Can you ever be too inspired?
Issue #42 🍆 plus hillside giants, breath cycles and lots of links!
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, delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
Dear Questers,
Sam here 👋 Coming to you from a couple of days deep in the British countryside. As part of January’s Quest exploring Magic I found myself drawn to the weird and wonderful tales of British ritual and folklore.
As anyone who has done a Quest will tell you - the month-long exploration itself is merely the beginning of a ripple effect it can have in your life. The real adventure happens in how you continue to pursue this new way of seeing and being in the world.
So as part of my new magical curiosity - I’m here in the small village of Cerne Abbas, Dorset (population: 900) to walk an ancient pathway to one of the UK’s weirdest bits of land art & magical heritage.
The Cerne Abbas Giant is one of many hillside chalk drawings you can find in Britain - although this guy is 100% the standout. For obvious reasons.
Although his exact origin dates and inspiration are shrouded in speculation and mystery - the latest scientific findings age him at around 1000 years old and believe he was created by locals as a depiction of the Anglo-Saxon pagan deity ‘Helith’. A symbol of fertility, funnily enough.
Taking a literal page out of wonderful Weird Walks book - I plan to spend a good few hours rambling around the hills, pathways and chalky phallic grooves as a way to connect to a different, more magical, much weirder time in our distant past.
A creative theme of mine for this year, is ‘Looking back to move forward’ - a concept I’ll explore in more detail next time…
💡 Is there such thing as being too inspired?
This forms part of a mini-series of Quest Digests sharing some of the thinking behind our reason to pause our Creative Quests programme in 2024 and defining what the future of this experiment looks like.
Our first 3 years and 12 Quests have been as intensely inspirational as it’s possible to get. Every new theme has opened up a doorway to seemingly endless pathways - filled with novel ideas, characters, stories and ways of being.
We’ve proven again and again that inspiration arrives at a rapid pace when we choose curiosity for worlds outside our norm.
Multiply this by the fact that every ephemeral gang of Questers* has been different and diverse across age, continent, culture and disciplines - our communal Quests are the optimum conditions for the the rosy glow of inspiration to thrive.
*i’d also like to add that this is a serious credit to the people that CQ attracts. Spending a month in the company of un-like minds would not be a lot of peoples idea of a good time.
There is no doubt that Inspiration with a capital I makes us feel good.
In this state we feel elevated, connected and as if new things are possible. A life in pursuit of inspiration is one well spent.
However… If you’re the type of creative person who wants to make things (art / academic projects / movements / future artefacts / etc!) and share them with the world - I would argue there is a point where you have to recognise when you have all you need to get going and move into the next phase.
My point being - that inspiration can sometimes feel a little too nice for our own good. Addictive, maybe.
♾ In recent months I’ve come to think of the creative process like a breathing cycle.
'Inspire' is from the Latin 'inspirare', meaning 'to breathe or blow into.' When you are 'inspired', you are etymologically having an idea 'breathed into you.'
If we follow this metaphor and exchange Air for Inspiration - then there must be a point where you physically cannot take in anymore inspiration.
You either:
Hold Your Breath (aka - reflect on your learnings)
or Exhale (aka - make beautiful things!)
eventually creating room for more inspiration to arrive.
Over the last 3 years - we’ve had some definite moments of individual Exhalation a long the way. Some beautiful personal projects have been born from our Quests. Tarot decks, sonic explorations, collage portraits + more…
We have some of these projects compiled in our Cabinet of Curiosities.
Toward the last quarter of 2023 I began to feel that perhaps Creative Quests needs a deeper, more collective Exhalation. Bigger creative projects that would only be made possible through the collaboration of our Quester community.
We have 3 years and 12 Quests worth of inspiration to play with … imagine what could be possible if we held our breath for a minute to process this and built ways to creatively exhale as a collective?
Co-authored projects that we could release into the world so that other curious people can experience the magic of our Quests in new formats. Once we exhale collectively, creatively - our Inspiration cycle would begin again, having gathered up more Questers, along the way.
2024 is about making space for these kinds of projects to arise and inviting the incredible creativity of our Quester community to make it possible. So keep an eye out for opportunities in the very near future 👀
As a fun, exercise I further explored this idea of breath cycle as a metaphor for a healthy creative system.
I recently learnt the ‘4-4-8’ breathing pattern in an interview with Curious Humans podcast host and Nervous System Mastery creator, Jonny Miller. It goes like this:
4 second inhale -
4 second hold -
8 second exhale….
^ a very quick, effective way to lower anxiety and arrive in a place of calm and focus.
So I present an early working… of the INSPIRE —> EXHALE creative cycle.
I would argue that the creative process is a little more like 8-4-8 in terms of split. But it’s all personal of course.
Curious to know what you think!
A round up of curious finds from our Quester world.
🧠 Make sure your brain has a diverse portfolio too
🏴☠️ Take yourself on a trash-ure hunt
🌀 Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous Systems Mastery)
🧪 The chemistry of inspiration
✏️ Ellipsus is a multiplayer creative tool for writing, publishing, and monetizing stories together
🎨 Metalabel are about to change the way creative projects can be released into the world… sign me up!
😴 The 7 types of rest that every person needs
🌸 A field guide to roadside flowers at full speed
Finally…
Yesterday was Leap Day! 29th Feb only arrives once every 4 years. Making it number one contender for weirdest date in the calendar. If you need a nudge to take a leap… let leap year be it!
Quest regards,
Sam x
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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Love this *inspiring* bit about the etymology of "inspire!" Like putting wind in one's sails...Have a blast in the countryside :)