Unconditional joy of living

3 ideas for working through a creative blockage

 
De-clutter your mind

For visual artists is sometimes more important to feel their work than to think it, to experience it through emotions or senses rather than mentally. I’ve noticed that a seed of most of my creative blockages lies in thinking too much about my work instead of simply letting go and allowing myself to feel it and express myself. Sometimes my mind is so cluttered with thoughts and ideas that it prevents me from doing anything practical. At times I get so paralyzed with never ending inner dialogue about what I should and shouldn’t do that causes creative blockages. So, in order to get myself moving and creating again, first I need to de-clutter my mind. The most efficient way to do it is writing. Start with just writing down your thoughts as they come, in stream-of-consciousness manner. After 3-5 pages your mind clears up and meaningless ramblings turn into clear, concise ideas you can implement. Or you simply feel like you have nothing to say anymore, spontaneously stop writing and go on doing other things.
Other very efficient way to de-clutter your mind is physical exercise, especially running but anything that speeds up your heart rate will do. Going on long walks or spending a lot of time in nature is very helpful as well.

Make really bad art intentionally

If a fear of failure, or pressure of having to make only excellent work is preventing you from creating art then make a pact with yourself to produce really bad art for a while. Deliberately produce only horrible, crappy, cliche type of work. Because when you do it on purpose, well, then it can’t be failure :) It will help you to relax and it will take off the pressure of having to create something really awesome away. Also, you might end up surprised how your intentionally bad art turned out to be really good.

Become more receptive

Creative process seems to be an interesting combination of taking action and passively accepting inspiration. To create a piece of art it is necessary to take practical action (take a brush and paint, press the shutter button, sit down and draw whole afternoon etc) but it is also very important to open up to inspiration/creative energy and accept whatever result it may produce. So, instead of forcing yourself to create something exactly as you’ve imagined it might be useful to become more receptive and flexible and accept whatever inspiration may bring.