What To Do When Your Muse Deserts You

The past few weeks I’ve been wondering

What to Do When Your Muse Deserts You

Lately I’ve been feeling like I’ve lost my passion for photography. It’s the oddest feeling to recognize that the thing I had nothing but passion for no longer excites me. This is the first time in my ten year journey as a photographer that my muse has left me. Always before I couldn’t wait to get out with my camera. I was often full of ideas and plans for what I wanted to work on. And if I was stumped I simply took a walk in nature and photographed the beauty I saw there.

Now suddenly (or at least it feels sudden) I don’t care if I pick up my camera. There are no challenging projects in my mind. I’ve even thought of shutting down my photography business.

I feel strangely untethered, bobbing about in a sea of aimless uncertainty. But unlike when I was younger I am not trying to figure anything out. There is no book that can give me answers about what lights up my own soul. All I can do is say…

Here I am. This is how I feel.

“there is no reason to constantly attempt to figure everything out”
― Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

Perhaps this is a stage that will pass and I will soon be joyfully making new photographs. Then again, perhaps it is the beginning of a new journey. Time will tell.

Here is the list of things that I’ve decided answer the question, “What to Do When Your Muse Deserts You.”

• Whatever you do , don’t try to force yourself to do something that you do not feel pulled to do. Instead do nothing. Sit in awareness and simply accept each moment. Make no hasty decisions.
• Stay open. Make space for something new to emerge (but don’t try to control what will emerge). Don’t get caught up in asking why or trying to change things — simply be aware and open.

• Listen deeply and patiently (the patient part is what is most difficult for me!).
• Connect with sources of joy, gratitude and wonder.
• Do the next right thing, whatever that is.

In order to be who you are, you must be willing to let go of who you think you are.” — Michael Singer

I honestly don’t know whether this lack of passion for my art is a part of the creative journey as a photographer or whether it is the death of one passion and the possible birth of a new passion. Isn’t it interesting living in the space between wave and particle? Until something definite shifts me I will be like the unobserved wave or particle, existing in both possibilities at once — until an observation makes it clear.

Have you ever felt like your muse deserted you? What did you do?

May you walk in beauty.