☠️ The 6 Types of Creative Block & 🤔 The 1 Counterintuitive Solution to Breaking Through.
When we're blocked, what can we do?
☠️ The 6 Types of Creative Block & 🤔 The 1 Counterintuitive Solution to Breaking Through.
As you know, in my STUDY, SAVOR, & SUPPORT Each Other CHAT☕️🍵, we’re doing a deep-dive into The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (“JC”). This week is Week #10: Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection.
In Chapter 10, JC reminds us to beware of the 6 ways we might block our creative flow because we fear our own creative potential:
💥 (1) Food
💥 (2) Alcohol
💥 (3) Drugs
💥 (4) Relationships
💥 (5) Sex
💥 (6) Work
All these things can give us a sense of busyness and an excuse to distract our attention away from our desire to create.
The first step is to become aware.
She says, “Knowing yourself as an artist means acknowledging which of these you abuse when you want to block yourself. If creativity is like a burst in the universe’s breath through the straw that is each of us, we pinch that straw whenever we pick up one of our blocks. We shut down our flow. And we do it on purpose.
We begin to sense our real potential and the wide range of possibilities open to us. That scares us. So we all reach for blocks to slow our growth. If we are honest with ourselves, we all know which blocks are the toxic ones for us. Clue: this is the block we defend as our right.”
But, there’s hope:
This pattern of blocking our creative flow is NORMAL.
And it’s not because we are “bad,” but because we lack faith in our own creative abilities.
It may even be because we fear happiness. Not because we don’t want to be happy, but simply because happiness feels unfamiliar to us.
Same for fun. For Workaholics, play and fun can make us nervous.
Or even simpler: we fear of the unknown. The unknown can lead to doubt & uncertainty.
So we use blocks to make Creative U-Turns that keep us in our familiar blocked state, even if it doesn’t serve our Creative, Highest Self in the long run.
BEWARE: These blocks only work in the short-term.
Eventually, she warns, “blocks will no longer work effectively.”
Uh-oh.
Eventually we will feel a growing sense of anxiety.
But, guess what?
That’s a good thing.
Anxiety is the Counterintuitive Solution to Breaking Through.
When we reframe anxiety…
When we lean into anxiety…
We can use anxiety to fuel our creativity.
We just need to FEEL the anxiety and move ahead anyway.
Easier said than done, right?
It helps to have a curious attitude.
To ask, “What might happen?”
To experiment, play, and be proud of our block-busting effort, no matter the outcome.
I tried to lean into my own anxiety this week.
Not because I wanted to.
But because I had to.
My migraines have increased lately. So much so, I even got an MRI. I don’t have brain cancer (whew!), but sadly I do suffer from “chronic migraines.”
So, I took a break from writing Substack Notes this week.
It was hard. The lack of conversation made me feel worse. And feeling “I’m not doing enough” wasn’t pleasant, either.
It got easier when I stopped trying to get rid of the ick.
Instead, I leaned into my anxiety, by writing this, to honor my creativity, even if it was less than what I’d hoped it could be:
If it’s not working, DON’T QUIT.
Rest.
Play.
Find inspiration.
Broaden your perspective.
Meditate.
Practice going inward.
Give it time to percolate.
Remember who you are.
Trust in who you are becoming.
Keep going…slowly, if you must.
until you find a SOFT WAY back…
Into your True Self.
Embrace yourself.
Be gentle.
Welcome your Homecoming.
You are coming home.
Now, take a Mindful Minute to reflect on your life:
⭐️ Does this resonate with you?
⭐️ Can you immediately identify the methods that you tend to use to block your own creative flow?
⭐️ When journaling, are you able to identify any new blocking methods you hadn’t realized you were using?
⭐️ Why do you think you have a tendency to block your creative flow? What do you think you are truly afraid of?
⭐️ In your Journaling, did you track how you spend your time? If so, did you realize you’re a Workaholic who’s overly-devoted to your non-creative work?
⭐️ How do you plan to prioritize your Creative Work, moving forward?
⭐️ Do you want to enlist the help of a Fellow Creative, to help keep you accountable so you can commit to accomplishing a specific Creative task?
👭 If so, in the Comments or in the CHAT, tell us what you’d like to accomplish this upcoming week so we can all support & cheer you on.
The Block-Busting-Creative in me honors & respects the Block-Busting-Creative in each of you,
Marisa
⭐️ Remember, we don’t have to figure everything out, all alone. ⭐️
We can find solutions, together!
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