logging off to tune in

There’s so much AI design out there right now. You can spend hours looking at “inspiration” and still feel weirdly empty after. The internet is great for reference, but bad for origination. If you stay in the feed too long, everything starts to flatten. You stop hearing your own instincts because your brain is busy playing spot the pattern.

That’s why I think designers and creatives need periods of real quiet. If you never step out of the feed, your work starts looking like the feed.

Meditation teachers talk about stillness creating space for inspiration. Creativity research calls this divergent thinking. It's your ability to generate multiple possible paths instead of clamping down on the first obvious one. And there’s evidence that certain meditation styles (especially noting thoughts) can support that state.

Sound practitioners talk about helping people move out of stress and back into receptivity, which is basically a way of saying your system has to calm down before it can hear anything subtle.

That part matters because a lot of us are trying to get ideas while clicking around between 25 browser tabs. Like trying to hear a whisper at a party where everyone is yelling.

This doesn't mean AI / the internet is bad. It’s just the wrong place to hang out if you’re trying to hear something original. It’s amazing for remixing, editing, and seeing the visual style of the moment. It’s less amazing if you’re trying to sense the vibe that your project wants to become before it gets translated into a style everyone already recognizes. Imagine an unlimited possibility of creative ideas floating out there. Some are ready to come through, but if you can't get quiet enough to hear them, they are going to end up on some other designers canvas.

That’s where "tuning in" comes in.

Tuning in to me means moving from scanning mode into listening mode. Instead of asking what everyone else is doing, you ask what this project "feels" like. What’s the tone of it. What emotional job is it trying to do. Not in a "developing the brand" sort of a way way, but more of a connecting to the energy of the idea that wants to be birthed sort of way.

That sounds woo until you actually try it, and then it’s very useful.

There are a few ways creatives can do this:

Sound. If someone is already fried and mentally noisy, sound can be easier than silent meditation because it gives the nervous system something to follow. There are creators building meditations and sound healings that are much closer to creative reset than generic wellness content. RoseUp has some great tracks for specific modes but you can also try out different frequencies on Spotify to see what works for you. I personally love solfeggio frequencies but I've heard others compare them to cheesy angel sounds 😂

There are obvs a plethora of straightforward guided meditations for creativity but my fav app is Insight Timer because I need variety and they have so many options. When I'm feeling stuck, I love to turn on one of their random lives, and it always seems like the teacher just happens to be talking about something I need at that very moment.

Not everyone needs a sound bath (I do though lol). Some people just need 20 minutes without a screen and a reason to stop producing. Sit down, close your eyes, and ask a question. Not “how do I make this cooler.” More like “what does this project want to be” or “what is the most aligned direction here.”

You are not guaranteed a golden beam of cosmic design energy. Sometimes what you get is one word or a picture. It might just be a visual texture. Or the sudden realization that the whole project has been trying to be loud when it actually wants to be quiet. The trick is trusting what comes through and discerning what is your mind vs your intuition. You HAVE to trust.

Some things to try:

Close everything for 20 mins (really close it, or at least turn off your monitor).

Pick something as your way in. Could be a sound healing, guided visualization, or just silence. Close your eyes, or gaze at a candle flame / stare into the horizon. Set one intention for the session, something short and direct, like “show me the feeling of this project” or “show me what wants to come through.” Then just pay attention.

Afterward, quickly write down whatever came up before your brain starts trying to clean it up. A few words, a few images, a sentence, a sketch. You’re just catching the material before the internet voice starts yelling that it needs a better hook.

If there is time, create a Figma for each session and drop in what you see. They might just be random doodles or shapes from what came up, but what's AWESOME is to look back later and find that some of these ideas turned into winning projects.

The trust piece is probably the hardest part of all of this, especially if you’re working in public or trying to make a living from your work. It’s easy to slip into making things to show off your skills, or because you feel like you're not producing enough, posting, staying visible, proving you still exist, etc.

what happens when the signal gets strong

What is beautiful is that when you create from a more connected place, the work develops a distinct tone. People can feel that, even if they can’t name it. And if you'd like to join me on the woo train, you begin attracting vibrational matches to your work.

Someone forwards your piece to the right person. A client reaches out because your work feels like something they haven’t been able to articulate. A weird little side project becomes the thing that opens the next chapter. You can call that alignment, the universe, your network, pattern recognition, whatever. The fact is that it tends to happen more when the work is actually connected to something beyond.

Original ideas rarely show up when your mind is clogged up with everyone else’s output. In the age of AI, this is the practice worth protecting right now: turning off the feed long enough to hear your own signal again.