The Art of You: James McRae on Navigating Art, Authenticity, and Awakening
In this captivating episode of The Leela Show, join Chandresh as we dive into the creative and spiritual world of James McRae, a poet and philosopher renowned for his insightful approach to art and life. "The Art of You" explores how James navigates the interplay between art, authenticity, and awakening, offering listeners a unique window into his self-discovery and creative expression process. From discussing pivotal moments that shaped his views to sharing practical wisdom on maintaining authenticity in a trend-driven world, this conversation is an enlightening journey through the mind and musings of one of today’s most thoughtful, creative spirits. Whether you’re an artist, a spiritual seeker, or anyone else, this episode offers valuable insights into living more fully and expressing your true self.
-
Chandresh
Before an artist can make good art, they must go out and experience life before a writer can write, they need something to write about. It's not enough to know facts. You must know feelings, fear and forgiveness and hate and salvation and everything in between some things you can't learn in books or podcasts or documentaries. You have to walk through the fire and burn away your bias and illusions.
James McRae
Say yes to the adventure of life. Find out what you're capable of. Get lost, go dancing. Look the devil in the eye. Fall in love, get your heart broken, move to a place you have never been before. Feel happiness so deep, it makes you cry, learn to laugh at your sorrow. And once you have traveled and learned and loved and lost, go back home and make your art, you will know what to say and it will be true.
This is just one of the many wisdom nuggets from the guest of this episode, James mccray, who's popular on the Instagram as words are vibration. I've always felt inspired, reading her words of James. In the last few months, I found myself overwhelmed with the social media noise. There was so much I wanted to express and say and yet I didn't know what to pick, what to let go of and above all, how to tap into my inner creativity.
It felt very frustrating because I could feel it's limiting my ability, my longing to talk about Tantra to talk about the Goddess energy and how to put it out there. During that challenging time, I spoke with James and immediately felt a sense of clarity and ease with my journey as a writer, creative and a seeker of life. The more the days passed after our conversation, the more clarity, the more joy started to come back.
And currently my self expression is happily flourishing through the practice that I teach to my students. And with this episode, my hope is that you too will feel the same strength and inspiration that I found in my one on one conversation with James. He's authentic, humble and incredibly generous with his advice and creative insights.
His formal bio says James mccray is an author, mean poet and teacher who empowers creators to live with purpose and turn imagination into reality. He's the founder of Sunflower Club, a global community dedicated to creativity as a tool for personal healing and social transformation. As a creative strategist. He has worked with top brands and start ups to define and actualize their message and mission.
His books include shit, your ego says and how to laugh in ironic amusement during your existential crisis and the art of you. I've been diving into his latest book, The Art of You and loving every bit of it. Enjoy this episode and be sure to let both James and me know how much you enjoyed this conversation. I am Chandresh Bhardwaj and this is the Lia show.
...
James McRae
So honored to have you here, James. How are you doing?
I'm doing fantastic. I'm very honored to be here and thanks for having me.
The honor is mine. And I was telling you, I feel like a student having this conversation with you because I've been reading your book from the time. You know, it's out, I got the copy and kindle because I was in India when the book launched and I couldn't wait to come back to us by the paper copy. And I can tell this is a book that I want to hold, you know, there are colorful codes and everything.
So I'm going to get my hold on the paper copy soon. What excites me and intrigued me about the book. I felt it was giving me permission to show up as the artist. It was giving me permission to embrace the inner writer, inner artist in a creative. I want to ask you, James who gave you your first permission? How did it start for you? The journey of being a writer of being the creative?
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for the compliments. It means a lot to hear that you're receiving the book so well. You know, when I think back on my life and my journey as an artist, as a writer, I can't remember a time when I wasn't an artist or a writer. So I have to give my initial permission slip that I was given to my parents because I feel like I had a, an a childhood that was nurturing of my intuition, my creativity, my freedom, my sovereignty as a, as a human.
And I grew up in a very small town in, in Minnesota and it was very isolated and it was very sheltered in a way because, you know, the closest big city was 2.5 hours away. And that was, you know, Minneapolis and we're out in the rural countryside. So there wasn't a lot of pressure. I think one of the things that cuts people off from their creativity in the world today is just the social pressure to get in the right schools, get in the right colleges, get on the right career track, you know,
make some thing of yourself professionally. And certainly my parents wanted and want me to be successful and have a, a good career. But there wasn't that pressure to achieve certain external definitions of validation around me. So I had space to roam to explore and early on, I remember my, my mother had poetry books in the house. So she didn't tell me to read poetry.
