So stress is a creativity killer. If you're one of the folks who believe stress makes your art better, you can just stop reading now. For those of you interested in working hard to be the best artist you can be, I am going to share some secret techniques for reducing stress and changing the way you relate to stress.

First, be aware that your little monkey brain chatters constantly. Sit for 30 seconds and be aware of the chaotic maelstrom of random thought that occurs. That's happening all the time. For the creatively inclined, perhaps more so. All that mental chatter creates tension in your facial muscles and in the rest of your body. When you're thinking, your voice box moves, and your jaw moves slightly, as do your tongue and eyes. These constant muscular twitches usually go unnoticed. Over time, patterns of tension are created. What most people don't realize is that these muscular tensions, over time, begin to affect the way we think. Patterns in the muscles are reflected in patterns of thought, and so on.

To make this dramatically evident, try the following exercise, borrowed from radical consciousness researcher Christopher S. Hyatt:

 Sit or lie down in a quiet place and allow yourself to "think" about anything. Notice how and where your thinking is experienced. Notice what motions and tensions exist in your face-neck-throat area. After you have completed this, "think" about something unpleasant and notice if there is any difference. Now try "thinking" about something pleasant and make the same notations. Take the time to become thoroughly aware of the difference, how your face and muscles responds to thought, and so on.

Once you feel like your getting it, try the next phase: 

Lie down and do not move. Just breathe normally with your eyes closed. Now become aware and describe out loud for 15 minutes every sensation and muscle twitch in your body. Become aware that tension exists all around and within you. If you have a tape recorder, record yourself and listen to it later. 

These two experiments should be conducted three times over a week to help you verify that tension is thought and thought is tension. This will require 45 minutes - 15 minutes for each exercise. If you do not experience the voice box and/or facial sensation, or if you are not aware of anything during the second experiment, double the time.

Next, the fun part.  Stretch all the muscles in your face. Open your mouth as wide as you can, move the jaw from side to side. At the same time open your eyes as wide as you can. Move your eyes up and down and from side to side. This will begin to destroy tension, thereby destroying uncontrolled and extraneous thoughts generated by this area. Make all sorts of silly and extreme faces. Do it for two or three minutes. See what happens. Some people may experience strange and wonderful thoughts arising during this exercise. Try creating something in your chosen medium when you're done. See if it made a difference.

More next week.