Run or Rest? How Chronic Tension May Be Ruining Your Creative Life

What if the tension you carry every day is not random… but communication?

In this deeply personal episode, CJ shares his journey through unexplained physical pain and the surprising realization that the body holds its own intelligence — one that speaks not through words, but through sensation. After months of medical tests and treatments that offered little relief, he began to recognize a deeper pattern: chronic tension caused by living in a constant state of urgency.

This talk explores the powerful distinction between what CJ calls “run mode” and “rest mode.” In modern life — shaped by social media, nonstop news, and pressure to achieve — many of us rarely allow the nervous system to return to a truly restorative state. The result can be fatigue, anxiety, creative blockage, and persistent discomfort.

Through simple practices like body scanning, mindful walking, improving sleep, and learning to be present in ordinary moments, CJ invites listeners to rediscover a calmer rhythm of living. He reflects on how creativity, healing, and emotional clarity often emerge not through more effort, but through intentional restoration.

This episode is both a reflection and an invitation: to listen more carefully to your body, to question the cultural obsession with constant productivity, and to experiment with spending more time in a state of ease.   Because sometimes the most profound creative breakthrough begins when we finally stop running.

Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

Transcript

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Are you listening to your body? I mean, are you using your body to help you be more creative, more relaxed, more effective? Stay tuned and find out what I learned this last year in my journey of healing. Welcome to the Spiritual Artist Podcast. This is Chris Miller. I invite you to join me as I interview artists from a variety of disciplines. We'll share powerful stories and lessons learned while making their artist. It is a Friday morning, and I've been doing some thinking lately and something I want to share with you. I'm a teacher at heart, and so when I learn a lesson, I like to share it with others. Um many of you know that I have been working through some physical challenges last year, and I want to tell you what's helped me move through them, and I am moving through them slowly. Um, but mostly what this came down to is recognizing my body. Um, and so this is a little off cue because the spiritual artist, I often focus on the spiritual side, the consciousness before physical manifestation. And as I've grown on this journey, I've realized that your body also has an intelligence separate from your mind. And here in the West, we are taught to really listen to the mind. Everything is done up in the head. We think things out, we think things out, we think things out. But uh, I realized something on this journey, and I want to share it with you. I realized that the body has an intelligence of its own and it's communicating to you. But it's communicating to you not in a language that you can understand, which is a challenge, but more in the sensation of the body. So let me go back and revisit kind of what I was struggling with last year, and I'm still on the tail end of it, but it's there. Um, I recognized I was starting to have some very bad pain in my groin, my lower back. And I went to all these different specialists. I had uh nerve testing done, I did an MRI, I they checked my back. There is a little rupture in the lower back, all these things, all these physical things. But the doctors basically did not have an answer for me. And matter what I tried, whether it was a nerve block or therapy or physical massage, those things weren't helping me. And what I realized is that this is something deeper. This is something on the conscious level, the conscious level. And so I realized that I was chronically tense. That's kind of a strange thing. Chronic tension is an actual issue that many of us deal with. And so I want to share with you what I learned and how you can take a look at your own body and your own uh day-to-day activities and say, hmm, am I managing this? Am I letting this flow the way it should flow? So let's talk about something I learned on this journey. Last year I've had all these specialists come in, somatic teachers, people that specialize in body awareness, breath work specialists, you name it. What I realized and what I learned and what I remembered from when I was in uh grade school is we have two different systems that we recognize in the body. And they call it the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. The sympathetic and the parasympathetic. The sympathetic is your flight mode, your fight or flight mode. It's when you're in high gear, it's when you're reacting. And they go back and they tell that story, you know, when the man was walking through the jungle and they saw the tiger, they would flip into the sympathetic mode and react to the tiger. Well, I tried to understand this, and then and and I'll tell you what I came up with to help you. Instead of calling it parasympathetic and sympathetic, these calm, long, horrible, hard-to-remember words, and what does it mean when something is sympathetic for gosh sakes? Let's just call it, let's just change it to