She didn't give me the books even, but they were around. So I ended up reading them and then I would kind of fall in love with this type of language that was, I felt like in poetry, I discovered a language where you could say things that you couldn't say in other languages. It was very expansive of my consciousness to find that. And the other big pivot point for me happened in when I was about 17, when I discovered the writings of the group of poets and writers who are known as the beat
generation and in particular, the poet Allen Ginsberg. And I'm sure you would have some affinity with Allen Ginsberg. He, he visited India. He was in touch with a lot of vedic traditions and was a Yogi. I mean, I guess he was more Buddhist, but he was also a follower and a student of vedic traditions. He was actually there when Richard Alpert, who would later be known as Ram Das, when Richard Albert had his first psychedelic experience, Allen Ginsberg was actually there with him.
So Allen Ginsberg is someone who existed kind of between the worlds of poetry and spirituality. And when I discovered his work in particular, that kind of it oriented me as a writer and as a poet, you know, because a lot of poets existed hundreds of years ago, but to see someone who lived in kind of a mo more modern time who was able to become a poet and make work that resonated with me, that kind of gave me permission to really take it seriously as not only a career path but a a life path.
Well, when I was reading your book, I saw the mention of Ginsburg, not just the mention but very I could feel the love the reverence you have for him and you got me motivated to just randomly go on Amazon and just pick up any new collection of Ginsburg, right? Anything that I just wanted to have a new feel like, you know, so I, I ended up buying, you know, a collection which, you know, I have had his books, but I just wanted to get something new because that energy I felt from your book, from
the words you wrote about him. It just felt so refreshing and so honoring and then Ram Das, that energy of Ram Das in your book is reflected throughout from page one till the end, spirituality. You use the word consciousness, spirituality. And I think one of the first thing that, you know, inclined me toward your work was the presence of deep authentic spirituality in everything
you write. There's humor, but there is so much rawness, so much spirituality. Where did the seed of consciousness, the spirituality started to get into your expression?
Yeah. That's similar. You know, I think those seeds were planted when I was young. Now when I was growing up when I was young as most, you know, people in the world Midwest, we were raised in the Christian tradition. So I was going to church every Sunday. I was going to youth groups. I was pretty involved in the Christian church and I outgrew that pretty quickly.
I remember like being in high school, let's say, and like being in church and then like, just like looking around, being like, is this really what God is all about is like being in this church and, and reading this book and I kind of had a epiphany that I'm like, ok, you know, I'll buy the idea of God, like, like the idea of God resonates with me. And since I was a kid, I felt like I had a direct relationship with God or spirit or source because I was raised to do that and to pray and to feel like
I could have a relationship with God. But then I realized, ok, God exists, there is a creator, there is a creative energy that is giving birth to the world. But I'm pretty sure that whatever God is, it is not confined to the walls of a church, right? So II, I sort of left that particular religion and just I, I like to say that I became a member of the church of life.
Well, and more than that, even the church of art, I really found my favorite artists are people like gens beg who bridge the creative world with the mystical world. And I began reading more poetry from people like Walt Whitman, who was very much a mystic poet, even Rumi and Hafez and people like Ram Das and I explored, you know, Buddhism and, you know, I, I little by little, I began to like, just deepen my own internal sense of connection with source, with the divine.
And, you know, even that just expanded the more I got older, you know, discovering things like psychedelics or Kundalini yoga and meditation, it just little by little, it started to really expand and expand. And I try to express that through my own writing and my, my own poetry. And as you know, I make myself a vessel for that source consciousness.
James McRae, James McRae
So for me, that creative practice and that spiritual practice are very much one and the same love that I see the influence of norm breakers in your writing.
James McRae
So now I'm connecting the dots. So many of them you mentioned in the book, art is not restricted to traditional mediums like painting or literature and being an artist is not about fitting a predefined template. I found myself getting stuck in that space.
So many of my students and clients get stuck into this, they get, they get stuck in a template that sometimes is defined by society or the artist they look up to or many times their own head. How do you suggest we break that predefined template.
It's a great question and I think this question applies to so many facets of society. Like how do we break the old molds and how do we forge a better future? And for me, it comes down to, you know, you look around at the world, let's say the world of art. And we have these certain artists and mediums which are elevated to this level of high art. You know, we have literature, we have painting, sculpture, poetry, film, I love all of these mediums, but they're also somewhat arbitrary.
You know, people decided to do them and they did them well and they did them artistically and creatively and with an innovation that, that made them art. And I think you can apply that same thinking to anything that you do. You know, like I think of like, one of my favorite artists is Bob Dylan and he was a folk singer, which was considered this very serious art form that was taken seriously and respected.
