You can achieve an altered state without needing to find your nearest drug dealer — honestly, you can. You just need to start engaging with the world again.
If you’re stuck in a rut, it can feel as though nothing is new or special. When that feeling of stagnation hits you, you need to fi nd ways to achieve a new state of being.
Meditation doesn’t work for me. Being a mind, body and spirit editor that’s a bit of shameful admission as we’re all supposed to be meditation adepts who can hightail it to a higher state of awareness quicker than you can say ‘Ooooommmmmm’. But altered states can be achieved in ways other than sitting around in pristine white clothes chanting with our eyes closed.
For example, I don’t need pot. I have a friend called Nish who has the exact same effects as those that potheads crave. She makes you feel relaxed and the longer you spend in her company, the more you’re likely to start giggling. She also makes you not want to get up and leave to start your day. You just want to stay there and get high on her. However, she has none of the side effects. You’re unlikely to receive a police caution (well, at least as long as she’s not driving). You’re also unlikely to be sold Nish cut with bad things that will make you ill. Nish is the perfect re creational drug.
Do you have anyone like that in your life? Someone who is so engaged with everything and so interested in you that they make you think that, hey, perhaps I am interesting after all! If you don’t, you need to begin a quest to find someone like that. Perhaps you had someone like that but you lost touch? If so, find them again.
For others, music is the path to a drug-free high. I have had more spiritual moments listening to the Counting Crows than I have meditating. I know some folks who devote vast tracts of time, money and energy to music. They’re not musicians but they’ve found a way to reach a state of joy and engagement through appreciating the music made by others.
Engagement is the word you’re looking for. Not the big diamond ring kind but the ‘can’t take my eyes off this’ kind. Now, here’s an exercise. Close your eyes. Take three deep breaths. Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to mediate. You can open your eyes again. Now, think really hard of where and when you last felt completely joyous. Properly joyous. It could be when you last laughed so hard, you cried. Or it could be something more wacky.
My personal one is from last Christmas when I got invited as a ‘plus one’ to someone’s office Christmas party. I’m not a corporate person so the thought of an evening making small talk with people I didn’t know wasn’t filling me with hope and excitement. However, I wanted to see the friend who had invited me and I figured we could chat the night away, even if it was a bit of a chore to be with others. The party was a surprise one as no-one had been told where we were being taken. A bunch of cabs had been booked to take all the guests to a secret location.
When we got there, the place was just a black door with a doorman outside. It was in middle of somewhere random like Kennington. Once we stepped through the door though, it was completely different. We were in an enchanted garden, all themed in a ‘horror’ style with dry ice acting as fog and moving mechanical creatures in the garden. Through the garden was Simon Drake’s House of Magic! There followed the best evening of magic and cabaret I have ever seen and it created a memory like no other. I felt like I was five again and seeing the world anew. That sense of wonder is what you should be aiming for.
Here’s an idea for you…
Try spinning around in the garden, like you used to when you were little and then when you stop, lie down on the grass and look at the sky. This gives you a sensation like the earth is moving beneath you. Well, it certainly moved for me anyway.
Defining idea…
‘He does not need opium. He has the gift of reverie.’
ANAIS NIN, diarist and author
How did it go?
Q My son says that he finds German death metal music relaxing. Is he having me on?
A Probably not. I used to find Alice Cooper relaxing as a teenager and there was one summer that my parents refused to come into my room because of my collection of glam metal rocker posters. It meant I had an even more relaxing summer, so your son is probably relaxing in earnest.
Q I can’t remember a time I felt engaged. I feel like I’ve always felt this ‘blah’ about everything. What should I do?
A Pretend. One of the best ways to kick yourself out of a rut is to act as if you’re having a fantastic time doing something new, even if you’re not. Take a life drawing class, go pay a visit to friends you haven’t seen in a while, buy a new CD. Slowly you’ll find that while you were pretending to be loving it, you started actually loving it.
Q I feel like I’m in a completely altered state when I sculpt but my brother, who’s an art dealer, says my pieces aren’t very good and now I feel like giving up. Should I?
A Come on now, you know what I’m going to say to that, don’t you? Of course you shouldn’t give up! Your brother is the worst person to judge whether your work is any good. He knew you when you had a snotty nose and can’t really place you in his imagination as an artist. He’s also concerned with the commercial business of selling art which has very little to do with real art. The tales of artists discovered to be great only after their deaths are too numerous to list here.