run or rest. Your body is in a run or rest mode. So instead of saying the parasympathetic, which is a very big tongue twister, let's just think of it as rest. Your rest mode. Your rest mode is is calm, present, healing. It's the mode that readjusts your system. It's used when you're sleeping, but it's also used, and I think this is a really important thing to understand. When you are calm and reflective, when you meditate, when you take a walk out in nature, that is your rest mode. So, what I realized that in I think everybody in the world is realizing this, we have pushed ourselves all the way over to that we are in this run mode all the time. And this is brought by social media, uh, 24-hour news feeds, the drama of politics, all these things are keeping us in the run mode. Always. So, what I decided to do is when I learned that there's two different sides of me, and that I obviously was spending too much time in the run mode, and that's what was causing chronic tension. So ask yourself: do you feel chronically exhausted? Are you tired? Do you have fatigue all the time? Do you feel pain in a part of your body? Do you feel tension that never seems to go away? All those things are because you're in the run mode. Run. And listen, this is why. It's everywhere. And it, I think, you know, I'm sorry, I'm gonna blame the smartphone. I'm gonna blame the smartphone. And so I'm gonna ask you to start recognizing how much you are addicted to looking at that feed. They know that we are constantly addicted to that run mode. We're always scouring for danger. And so what they do is they've the system has honored, the system has honored social media, the flight tactic. They're constantly flaring up something that will grab your attention. Think about it. This is what's happened to the news. Twenty years ago, we would just watch news and they'd say this happened. Now they are constantly taking angles. What it means to you as a so-called, and they group us in these large categories. So the system is grouping you as a liberal, as a conservative, as a whatever, as a woman, as a man, as a black person, as a white person, and then they write these headlines that will trigger you. They're triggering headlines. They want you to stay in that run mode. So I started watching, and this is what I teach my spiritual artists. So this is definitely something you can use in the studio as well as in day-to-day life. You start listening to your body. And by listening, constantly do what I call a body scan. You know, um, when I took, I've I've taken yin yoga, yoga for 10 years. That's when I started recognizing that you can actually put your consciousness into your body. You can run a scan from your toes all the way up to your knees to your hips. Feel your body. Is there tension in your body right now? Do that for a minute. Project, just go like start at your toes, come all the way up your body to your shoulders and your head. Sort of like picture yourself in a giant MRI. Yes. And then you, or if you don't do this now, you will be in a giant MRI. But picture yourself scanning your body and seeing where is there tension? Where am I holding? The challenge here is to release that, to practice letting it go, to going back into your rest mode as much as possible. So after you scan your body, if there's tension in your shoulders, in your stomach, in your gut, in your knees, in your groin, breathe into it. Calm down. Know that you're safe in this moment. In the present moment, you are safe. And relax it. Start focusing on relaxing that tension. And that's what I've been doing. I constantly do a body scan and I check, am I in the rest mode or the run mode right now? Am I in the rest mode or the run mode? And I want to be in the rest mode almost all the time. Yes, there's a time for run. There is a time if you're walking down a dark alley at night, yes, by yourself, yes. But how often are we truly in such a situation? Not as much as the system, social media, the political parties would want you to believe. They want you to believe that everything is the sky is falling. You know, I think about that chicken little running around, the sky is falling, the sky is falling. There's some truth to that. Childhood fairy tale is tapping into the fact that when we run around constantly looking for tragedy, trauma, that's that our world becomes absorbed with it, absorbed with it. And we see something as a simple acorn falling and represent it as the sky or an apple, I think. I don't remember the story really well. Long time ago. But I want you to try this now for the next week or two. Actually, I think it should be an ongoing habit, but just try it. Commit yourself, even for the day, and say, you know what? I'm gonna listen to CJ today. I'm gonna do these body scans a couple times a day, and I'm gonna recognize where am I holding tension and am I truly in a rest mode? You know what I found out? And this is because I was raised kind of in a high achiever environment. I'm in the run mode all the time. I swear, I started realizing, oh my gosh, I'm in the run mode all the time, 24-7. I'm always do, do, do, do. I get up, I'm sure, I'm performing, I'm performing, I'm making, I'm processing, I'm doing things. Creativity, power, intuition, ideas happen in the rest mode. Do you hear me? I mean, granted, I guess I I guess I should say they can happen in the run mode, but