But he wanted to play rock and roll. And at that time, rock and roll was not considered a high art form. It was considered kids music, it was dance music, it wasn't serious, it wasn't deep, it certainly wasn't poetic. But he, he took rock and roll and he infused it with poetry and he brought a new energy to it and rock and roll was changed forever after that.
Then you have The Beatles and it became a medium for songwriters and for poets. And before Bob Dylan came around, it just wasn't that. So I just think that at its core, what creativity is, is having sovereignty over your own consciousness. And there's a life force that moves through us. You know, we are all connected to source, there is a universal source energy that we are all aspects of. And our creativity is an expression of that source creation that moves through us. So it's
more about being an independent thinker than fitting into a certain box. And I think you can apply the creative thinking to anything that you do, whether it's a relationship, whether it's sex, whether it's, you know what, what's more creative than starting a business. Like they talk about making money, you're making it, opening a new revenue stream is a creative act. So it's, it's more about how you think and how you engage with the world than fitting into a box.
You compared creating art with love making in the book. So I took a picture of that. I almost posted it on Instagram today. It's such a beautiful effortless comparison. And I, yeah, I see that in flow. When you talk about Bob Dylan, when you talk about the life force moving, I, I wrote these three words, conviction, passion, courage. That if we have these three, it would help. Am I understanding it correctly?
Conviction, passion and courage?
Yeah. Does that, do you think that will help to get into independent thinking.
Absolutely. I mean, I'm sure there are other words as well, but certainly, I mean, I think you need to have conviction with what you're doing. You know, passion, you need to love it. If you're, if you don't love what you're doing, you're not going to be truly successful or good at it. So, I think it's so important to find things that you love to do and otherwise it's just you, you're not gonna have the motivation and put in the time required to really excel at it.
And then courage certainly as an artist, I mean, because it is intrinsic to being an artist to kind of forge your own path. You know, I think I like to say that the artist makes it up as they go. So that absolutely requires courage because every creative decision is a little leap of faith. So like it's like, say you're a painter, every time you put that brush down on the canvas, it's a leap of faith that this is the right decision.
If you're a poet, every word that you write is a little leap of faith. Because how do you know of all the words in the world? How do you know the right one to put? You don't know. But it's, it's a trust in that instinct that is fueling it. So courage is absolutely important to being an artist.
Does it ever happen to you, James? You are creating your art, your words and somehow the trend or the algorithm or the opinion of people in the comments, their love or their dislike or their indifference is influencing what you want to make. Has there been a challenge like that ever?
Yes, for sure. So for example, negative comments, I don't get as many negative comments as I used to because I used to make more kind of snarky memes that were meant to poke and provoke a little bit more. I think right now, I'm more focused on providing comfort and inspiration and not, you know, I pushed some buttons with my art in the past and intentionally.
And now I'm trying to, you know, really just I think people in the world need need comfort and inspiration and I'm trying to provide that. But negative comments have really helped me because more often than not, it's because I realize that the way I phrased it left it open for misinterpretation. And so people aren't disagreeing with me as much.
They're disagreeing with the words that I wrote. So I learned how to separate my self and my sense of self with the words that I wrote. And they're not challenging me, they're challenging the words that I wrote and maybe I could have done written them in a better way, in a more precise way, so as not to be misconstrued. So I do think, you know, there are some negative comments that are just mean and they're mean spirited and those I ignore or delete.
But if someone is has a bone to pick with my phrasing, then I do take that as an opportunity to reflect on. Could I have said this in a better way? So negative comments have definitely made me a better writer and the algorithm. So people like to complain about the algorithm. But you know, Instagram is just trying to make the most entertaining and it frankly addictive product that they can.
So the algorithm is always going to favor whatever gets the most attention engagement. So the algorithm is based on real people and their response to content. Now, does that mean that if you post something that doesn't get a lot of engagement, does that mean it was bad? No, there are certain types of art and writing that perform well on Instagram.
You know, it is a medium unto itself. You could write a great if you're writing a book, let's say you could write a paragraph that is just so perfect and it's the best paragraph in the entire book. And the readers of that book will just fall in love with that paragraph. But if you post that paragraph on Instagram, it might just completely bomb because in the context, you have to consider the context in which people are scrolling and what are they looking for?
You know, I think of think of yourself when you're scrolling Instagram, you're doing it rather mindlessly, you're going through content very quickly and certain kinds of work is going to resonate with you in that moment. So it's not about like compromising who you are as an artist or a writer. But there are certain types of writing that do perform better on social media.
