A friendly get-together and "The Zone"
"Come meet us for breakfast," my friend said.
"But I just ate," says I.
"You need to get out, c'mon," says my friend.
But I was already "in The Zone."
What exactly is The Zone? It's this strange, otherworldy place my brain goes to when I'm creating - and I must admit, it's not a completely comfortable place to be. It's a release of myself and everything around me. In the zone, time flies quickly and very little can pull my attention away. I can go into the zone at 11:00am and come out at 4:00pm wondering, "What just happened?" It's a little weird.
The more I write and illustrate, the more I realize how necessary it is to let The Zone take over. I've discovered that reading emails and checking blogs isn't just procrastination - it's how I slowly wind into The Zone. It's an important part of how I work.
However, I'm also starting to realize that I have to balance it with a bit of real life. See, the The Zone is slightly addictive. It sucks me in and would really like to keep me there. It wants to rule me - scary!
But if I let it keep me, I can stay holed up for days without any human interaction, and my social skills really do suffer.
So this morning I said yes to my friend and I met her and her daughter at Thumbs Up Cafe. I got a take-out salad for lunch and caught up on what she's up to, as well as some other friends who I haven't seen in a bit. And y'know what? I feel better, I feel more human. I am a social creature after all.
And now that I'm a functioning, interactive part of society, I am once again ready to sit down and go into The Zone.
"But I just ate," says I.
"You need to get out, c'mon," says my friend.
But I was already "in The Zone."
What exactly is The Zone? It's this strange, otherworldy place my brain goes to when I'm creating - and I must admit, it's not a completely comfortable place to be. It's a release of myself and everything around me. In the zone, time flies quickly and very little can pull my attention away. I can go into the zone at 11:00am and come out at 4:00pm wondering, "What just happened?" It's a little weird.
The more I write and illustrate, the more I realize how necessary it is to let The Zone take over. I've discovered that reading emails and checking blogs isn't just procrastination - it's how I slowly wind into The Zone. It's an important part of how I work.
However, I'm also starting to realize that I have to balance it with a bit of real life. See, the The Zone is slightly addictive. It sucks me in and would really like to keep me there. It wants to rule me - scary!
But if I let it keep me, I can stay holed up for days without any human interaction, and my social skills really do suffer.
So this morning I said yes to my friend and I met her and her daughter at Thumbs Up Cafe. I got a take-out salad for lunch and caught up on what she's up to, as well as some other friends who I haven't seen in a bit. And y'know what? I feel better, I feel more human. I am a social creature after all.
And now that I'm a functioning, interactive part of society, I am once again ready to sit down and go into The Zone.
posted by Elizabeth O. Dulemba at
11:07 AM
3 Comments:
Perfectly said.
Every once in awhile you need some social activity to get out of the zone, so that way once you are back in the zone you have more zoom & zest.
When I used to do the layout for the weekly newspaper I was the editor of I would go into this Zen thing, at least that's how one of the other editors in the office described it, and be done with my work before he felt like he'd even gotten started.
I used to do this with reading and definitely with writing and other work stuff. Getting my attention when I'm there is nearly impossible and will completely disrupt whatever I'd been doing. I just get so absorbed in whatever it is. I find that I can lose huge chunks of time to this where I don't eat or drink, go to the bathroom or interact with those around me.
It doesn't happen now nearly as much as it used to and I miss it. I hope I am able to get that back soon.
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