they most cleanly, most quickly, most authentically come to you when you're in the rest mode. You all can relate to this, can't you? You'll sit there and you'll struggle with a problem, and then you find that when you're washing the dishes, an answer pops into your head. When you're doing something mundane, calmly, repetitively, you're in the rest mode. Or when you take a shower and you're taking a shower and you're simply lathering up the soap, suddenly the answer to a problem you've been wrestling with for a week pops in your head. Or when you're mowing the lawn and you're going back and forth over the grass, mindlessly pushing the mower or the lawn or the sweeper, the vacuum cleaner in your house if you're vacuuming. All these times, all these times, as long as you're calmly in rest. And so I want you to understand something. When I say rest mode, I don't mean that you have to be laying in bed with your feet propped up on pillows, although that is important. Spend time doing that as well. But I mean when you're present to what you're doing, you could be working on your taxes in a calm, restorative way. And that will be healthy for you. But if you're stressed when you're doing your taxes, if you're focused on, oh my gosh, I don't know if if I'm gonna be overtaxed here or if I'm gonna owe money, that tension, you can feel it, even when I say it. Actually, it's so funny. Right when I just said it to you, I can feel my shoulders go, my shoulders janked up. Always this body awareness. So we talk about, you know, emotional intelligence. There's also body intelligence. And I want you to be aware of your body. And we are taught to ignore our body, to plow through, you know, no pain, no gain. I disagree with that. I think that is completely wrong. I say that when you're in calm flow, restorative mode, restorative mode, when you are rest, that is where the gain is. That's where the gain is. And especially when you're in the studio. Watch yourself when you stand in front of the easel. Take a moment, center yourself, and notice are you feeling tense about the experience with the easel? Are you feeling tension in your arm when you hold the brush? That tension will translate into the paint. Are you feeling that body, that intensity, that need to prove yourself? All those things are run, run, run, prove yourself, save yourself, avoid the problems. Problems that oftentimes don't exist. In fact, most of the time don't exist. So, a couple things that I've been doing that really helped me, and I want to share them with you. About eight weeks ago, I made a firm commitment to getting a good night's sleep. That's right. I go to bed at 10 or 10:30 every night, and I sleep till seven. I'm I'm sorry, I know it seems a long time, it seems frivolous, and but you know what? It has helped me so much. I feel that I'm spending enough restorative time that I am actually getting my energy back in the in the runtime. Does that make sense? You have to restore yourself. So I highly recommend getting enough sleep. Okay. Obviously, that will help you. Getting enough sleep. The next thing is doing some mindfulness meditation practice in the morning, doing some breath work is wonderful. But here, I want to share a story with you. So, as you know, last year I used Jonathan Schechter and I did some breath work with him, and he gave me an assignment. And I went home and I realized, and I came back to him and said, It's not working. And I realized I was breathing with such intensity. I was literally counting. One, two, three, hold for three, one, two, three, let out for three, one, two, three. And I was, I said to him, Jonathan, I don't understand. I'm doing the 10 minutes like you said, but it's not helping. Because I was doing it with such intensity. It wasn't working. Breath work won't work. Nothing will work. Washing those dishes does not work if you're rushing through and throwing them to the side as fast as you can. This is that um mindfulness practice, you know, uh carrying water, chopping wood, carrying water. They talk about Buddhists. It's being mindfully present when you're doing a task, not pushing ahead, not trying to finish, and not obviously focusing on what you're doing, being present to it. And so I was doing the breath work, but I was so intense that it was not letting me go into my rest mode. You can do something that you think. So I want to tell you this. You can think, oh, I'm getting enough sleep, but if you're not truly relaxing when you sleep, if your mind is racing, if you're worried, if there's noises going on. So I will tell you a couple other things I do. I bought a noise machine from my room. I recognize that the other people in my house are always up and running in the middle of the night doing stuff. I have a young son living with me. He's always moving around, and it was distracting me. It'd wake me up in the middle of the night. Interrupted sleep is not good sleep. It has to be nice, long, uninterrupted sleep. So try on Amazon, you can buy a little, I kid you not,$14 noise machine. Put it next to your bed, turn it on at night, do whatever you need, wear a mask, wear earplugs if you're willing to do those things. Get a good night's sleep. Don't let your mind race. Drink chamomile tea. All those things are important. So sleep is really, really important to this process. And I'll share with you another thing that's