And that's particularly things like very quick hitting direct to the point, you know, something that's eye catching, you know, a meme which has a little bit of humor, it's gotta be something that's captivating. So because of this, I have made it a practice to write in a way that is captivating for a social media audience. And I think that's worth trying for anyone. So like you might have a newsletter that's longer or you might want to write a book that's longer and just knowing that
what performs on social media is stuff that's really direct to the point, you know, like action oriented. So I have learned how to write for Instagram in a way that at least for now, you know, it's the algorithm is always changing and I don't try to chase what's popular. But again, it's like certain types of art work for different contexts.
So just understanding that very well explained, I was curious, did that, was that a challenge when you were writing the book, this current book out of you challenging or did you have to switch the mass? Now it's the book. So my writing will be much more in depth immersive and it's not a meme, it's not a poetry. Was that challenging or were you able to easily switch into the book author and the Instagrammer?
That's a good question. I don't, I don't think it was, to be honest. I don't remember that being a challenge because I've always, I've kind of always been writing books. I, I know. Yeah. I mean, since, you know, my first book came out in 2017, so I've always kind of been working on a book. So it wasn't a challenge to switch, but it's definitely a different mindset because, you know, again, social media, it's something that's, it's a self contained piece of content, whereas the book
has to go into more detail and it's a nonfiction book. So I'm teaching. So I really had to go deeper into certain ideas and explore them and just un it was almost, it was nice in a way because I got to unpack things in detail and explain things in a way where on social media, you don't really have time to, right?
So definitely there are like different parts of your brain and different types of writing. And then once in a while, I would even like share a few lines from the book, repurpose those and share them on social media.
James McRae, James McRae
So it was kind of a a fluid process, you know, when you mentioned the first book, the 2017, the story behind that book was so powerful, so empowering.
James McRae
I remember that moment in my life. You know, I was in San Diego. I got to know a big pre fell in my parents house, they were in India. So it was a very interesting, fearful time for a lot of people. I want people to buy your book and read that story. But I do want to get your glimpse on in that moment when you were sitting by the beach and the idea of the book started to come, I connect that moment to one of the quotes in your book.
All doing is born from presence. All having is born from being without revealing too much about the story because I, I still want the readers to read the book. But tell me the being part, can you talk a little bit more about the being? How do you cultivate that beingness? How do you live it as a reality?
Yes, I mean, that's so important. You know, I mean, the first chapter in the book is called the Art of Doing nothing because you know, as you know, the book is, is structured with the Yin and the Yang of creativity. And the first half of the book is Yin. Second half of the book is Yang Yin is being Yong is doing. Yin is the feminine principle. Yang is the masculine principle and we live in a society today that's very much y oriented.
You know, it's all geared around productivity and external success. And that's how we measure, you know, success in our society is how productive someone is, how much money they make, how much they're doing. And I make a point in the first chapter that it's time to reclaim the yen. And you see this all around us that with you know, the feminist movements over decades, but that's becoming more and more normalized in recent years.
And it's not just about that. It's also about reclaiming that Yin inside of us, all man woman, non binary, whatever, it's being in touch with that Yin energy, which is receptive and it's about cultivating that inner presence. Otherwise you're just doing, doing, doing, go, go, go, go. And I've been there when I was working in advertising.
It was just like go go, go, go, go tight deadlines, you know, working long hours. But without that counterbalance of Yin, your work is not gonna be rooted in purpose or depth or that intuition that can really guide us to a, a much better place. So when our doing, when our productivity is rooted in being in intuition, in emotion, then it's going to be so much, you know, you're gonna need to do less because it's, it's going to be more precise and guided and purposeful, right?
So, especially when we're living in this overly young society, giving yourself time to step away and cultivate your inner presence, restore your energy and just really just do nothing and refill your own cup. And then when you go back out into the world, you're going to be much more effective at whatever you do and purposeful because you're going to be pulling from a much deeper. Well.
Love that blending yen with productivity. So by the way, in Tantra, this is Shivan Shakti Yen and Yang. So it's so beautiful to see that embodying in the creative process to blend yen with the productive self. So many things are showing up in my mind. Is it meditation, walks writing. How do I soften the Yin and invite her to join my productive flow. What would you get advice on that?
Well, and this is what I realized writing the book and you made the point about there's a little graphic in the book about making art is like making love. And there's all the reasons why, well, I really, I realized writing the book that making art of any kind is it is a creation ritual. OK, just like sex is a creation ritual. You're creating something new.
In the case of sex. It's a baby. In the case of art, it's whatever you're making. And in both cases, it requires it's the integration of the masculine and the feminine principles, right? So that feminine is gonna be that receiving. So, you know, in the case of art, it's receiving and being penetrated by spirit, by intuition, by insight, by imagination.
