I wanted to share about Muße. I learned this German word. A woman I met once in Phnom Penh at what used to be Joma and then J’Adore and is now a big empty building like so many in this city that have gone through iterations of putting on identities that don’t work, don’t fit, and don’t last, said to me, after I told her about ny studio and how we work to help people find their goals and purpose and outline those in some clear way, she said, ‘I don’t have time for that. I don’t have time to breathe.’ Then I gently mentioned this word that was, I hoped, to be the beginning of a friendly dialogue but became this blog post, instead, some years ago. Today, this update.
First things first. What is muße? It is:
freie Zeit und [innere] Ruhe, um etwas zu tun, was den eigenen Interessen entspricht.
free time and [inner] peace/quiet, to do something that suits your own interests.
What happens if you haven’t got the time to pay attention to what matters to you, and without any real reason other than because you want to? I think that you can lose yourself, quite deeply, too, if you continue on treadmills other people have set up for you and society and systems have made it hard to veer away from because of pressure and the status quo and how hard it is to ‘do your own thing’ in a world that loves to press, pressure, and police the ones who are having way the hell too much fun. Did you notice that?
But you can find time for yourself, off to the side, away from the spotlight. You can make it a habit to do what moves you. No blog or internet personality or best friend or spouse or psychologist has to give you permission to give yourself permission to put muße on your list of things to do. Like really get to, not just move over to the next week or the column ‘someday/maybe.’ Muße is so important, I feel, because we find out about who we are through this and knowing who you are and what you like is the main building block to feeling good about everything you choose to do, in life, at work, for play, from there. It even influences whom you associate with. Becuase if people can’t enjoy your joyfulness, and your joyousness, what’s the point of hanging around with them?
How to find time for the muse
Building a habit for it is the key, I feel. Making it so naturally a part of your routines is how you can enjoy the ease that comes with falling into flow states quickly and effortlessly. I gave a couple of short workshops on ‘Flow’ to help people experience this in the course of an hour and it was really cool to see. I think the hardest part is to acknowledge that making time for ourselves to relax or do what we want is somehow not being prioritized. But after reflection, I understand that is not because it’s not important, it’s that if we are having fun doing what we feel like doing we have no need to buy stuff that will fill a perceived lack, of some sort. This becomes a philosophical debate, and of course a Man vs. Society story. It goes there. But we can stop here, for now. Let me leave you with this question: Do you want to find time for your muse?
Will is key.
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DK’s online workshop, The Mirror, talks about the ways to get around all that pressure, and get to the part where you’re doing the fun stuff, at least some of the time, because you’ve decided to.