This weekend, the New York Times Magazine featured Marc Newson, the most well-known and prolific living industrial designer. Though I’ve been a fan of his work for years, I never knew much about his back story or design methodology. If anything, we seemed to me to be someone who operated on his own plane, operating from his own inner compass rather than through anything he learned in school or through his childhood. While this perception is largely correct, he opened up to journalist Chip Brown about the mechanics of his mind and creativity.”The way I work is to try to get the idea out of my head,” said Newson.
Beginning Friday night, I started to wrestle with an idea for a yoga and meditation workshop I’ll be giving in March for 160 hospice volunteers at MJHS. I consulted books, my teacher training materials, and personal experience. Nothing seemed to strike me as inspired or valuable enough for this incredibly opportunity. So I took Newson’s advice and I forgot about it.
Sure enough on Sunday morning I woke up brimming with ideas. All of a sudden the world of possibility cracked open, and I came up with ideas for this workshop as well as how to craft a set of workshops that could be offered in medical school, healthcare conferences, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, schools of social work, and yoga studios. I’m all for focused effort, but sometimes it helps to just take a break and have faith that the answer will rise in its own time.
Christa Avampato 