And then the expression is the output of that. So it's input output. So for me, you know, my creative practice starts with meditation and I don't write from my mind, from my thinking ego, mind, what I do is I start by meditating and then I tune into my body, right? So I tune into my energy, my emotions and I just sense what's trying to come out what's trying to be born through me.
And I really don't think about it logically. I sit with the feeling long enough until an insight will bubble up. So I go within myself and then I pull out whatever I find within. So it's like fishing and, and it's kind of like the deeper your consciousness, the deeper the ocean that you're fishing in. So you can catch bigger fish and then you can pull them out and you know, then you can eat them and serve them. So, yeah, you have to go in, you're kind of excavating the inner world.
And this is why I think that art is a way of transmuting trauma into beauty and art is alchemy because you're going within and it's a healing modality because you're going within, you're finding where there's stuck energy and then you're almost like therapy and then you're recognizing a feeling and then you're expressing it through your creative output. So it's that integration of Yin and Yang that the input and then the output. That's the ritual that I practice.
Thank you for sharing this, it makes me curious to talk a bit about meditation in itself. I know you're a big, big into meditation, big believer, big advocate of it. Is there a particular ritual time you recommend or anything to kick start for people who may not be connecting meditation with art? How do they blend it together?
Well, first of all, there's no bad time to meditate the more the better. So when, whenever you can fit it in, it's a good idea. But, you know, for me personally, I do my writing in the morning. So the, the first thing I do every day is my writing. And that's because that's when my, my channel is kind of most open. You know, once, once I'm doing podcasts, once I'm doing meetings, then there's like, it's a, it's kind of a distraction from that channel and it's not always easy to get back to it.
So personally, I like to write first thing in the morning and I meditate first thing in the morning, I meditate while my tea is, is brewing, it just clears my head right. So then you're just, you're more tuned in with. And I also start with tea, not coffee. And I love coffee and I usually drink coffee, you know, maybe around noon. I see when I need that extra push, then I'll have coffee.
But I start with a big pot of herba mate tea and I do that because what coffee does is it kind of narrows your focus? Right? I mean, so it's good for focusing and getting things done. But for me, in my writing, I like to have more of like that open expanded consciousness and tea is a good way to get caffeine and energy while still keeping a bit of a more of an open mind.
James McRae, James McRae
So for me, meditation and tea, some instrumental music and a notebook and just see what comes out and we can write with hand not typing.
James McRae
Yeah, I think my whole book, I think the whole book was written by hand in a notebook because I think there's more, for me, I think when you write by hand in a notebook, there's more of a, it's more direct, I can think more organically. It's a, more of an organic flow when I do that. It's a little annoying because then later in the day I need to go out and type up what I wrote because I, you know, I'm very obsessed with backing things up and having,
you know, things stored in multiple places. So I have to go and then I type it up in my computer so I don't lose it. But I think that's better for me to in the creation process.
I agree. Is there a modern, physically alive philosopher or teacher or artist who's influencing your writing lately or, you know, for a while?
Oh, that's a tough question. I mean, the answer is certainly, I, you know, I'm influenced by so many artists. That's another thing that's super important for any creative is to be obsessed with consuming art. Like, you need to be like, that's all I wanna do is either like, make art or consume art. And like, that's for me that's, that's even like music.
But a lot of my favorite writers of today are songwriters and I don't write songs. Right. I've never written a song but they still inspire me. And it's like, oh, I love what they did so much with that song that I wanna do something that is way different but has the same feeling or impact or inspiration. So I take inspiration from, you know, songwriters even like I love, like Lana Del Rey and even rappers have, you know, because hip hop is such a verbal medium that there's always really
great wordsmithing in hip hop. I don't read books as much as I used to. I have to say, I mean, there are some great writers, there's a few poets that are out there. Saul Williams would be one. I like the nonfiction writer Tao Lin. He's really interesting. So there are a few, but I take inspiration from, from all over, right?
Is there any emerging trend in spirituality or creativity or together that's exciting you or are you noticing any trend or do you feel? It's the way I see it? It's, I call it the golden age of creators, right? Everyone is getting a chance now to create, to express. Is there a trend you notice or do you think it's open playground?
You know, on one hand, I feel like the trends don't matter because, you know, creativity is in spirituality, like at their core, they're timeless. I almost like to go back and look at the oldest examples of, you know, like that's why I love the Vedas and the things like the Bag BTA because they're, they're almost more pure because it's so rooted in history and it's lasted for so long because there's something so solid about that.