important movement. People talking about you see a lot now about Tai Chi, and I haven't gotten a chance to do Tai Chi yet. But what I've been doing is walking around the block with my dogs every day. And not walking. It's so funny. I came out yesterday, I was in my front yard, and this guy's coming down and he's walking. You know, his arms are swinging fast. Isn't it just like us, right? Isn't it just like us here in the modern society to turn something that is supposed to be restorative into a run, into work, into stress. So he's taking to task. And I can only say this because I've spent my whole life doing that. I take every job, every experience, and I push it, I make it work, I do a to-do list, I fight, I work. That is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about readjusting, recalibrating your entire way of being. So this guy walks past me at this, you know, his arms are swinging with intensity, and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, that's not restorative at all. And now maybe he thinks he needs to jazz up his system. Maybe he doesn't move at all, and that's fine. You know, you have to be the judge. Only you can be the judge. I want to tell you that. Nobody else can. You have to know and do a body check and know, are you truly relaxed from your shoulders all the way down? Are you truly relaxed? Or are you holding something? Are you swinging those arms with an intensity? Are you putting a pace to it? But I take these wonderful walks. And when the dog stops, this is what's so wonderful about animals. They're so in the moment. They stop and smell, I stop and let them. Now, there are times, I'm not gonna lie, where I start pulling up, come on, let's go, let's go, we gotta get this done. And then I realize little CJ's trying to get it done. Come on, we gotta get this walk finished. That's not the point of the walk. The point of the walk is to notice the clouds coming over the horizon. Listen to the kids playing at the playground, watch them going down the slide, remembering what it was like to have young children, how fun it is. Walking by the stream and seeing the ducks floating on the surface, noticing the birds building a nest, all those things, being present. That's restorative. So you've got the option to run and you've got the option to rest. And I'll tell you a third thing. If you have pets, if you have a cat or dog, wow, right? Do this today. Take time to let yourself sit on the couch and let the animal lay on you, pet it. Just notice how in the moment it is. Animals are so much a good teacher for us. They teach us so much about being present, just enjoying the moment. And I share stories. I remember in my first book where my dog jumped up on my lap while I was trying to write a chapter. And instead of rushing through it, I took the time to pet the dog. And it and I'm so blessed now because the dog has passed. Um, it was a lovely, lovely Boston terrier, fawn colored, and he got cancer and he didn't live as long as he should have. But I'm so glad I stopped. I'm so glad I stopped from that produce, produce, produce mode, and petted him and just sat there in front of the typewriter. Rather, I'm sorry, old-fashioned term, in front of the laptop. So I want you to focus on, start monitoring. How much time are you spending? Oh, how can I leave this out? Put down your phone. Number four, put down your phone. Make sure that you turn off all the notification settings right now. Go in there, turn them off. You don't need to be notified every single time Trump is in the headlines because it's every minute or every single time something's going on. It's not going to get you into the restorative mode. In fact, what I would suggest is going back in time to where maybe you say one hour a day, I will sit down and look at the news, you know, five o'clock, whatever time you want. I would not do it right before you go to bed, but sit down and look at the news and make sure that you're that you only give it that much time and that much focus. If that, oh, I even noticed this, so I'm going to share this with you. Even murder mysteries, violent TV shows, all those things are pushing you into the run mode. Yeah, it's entertainment, right? Oh, I love watching it. I love watching Friday the 13th. But you know what? When you're watching Friday the 13th, you are totally in the run mode. And that's not good. The more and more today, with all the challenges we have, with the way the media has kind of gotten warped so much out of whack, you're in the run mode all the time. Pay attention to it. Pay attention to run or rest. Do what you can. Get back to me. Let me know. Email me. Let me know how this goes. Let me know what you find out. Go out there, be present, be an artist, but most important, spend as much time as you can in the rest mode and see how creativity blossoms for you. I'll talk to you soon. Make sure you follow this podcast. Go up there and like it, ring the bell, whatever you need to do, leave a comment. But thank you for being a spiritual artist. Thanks again for listening to the Spiritual Artist Podcast. Whether you're watching this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or iHeartRadio, make sure you choose the subscribe button so that you will receive updates when new segments are released. Most importantly, be still, listen, and know that you are a spiritual artist.