Creative blocks happen when there’s not a focus or intention to be creative. And when stressed. It’s as simple and complicated as that.
Because it’s not true that creative blocks exist for everyone at some point.
You don’t have to EVER get a block.
But if you’re like me or many of us, our busy lives get in the way.
…Where you could be aligned to do something else at this time and the Universe is helping you by focus your attention elsewhere.
But you would know the difference because your time and energy is spent in what’s important this season.
And when you’re ready to be creative, it’s there waiting for you!
…because we are creations, and so we were born creative beings.
And our gut, intuition, and creative minds don’t shut off, but we could be creating creative blocks and silencing them with our thought noise and busy world we live in.
Simply put, creativity doesn’t die.
Whatever your hidden talents are (…and you do have them!), as they’re inside you even if you’re not tapping into the sparks. ✨🔥
…And that’s why the creativity stays hidden (or smoldered) 🐦🔥
You may not have discovered yours (or fully) …and as I didn’t discover my writing ability until I was well into my corporate career years and then put writing aside for more years.
I never set out to be a writer, EVER. I was NEVER developing the writing skill.
…And when I was a child in my home, I was surrounded by artwork and had some art history awareness.
So I knew I had an artistic gene somewhere.
And when I moved away, I also didn’t use any of it in my day-to-day corporate life so I grew even further away.
…I found my creativity genes occasionally on weekends when I had enough time to get out of anxious energy, could relax, and then get into my creative outlet of making scrapbooks back then. 📔
…Otherwise, my mind was creative blocked from creative energy, being filled with busyness, stress, and staying in the logical left brain routine.
…And maybe that’s you if you don’t think you’re creative! 🎨 Or identify with “I’m not creative.”
In that case, know that creative blocks are moveable.
You’re just steps away from your creativity.
Remember, it’s your choice in life and if you want to, then you can start the steps in that direction.
Creativity is waiting for you when you’re not blocked by your thoughts and creative emotions.
When those are aligned, you gain clarity and are creatively unstoppable!
In those clear streams, there’s not a creative bad day…
Because we’re all born talented. So it’s not about talent.
But when we think we’re having a creative block, it’s happening because we’re stuck on the levels of this earth and our earthly non-productive emotions.
And if we don’t develop a creative practice, then we stay stuck and in creative blocks.
Whether you identify as a content creator, artist, writer, or dancer as some creative examples, if you don’t use the creative spiritual places in you, then creation is missed.
It’s like getting into the nooks and crannies of an English Muffin. 😊
In writer’s block specifically (as in staring at blank pages), this can be trying to write out of the wrong place in our minds that are either distracted, or a spiritual-given clue that we have better things to do.
When we write from the creative areas of our mind, then we’re not writing only from our perspective and experiences, as we’re co-creating our writing.
So then writing flows and words seem effortless as though we’re on fire with our flow. Or riding a cloud in the air. ☁️
We can’t type fast enough.
In flow, it’s not work when we’re clear in thought and open to our creative passages. It’s the opposite of a writer’s block or creative block.
It’s bliss work… and we forget that our amazing drink we poured has turned cold. I switched to coffee cold brew so I don’t have that dilemma. 🧋
But the more we can get that flow feeling from our regular practice, the more we create creative sustainability.
It’s our jam that sticks. And we do it like our morning routines. They become habits.
But if we lean in on the opposite deterring moods, we allow in distracted thoughts staring at a blank page. And we can choose to give up or muster through…
Some of those deja vu thoughts aren’t bad… and they have a purpose for us…
We can have wanderlust thoughts that make us dream again. 💭
And if we get lost or stuck too long, if we’ve practiced writing enough times, sometimes we can wing it and get by even though we know it’s not our finest work.
Only we know what we’re feeling and capable of.
…And we then know there’s room for improvement… and there’s always next time. We challenge ourselves.
Each time is an opportunity to start over and without our interfering ego that can be the creative blocks or writer’s block “elephant in the room” 🐘… when we’re alone in our writing room.
And co-creation happens when the ego is not high and active (like in imposter syndrome).
Co-creation is a higher inspiration tapping into your higher self for answers that are inside you (in heart, gut, and mind alignment).
How you get there is different for each of us…
When you find what inspires your creativity in you each day then you can always find your way back to your spark again. ✨
For me, when I look inward for deeper answers, I actually get a tap sensation back. I used to wonder what that chill up the spine or gentle touch under the skin was.
…Now over a decade in, I’m full of no-mistaken clarity of what that is as the spirit living inside.
It’s not spooky. 👻
…It’s angelic. 🪽
For other people, they sometimes get their inspirational energy as an invisible muse in the room like a critic or a figment of the imagination ghost-like person playing a harp. 💭
Stephen King writes about a muse in his On Writing documentary where his muse keeps him on track. He’s been writing a while..
…Or, if you’re finding your inspiration… it can be a mind whisper, faint visions, or impression from your spirit or mind’s eye.
These are as real as seeing objects in your life.
When you pay attention (lowering external noises) and pausing to record what you interpreted from inside you, that can become your lens and way of looking at life that uniquely helps you in your writing, creativity, and EVERYTHING in your life… since your created life is one massive creative endeavor, one happening after another.
If nothing else, you are the character in your creative story where the ending is unwritten.