So I'm, I'm less interested in trends. But what I love about creativity is like the technology and mediums that we use to communicate are always changing. So think about like what the printing press did for books, like everything changed because suddenly they were more accessible. So I do think things like the internet, social media, you know, a few years ago, there was no such thing as like memes that were art, right?
But then like people learned to make memes that were art. So I'm always interested to see when there's something new that comes around like how the artists will use it. And you know, we're, we're just at the early stages of the artificial intelligence era. And I know a lot of artists are worried about artificial intelligence because it looks like it's, you know, it can do creative things that designers and writers used to do so in some ways, it is bad for artists, but I think that the
innovative artists will find a way to use it. So I don't know what that's gonna look like yet, but there's going to be art, music writing that is generated by A I but as directed by the human artist. So I'm really interested to see where that goes. It's very similar to what Andy Warhol did for painting in the sixties when he took this new silk screen technology and he would just
silkscreen these images on the canvases and some people were like, that's not art, he's just reproducing images. But time has proven that Andy Warhol was truly a great artist.
James McRae, James McRae
So there's going to be, you know, the Andy Warhol's of the A I Yeah, age certainly very well put love that if from your book, the first step of creativity is not about making things.
James McRae
It's about unlearning the social programming that separates us from our creative nature. So I have two curiosities about it. How do you unlearn your programming or it doesn't show up so much at this point?
Well, I think I was in a way less programmed again. I was kind of born off the grid. I was even homeschooled during some formative years in like middle school where I was kind of sheltered from a lot of the programming that we see around us that doesn't make me immune to it because, you know, you know, I ended up living in New York City and working in the advertising industry and there's a lot of programming all around us, you know, whether that's the media or just, you know, certain
politics, this certain things are normalized and I think it's just so important to remember that just because things are a certain way, that doesn't mean that's the way they have to be or should be. So, it's kind of like you need to have boundaries between yourself and society and it, it's so easy to get sucked into it. But it's really just about cultivating that independence of your energy, of your thinking.
And that's hard to do when you're kind of caught up in the 9 to 5 rat race. But it's so important just to take time wherever you can just to be in nature, to meditate, to reflect and to, I always think it's so important to measure any information by what does it ring true in your soul? I think that's such an important, like barometer. It's like, ok, so some politician or president like said something and are you supposed to just automatically believe what they say?
I like to say, like fact check it with your own soul. Does it resonate with your soul with the deepest part of your being? And if it doesn't, maybe it's worth questioning. So we are always like, the most potent source of truth is always within us.
And is that the kind of mental model you apply? If there is still a moment of failure, rejection as an author, I'm sure rejections have happened. You mentioned about that the fictional book, is that happening, by the way, the fictional book, the one you started writing. But I don't, then the journey changed.
Yeah, it's an interesting question. I mean, it was originally a memoir and then it became a fiction book and I think it's going to become a memoir again. So I don't know when I think you'll actually really like this book because it's all about returning to your heart. So, I do think it's going to be a memoir after all, not a fiction book and it will come out.
But I don't know when yet. But certainly, I mean, I definitely feel, I mean, we're human, right? Like I feel doubt, I feel insecurity, you know, I feel jealousy. It's so easy for, you know, creators to compare themselves with others, you know. And, so certainly I think it's, I'd be lying to say that I have overcome all of that, right? But it's just reme, you know, for me, it's about showing up where, wherever I am in that moment, I'm just trying to cultivate that being present in the
moment and just being alive to what's ever in front of me. And it's like, don't worry about what's not there, but just worry about what's there in that moment and tend to your own garden and show up as best you can in the moment that you're in.
James McRae, James McRae
And then the more you do that, the more capable you become of, you know, doing bigger and better things, you know, there is a memoir quality to this book.
James McRae
Also. Art of You this morning, I was meditating and just inviting what I'm curious, you know, to ask you. And I noticed, I remember the stories, you know, I had to go back to my highlights to, you know, read exact quotes, but I remember the stories and I feel it's the way you shared the story. But also I think as a human, we connect to the stories. So my point is please write that memoir soon. I think that would be awesome.
Thank you. Thank you. I will.
So we are talking about jealousy comparison and I wanted to ask you the inner writer, artist, the public figure you are. Do you ever fear about being irrelevant in this ever changing social media game?
Oh, you know, I love social media to be honest with you. So I just feel like for me that's fun. But I also at the same time, have recognized how important it is to not rely on social media. So social media is very, it's a, it's a fickle place. Yeah, I mean clicking that follow button or that like button, it really doesn't mean much in the big scheme.
