​How to Clear Creative Blocks

Creative blocks are that feeling you get when the pleasure of your creative genius, those brilliant choices and your exquisite care for each nuance of your experience, suddenly runs dry. The tank is empty, the juice has run out, and your momentum is going ... going... gone. 

As mysterious as they seem, creative blocks have some logic behind them as well as some practical solutions. This article lays out the causes, the solutions, and a few helpful writing/pondering prompts to kickstart your momentum again. I've even included a few quick stories to prove that there is hope! You will live to create another day, and here's how.  

A creative block often represents a desire to be in a different or more productive phase of the creative process. The creative process includes  a spectrum of productivity ranging from seeking to releasing, assertive to receptive, and from highly active to integrative and still. Although stillness can seem stagnant and is often judged in our culture as being "not enough" or even lazy, slow paces and stillness are equally as useful as the more active doing. Like it or not, slowing and stilling are essential aspects of the creative experience.  

Creative blocks are caused by:

1. Rejection of reality and the present moment.
   In this case the block is typically caused by an attachment to an idea that your process “should” look a different way instead of embracing and relating with the current reality.
2. Life circumstances placing external pressure on your creativity.
   External pressure can include financial strain, or time and energy constraints caused by things like a move, a new or stressful job, a divorce/break-up, illness, death of a loved one, or even a new relationship.
3. Distractions redirecting your attention (attention = time + energy).
   Think of creativity as a force that can be applied to relationships, jobs, health and lifestyle, art and more. Look at your life and consider what you want to create vs. where your creative energy is actually going. If you're pouring your creative energy into a new romance there is a chance that you may not also be creative in other aspects of your life. (Let's be real. it's hard to pay attention to growing that new career when you're fantasizing about what happened with your new lover last weekend. Just saying.)
4. Sourcing inspiration/motivation from an external source.
   A great way to kill a creative high is to force it to show up for the wrong people. Examples of this might be producing for job requirements or to satisfy social, peer or parental expectations.  A big one that I hear about often is creating for money instead of passion. Let your passion lead to the reward, but don't aim for your reward and expect passion to show up. It don't live here no more. 

Although creative blocks suck, a block is most often just good information telling you that it's time to adjust. The question is, how? 

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Photo by Burst

What's the fix?
We need to stop labeling blocks as wrong and simply call them what they are - stagnant energy. The creative force is flowing though you, or at least that's what we want. Creativity is an energy and if it stagnates with you, that's on you. But hey, you're human so it's bound to happen eventually. The good news is that you have direct access to the solution. 

Step 1. Accept 
Accept that you are preferring a different experience than the one you're having. #nojudgement. Then accept where you are and make friends with it. 

Step 2. Identify
Identify how you need to adjust your flow. In other words, do you need to increase or slow your activity. This will look different for everyone and will depend on your specific creation. Regardless of the details, the concept is universally applicable.  (Hint: you'll benefit from the opposite or compliment of the state you're currently feeling uncomfortable in. Overwhelm needs to chill, stagnation needs a fire lit under that fine fanny.)

Step 3. Adjust
Adjust your pace by considering 4 levels of experience: physical, emotional, intellectual, and energetic. For example...
To slow your pace you can:

• Simplify your schedule
• Take time to plan before you execute (more controlled, less spontaneous.)
• Eat slowly
• Meditate
• Spend time in nature
• Give yourself time and permission to feel and perhaps write or draw about all the emotions you've got going on.
• Create a bedtime and morning routine that doesn't involve your cell phone.
   

To increase your pace you can:

• Move your body! Go to the gym, take a walk, dance, join a silly walk parade, or whatever tickles your fancy. 
• Take your usual tasks to new spaces. Try a different room in your office or home, or go public and try a coffee shop or shared workspace. In a new space you'll free up new neuro-networks in your brain by giving yourself new visual cues that don't have habitual thoughts already associated with them. If you're able to focus in a public space you'll also feed off of the collective energy and maybe even meet a new friend or collaborator. #networking
• Learn a new skill or gather information. 
• Trade in your meditation for breath-work or kundalini practices. 
• Have sex. (I bet you weren't expecting that one. But hey, it moves energy so why not include it? I wouldn't want you missing out ;) and BTW, a partner is optional.)
  
  

Come up with new habits and practices that work for you. This new practice becomes part of your creation. As you change your typical patterns you'll begin firing new neuron pathways in your brain. This helps to rekindle inspiration by producing experiences of novel opportunities for new choices, curiosity, and pleasure. This is how you make sparks fly, albeit very tiny sparks that are hidden in your brain. Yay biology!

It sounds simple and it works,  but this process of behavioral repatterning can also take time to develop organically and authentically.  Don't rush. Be patient. Consider it an ongoing work in progress and luxuriate in the power you have to play with it.

Here is another way to look at it. When raising a child, does a parent just execute Operation Adult and ask the child every day "Why aren't you a mature adult yet?". No! Ideally a parent will savor the time they get to spend with their child and in that same way you want to enjoy these special moments with your creation. Whether you're celebrating those magical first steps or wishing you had a hazmat suit as you clean up another epic blowout, these moments are totally unique to your personal growing process and to that of your creation. Kids remember the care you give them and your creations remember too. These moments only happen once, and they are precious.

Creation is an expression of matter forming and transforming through time. So, it takes time. Put on your patient pants. It's time to get cozy. 

Creation isn't a race, it's evolution. Give yourself the breathing room you need to play the long game. 


Questions to ask yourself.
When you're ready to overcome your creative block use these prompts for journaling or contemplation. Answer what feels alive for you and ignore what feels irrelevant:

1. What am I spending my creative energy on? And where do I really want or need to be using my creative energy?
2. What types of pressure am I putting on my creativity? 
3. If I were to put down my expectations or pressures, what is my honest and most exciting vision for my creation?
4. What am I developing that simply hasn't found physical form/experience yet?
5. Is my energy stagnant or scattered? What can I do to move my energy in a different way? Open to great possibilities if stagnant, and focusing to find a clear path forward if scattered. 
6. What future part(s) of this creative process am I dreading? How can I prepared to welcome them when the time comes?

These are just a few questions to get you started. If you're feeling bold you can comment below the article to share what you discovered in your process. (Sharing helps to integrate your breakthroughs!)

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Photo by Alexas Fotos

I'm going to be real with you.
We all get stuck. Those who remain stuck are likely the ones blaming others for their issues, which is lame but true.  No one wants to be the blamer because eventually we all see through them and they're not going anywhere (plus they're a drag to be around).

Those who get unstuck are the ones who claim their opportunity and ability to create a new outcome for the same old blocks. It takes effort but it's worth it, I promise. 

Happy creating. See you out there. 

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