Every day happening miracles not created by people (but maybe acted out in people) are normal in this life… we just don’t hear about them as often in our noisy culture’s headlines.
Miracles are special moments in life that aren’t unusual. I had my own season of special miracles of deeper meaning exposing love over ego from a spiritual intervention.
I could’ve looked at it as a creative block as I stopped writing, but that was an opportunity to grow. It was a slow season.
And in busy seasons, if a main intent is to be time managing, systematic, network social, and following our calendar to a T with very little wiggle room fulfilling pressures of what others of us, then we’ve probably missed it…
…I learned this though blowing off a creative work life for decades until I was ready.
When focused on relationship building activities, following other’s instructions, and coloring inside the lines, then you’re shielding away creative possibilities. But could be more focused on growing other areas.
Because creativity is coming up with something original from inside you that’s unique because no one else can come up with the exact same creation in your way. It may look or sound the same but it’s not the same as the originator is different.
…In other words, the idea may already be in the world (we have a big world!) but if you genuinely came up with the idea, then that’s what’s for you as your spirit is wired to the energy of the rest of the world.
And if you discover (in life’s miracles) that at the same time you discover the same thing with someone else, maybe you should get together and work on other ideas. 💡
When I was younger, we didn’t have the internet so we didn’t know what was going on in the opposite side of the world.
Creativity came from color pencils on paper and other resources we had around the house or that we could gather.
We were limited by our community resources and that helped build our creativity. 🎨
We could take a sheet of paper and trace over another paper source. And then we’d have a duplicate copy of work that we did by hand.
Those were days before we discovered the copying machine. 😊
So often we’re looking for an original idea to come out when we’re inspired by something else already out there. Because so many things are out there!
But that’s how inventions were and are made.
They don’t start from scratch.
We are all starting with ideas already out there that we’ve seen before and are part of our memory.
…And that’s why technology is always evolving.
Like technology that drives the bus for so many life areas (that I saw first hand spending almost 10 years of my working life in tech when I wasn’t around food planning settings)… and there, I witnessed idea stalls like 9-11 when the nation halted.
And you saw halts in the 2020 pandemic.
Some areas froze in ideas and sometimes regressed.
And other people, places, and things grew in ideas and creativity.
In those testing seasons, we had time to work on new solutions to get out of the freeze.
And that provided our pivots that often gave more hope, joy, purpose, and clarity.
In purpose life, we’re called to be creative and not just do what has been done.
In creativity, we’re not following a template already created.
We’re calling upon ourselves to get ourselves inspired and come up with something different from our gifts and imagination.
And if you feel stuck, maybe this will help you too…
Unblocking Your Learned UnCreativity
Unblocking creativity is something I had to work on in the beginning of my creative journey and what others like me would too if they spent most or their time in structure.
…Like where I had to re-learn what corporate work life and school taught me in back-to-back lessons in 30 years… the lesson was simply, do as told.
So now I’ve had enough, and I can break free and do as I’m told. As in what’s inside me (and what’s inside you).
When I unleashed myself from those environments that were downloading instructions, at first I didn’t know what to do minute-by-minute with my newfound time.
When that becomes your life, it’s different than a summer break or sabbatical where the point in those cases is to relax and rejuvenate and then go back.
In my new creative-purpose work, I didn’t have a schedule template to follow… and no one does. If anyone offers that to you… run, because robots will never run the world. They create creative blocks.
…So from an instructed life to a creative life, I had to make opposite direction mindset shifts.
Sometimes I would pause and wonder if I should write daily… or was it just a waste of time?
…Because it wouldn’t be graded and nobody would follow up like in the structured world I came from.
And that’s part of the beginning when you’re switching to being your own creative teacher and boss.
But with those risky growth changes, comes rewards.
And if that sounds like you or you’re starting over with these same creative break-out-on-your-own desires, be encouraged!
Give it time. Unlike structure, don’t give yourself arbitrary goal deadlines as it will take longer than you expect.
Give deadlines to your inspired projects and show up.
Be consistent in your practice. so you don’t allow creative blocks to creep in.
If you feel anxious or worried because of the new season’s financial uncertainty, then get a part-time job that you can clock-in and clock-out of without any emotional attachment (as in stress, anxiety or boss struggles).
…You know what I mean! 😊
And if have a growth mindset that you lean into, then it won’t take you nearly as long to flip the script around and embrace your creative life.
Leaning into doing your passion (love) vs. fear will help you through. Do it afraid and do it when nothing looks like it’s happening.
Because you’ll continue to get ideas you’ll have to decide what to do with… and that’s a good problem to have!
You’ll take one baby step action that provides clarity for the next pivot that is needed for your growth and success… and the journey is exciting and not boring, predictable work that promotes creative blocks.
You’ll be learning new things while developing personal growth that didn’t happen in a corporate setting, teaching yourself daily, and learning about yourself as you tap of inside you for answers… growing your spiritual higher self. How cool is that!?
Lean into YOU GET TO DO THIS and you’re paid or provided for in other ways, and that a pretty darn good freeing feeling!… 🤸🏻
Your passion outweighs the uncertainty. And if you’re all in it, then you have no chance but to succeed because this Universe is wired for your success when you don’t give up!
And when you don’t… That’s the clear sign you’re on the right path for you.
And the fears disappear with your faithful spiritual growth and your trusting belief.
So – what are you waiting for?