Of things like so there was a time when I was like, how many Instagram followers do I have? And that was my most important metric. And I see now that that's a rather shallow metric because what matters more is how deep of a connection you have with people. So you get a million Instagram followers. But how deep is their connection with you? You know, is it surface level like they're there for a cheap laugh at your memes or like you just say something that they're like, oh that's nice.
But then they forget all about it. Whereas there are some people with a few 1000 Instagram followers, but every one of them feels strongly and deeply about that person. And if you launch a course, if you release a book, they're all gonna buy it because they're invested. So I try not to get caught up too much in the changing algorithm and the follower account and the likes and I'm starting to focus more on things like my email newsletter, you know, where you can go a little bit deeper
and be a little bit more revealing and personal. So I'm balancing it, you know, you know, I wanna have fun and I like what the online world and what social media offers creators. But I also know that it's, it's not the be all end all.
Is that the reason why you maintain the in person gathering community in your city, the sunflower club. Correct.
Yes. Yeah. You know, I'm an introvert by nature. So my comfort zone is being alone in my room writing right. And then I can share on social media, but I'm still doing it in private. But there is nothing that pushes me more and that is more rewarding than holding space for a group in person. Nothing, nothing compares to that. And I get nervous before doing it.
Yeah. And it's kind of like jumping into the cold plunge or jumping into a cold shower. I feel like, you know, it's gonna be good for you and you know, your body's gonna be so energized by it. But there's still that, that resistance, but then you pushed through that resistance and I hold space for a group and it's always, I get so much more from that than anything else I do because there's, you can't replicate those real person to person relationships.
So Sunflower Club is, it's basically an open mic night and creative modalities are welcome. You know, there's a lot of poetry, a lot of singing, music. There's sometimes comedy, there's been dancing, things like that. And I specifically say it's not a talent show because some people who come are very, very talented and they, and they knock our socks off.
But my favorite are when there's people who are reading in public for the first time and everyone is welcome equally. And it's really about that creative expression as a healing modality and to bring that healing power of creativity to people in places that where it's not normally accessible to them.
Would you call yourself a good manifesto? I saw the picture of this club on your Instagram and I remember commenting, oh, that's a good reason to move to Austin. The energy was so tangible, so powerful and you have a book, a good community. I mean, your living dream of an artist right now.
You know, you would you contribute some of that beautiful manifestation to the intention process? I know you're a big, big into intention. Do you want to talk a bit about that before we, you know, this is the ending part of our conversation. So I want to get the intention to for sure.
Yeah, you know, manifestation is not a word that I personally use, but I think that everything is a manifestation in a way, everything whatever we have. And for me that just means like what are you in vibrational alignment with? Yeah. And how closely connected are you with your purpose? And then how much action and, and courage are you actually taking to actualize that purpose?
Yeah. So I think anyone who is aligned with their purpose and taking action towards their purpose. Manifestation is an inevitable result of that. So I think that we all have an equal level of manifestation ability. I think that's just like we're all creative. We're all manifesto because a manifestation is our creation in the world. And it's kind of like our effortless creation. It's like what is just what unfolds before us? And I think when you are deeply in alignment with your
purpose, that's when things start to unfold because there were times in my life when I didn't have books out and I wasn't hosting events because I still needed to learn more things on my journey in order to have the right tools to do so. So it's kind of like, yes, I manifested it, but it also took years of learning trial and error experimentation and the courage to push through all the failures that happened along the way.
Is that challenging to meditate when life is tough more, you know, it's throwing plot twist after plot twist on you or do you still show up for your daily practice?
Oh, I mean, I think meditation is probably more important when you're having a hard time to return to, you know, as a return to center. So for me, I mean, I don't think about my meditation. It's just like it's just like a shower to me. Like I'm going to shower every night. If I had a bad day, I'm still going to shower, I'm still going to brush my teeth. So for me, like meditation is that essential to my day or I'm going to do it like it's just part of my maintenance routine.
Yeah. You know, one thing I noticed what appears as a very smooth poetry memes on your page. There is an ongoing process, meditation, patience, trust, a lot of trials and errors and, but what people see is just a beautiful meme, you know, shared by a lot of people comments. There's a lot of love in the comments, but I'm loving the behind the scene process because behind the scene process seems like the process of just any artist writes to meditation, waking up tea, coffee, whatever,
you know, wakes you up. What would you advise James to someone who is on the other side of the bridge? You know, let's say someone who's 9 to 5, they want to write a book, they want to be a creative artist, an open mic meditation from where they should start, I think give them permission basically, right? So what kind of permission would you give?
Well, there's, you know, you mentioned the behind the scenes and all the things that happened prior to that post being made, I could summarize it as being like the two most critical things to do. And this is the Yin and the Yang. It's cultivating intuition and it's developing craft. So we've talked a lot about intuition on this podcast already.
