I have a line of creative connection tools I am designing alongside in person experiences combining human connection with meaningful solutions for global problems. I'm so excited for the months ahead! I am curious about your Creative Quests cards and think we're moving in similar directions. I always love the playful inspiration you so generously share and amplify within us!
In this last part of the year, I am exploring uncharted territories. I left a job that didn’t give me joy anymore, and what I will be focusing on is to find another one that fulfils me. And the hardest part is that I want to do it without any preconceptions.
I want to try to podcast, travel to immerse myself in new environments, open myself to all the creative forms that come to me, from writing to sketching. I am not sure where this path will lead me, but I am excited to follow the inspiration.
My intention is to push my boundaries and leave the known for the unknown.