Zeitgeist

As a teen, my favourite band were the Levellers. I ADORED the electric violin, the mash-up of dreadlocks and passion, freedom and political poetry that sent lightning shivers down my spine and revolution thundering through my bloodstream.

Zeitgeist was my number one album, the name of which sounded strangely powerful, though I had no idea what it meant.

Now, however, I do.

Zeitgeist is a German word that means "Time Spirit", or "Spirit of the Times" and refers to the crest of the collective wave that if caught - sometimes - by thinkers, artists or other creative leaders - spreads like wild fire. Yet for the sake of this post, in which I'll be talking more about reconnecting to the authentic artist within, we're going to see the Zeitgeist as the Time Spirit (as in the spirit of Time itself).

Why?

Because this little beastie has got a HELL OF A LOT to answer for.

In previous posts we've explored the digital frenzy, storm times, PTSD and trauma as leading culprits for creative blockage. Today though, we're going to meet a creative saboteur that effects everyone, irrespective of background.

To explain the impact of this mischief-maker, we need to backtrack to the point in history when our human ancestors ceased loitering in caves and binge-eating meat feasts after a successful hunt, and instead settled into cozy encampments where they could grow crops and rear prehistoric chickens for their Sunday roasts.

Back then we had a very raw relationship with the concept/spirit of time. We erected standing stones that cast shadows so we knew when to plant, when to harvest and when the light would dim and when it would come again. We observed the cycles of the seasons, the pendulum of light and dark that swung between the two solstices. The dynamic between humans and Time was pretty balanced.

Yet as our species evolved, our fascination with the Spirit of Time got a bit out of hand.

We began to muck about with separating days and nights into smaller chunks, using sundials and candles to measure lengths of time. We tried out using water and sand sifted through holes to carve out segments of the strange "stuff" also known as "the present moment".

In the 1st century BC the first ever clock tower, boasting eight sundials, was created. The challenge with sundials is that they don’t work at night or when the sky is overcast and so time measuring inventions continued in earnest.

It was finally in the 13^th century in Europe that the first (fairly) accurate mechanical clock was invented. Humans did the happy dance of triumph, but what they didn't realise was that their relationship with with the Spirit Of Time had just changed forever.

With mechanical clock and bells now jutting forth from town squares, laborers could be called to work, made to eat lunch for a certain length of time, and sent back home at another. It also meant that the landowners could measure how much their workers / fields were producing per hour. With regulated clocks, schedules were born and with schedules came deadlines and with deadlines, tighter efficiency and higher productivity. The relationship between control and output began to twist and blur. In half a century, an entire generation of people went from not really knowing what the time was, to having their lives dictated to by the clock.

Instead being the observers of Time, we became enslaved to it.

But before we could pause, take stock and wonder if this time-keeping was all a good idea, something else rolled in, grabbed the Zeitgeist by the hand and swirled up a whole new orchestra of chaos. Enter The Industrial Revolution; the birth of the Machine and it's twin sister, Speed.

Now, instead of horses and boats trundling along, trains steamed through the country at a rate of knots. A factory could churn out more product in one day than an artisan could in a lifetime. With increasing speed came the promise of increasing productivity, profit and capitalism. The faster you could make something, the faster you could sell it, reinvest and compete with your rivals for greater and greater gain. Since then everything - consumerism, capitalism, productivity and robotics - has continued to accelerate.

Every development in technology brings further speed, time saving promises and pressure on humans to produce and consume. And consume, we do. Today we want successful careers, happy families, beautiful homes, soul nourishing travel, great friends, time with family, bodies that look good, bodies that feel good, time for the gym, time for reading, time for learning, time to develop ourselves. Time to develop our art. Time to make art. Time to be creative. Add onto this the online world, a simultaneous dimension that we are expected to inhabit and populate and content-ize, if we ever want our art and our creativity to reach an audience.

Sound familiar?

Sound demanding AF?

Any wonder that people are feeling burnt out, spent, milked dry, exhausted, frazzled on caffeine, escaping through booze and eating our way through the void of madness?

Any wonder that our resources - both personally inner and globally outer - are running low?

Is it any surprise that something in us yearns for a slower, wilder, more soulful life?

Is it really a surprise that we eventually begin to find it harder and harder to engage with our deep, true creativity?

Many notable artists and writers have observed that creativity requires time and space and some level of slowness to come forth. Unlike our ego, creativity is a creature that cannot be tamed by wrist watches and schedules and agendas. Creative ideas tend to emerge in flow state; in the shower, whilst driving the car, running in the rain. Yes, you can churn out articles and art and creations from a place of mayhem and productivity ... in fact, f**k it, you can get AI to make them for you ... but are these products really the offerings of your true creative spirit?

In my coaching practice, I see so many people attempt to remedy "speed burn-out" by trying to squeeze more in. Tighten the schedule. Ramp up the effort. Book more courses. Churn more out. Or, alternatively, some wonder whether to simply give up. Drop out of the big production highway of success. Just stop making.

I'm not sure that either route is the way.

Ultimately we've been born into this madness, as were our parents and grandparents. We have multi-generational blueprints embedded with values of efficiency, productivity and achievement. Ironically, its the power of human creativity that has led us to this point with our ingenious machines and inventions ... and it's also within our individual power of creativity to carve a pathway out

And the first step is this: Slow The Fook Down.

Slowing down means:

a) We get to take a breath and look at the speed/time/machine madness of our lives a little more objectively (think sitting on a rock in the sun shine observing the rapids, as opposed to being flung against the rocks and having a mouth full of foam and water).

b) We get to reflect on solutions to the mad speed we're living in. We can examine some of our motivation behind the things we do and ask ourselves whether all this "doing" is really what we want or if is it us acting out values of our accelerated societal system.

c) We have the opportunity to connect to the wild artist within that has the raw, unfettered ideas that we need in order to create a different way.

The ancient Romans believed a vital facet of the human psyche was one's "genius"; a generative energy that manifests creations that are original, alive, individual and soulful. This is the Wild Artist that I'm talking about and only by slowing down do we get to tap back into that part of our Self and actually hear what it has to say.

However, by continuing to live and accelerate further into a world that desires speed at all costs, productivity over soul, art for click-bait and writing that has to fight against the out-pouring of chat gpt slop … the wild, creative genius within us is going to go mute, dive underground, hide out in the caverns of the psyche that are calmer and quieter and more protected.

For me, this period of exploring how to reconnect with the wild river and my true artist within, has brought me to a real choice point of whether I continue embodying the values of the Time Spirit or if I try to find ways to slow down, reconnect and listen, making art from the place of my deep self.

For me, this doesn't require a lot of thinking. I value the voice of creativity too much to lose it and I believe that its through connecting with our personal "genius", our guiding spirit, that we can tap into the inspiration to steer the Zeitgeist - the SPIRIT OF THE TIMES - jump onto the wave of change and bring fresh, truthful ideas to make the world a better place.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

And now I am going to go and listen to the Levellers ...