You know, having that being in touch with that inner presence and learning to listen, I call it, listen to the space between your thoughts because the ego is very busy and there's a lot of mental chatter meditation helps you tune into that space between your thoughts. So you can re download insights. So that's the intuition part. But it's also, it's equally important to develop a craft.
So I've been writing since I was 14. Well, regularly. Right. And I've written a lot of bad stuff. Right. And it took me years and years and decades to really be a, what I can confidently say is like a good writer. Right. So that didn't happen overnight. It was through that dedication and that practice and that repetition and not only writing a lot but reading a lot.
Like, I don't write novels, but like, I've learned how to write from a lot of great novelists. So you need to develop your craft and practice, practice, practice. So don't be afraid to fail. You have to start somewhere. It's like, you know, I have a friend who's a stand up comedian and they told me that no matter what, no matter what you are going to, when you're new as a stand up comedian, you are going to be terrible.
You are going to bomb and you can sit at home and write jokes all day and that's not gonna make you a better comedian. You actually have to get up there on stage and fail publicly and get past that. So, so many people are afraid to start. But starting is it doesn't matter where you start, but it's that starting, that's the most important thing to do because you can't, you can't get better at something you can't improve until you're doing it. So wherever you are, start now and share your
work, whether that's with friends on social media, you know, with anyone who will, who will read it and just continue putting it out there and learning from it. Like there's a great line from writing. It's like you can fix bad pages easier than you can fix no pages. So once you have something to start from, you can become better, but just diving in and having confidence in, in the journey and not fixating too much on the end result at the beginning, would you recommend one book?
Just one book that you believe every creative person should read? I recommend your book out of you.
But the second book, you know, so there are a lot of books about creativity and I haven't read any of them because I, I really, and that's, you know, for a lot of reasons, like I've just been on my own creative journey for so long, but I rather be inspired by the artist than the people who are explaining it. I like to figure it out for myself. But, you know, obviously like things like the artist's way has helped a lot of people.
But for me and this is maybe connected more to consciousness than it is to creativity. But the book that I keep going back to year after year for, for decades now has been the DAO Dei Ching, which is, you know, it's one of the oldest books in history. And it, it traces back basically to Chinese shamanism. And this was the origin of Taoism, which was kind of a precursor to Buddhism. So it's essentially like our, one of our most ancient sacred text from, from Asia.
And it's just, it's so poetic and it's so it's all about the Yin and the Yang and being in balance with the Tao, which is really the nature of the universe. So Tao is kind of another way to say God, but it's not, it's not personified, it's a spirit, it's an energy and the Tao permeates all things and it's really about how to live in harmony with the Tao.
James McRae, James McRae
So this is good for just being aligned with your own purpose, knowing how to engage with the world and how to show up as a, as a person and as an artist, I keep going back to it and it feels fresh every, every single time I'm reading a page from it every morning and it's been very refreshing, very empowering, very poetic.
James McRae
It, it gets you in the zone, that's for sure. Last question, James, what's next in the projects? Any sneak peek into your upcoming project, any area of creative spiritual exploration that you are you excited about right now?
What I'm most excited about right now is expanding Sunflower Club and being an ambassador of creativity for people that don't have access to it. So I want to make sunflower club basically what to creativity, what a a is to alcoholism. And this is what I mean. It's like anyone in any town and city can start their own a a meeting because people need it.
You know, people in recovery, it really helps them. So people are empowered to start their own meetings and it has saved countless lives. And I think creativity is also needed. I think when we suppress our creativity, it causes it does damage to our emotions, to our spirits, even to our physical health because we're suppressing an energy that's trying to come through us. So, you know, I live in Austin, Texas and there's a lot of creativity here, you know, but there are a lot of
towns out there in the middle of nowhere that don't have open mics that don't, they never get a chance to create or share their work. So I want to expand Sunflower Club to be in every town, every city in the world, everyone can start their own. And it's really truly the democratization of creativity and bringing it into places that truly need it.
Creativity saves lives. You know, so and I think Sunflower Club is going to save many lives. This is very powerful intention. I wasn't expecting this. So this was really, really powerful. Thank you for your time, James. I, I feel you were very generous with your time energy information. Thank you. I really, really honored to have you on the li show.
Thanks for having me. This was a lot of fun.
May the teachings of Tantra continue to guide you and heal you? And I hope Lila guru helps you to unlearn the old and embrace the unknown mystical possibility, unfolding for it to support this podcast. Share it among the seekers who are ready for the next step in their future.
-
