Writer's block, creative block, call it what you will it either way it is a condition in which we lose our ability to create new work. Largely associated with professional writers, it impacts all of us who embark on creative endeavors; writers, musicians, fine artists, artisans, designers and crafts people of all medium. Creative block is as varied as the people it impacts, lasting from a day or two on a specific project to extreme cases that last for years. Either way, when it hits the feeling can be numbing, defeating even crippling.
"You don't know what it is to stay a whole day with your head in your hands trying to squeeze your unfortunate brain so as to find a word." (Gustave Flaubert, 1866)
Welcome to my world for the past several months. For Flaubert it was about finding words, for me it was just finding ideas. Ideas for new hats, ideas for fabrics to put together, even ideas about what to eat for dinner. One week I ate nothing but Mexican simply because I couldn't think of any other ideas.
Let me tell you, it is frustrating. But I did take solace in the idea that life is imperfect and incomplete. This is because all things and experiences are impermanent, unsteady or inconstant. The imperfection of my creative block would pass just as everything else in life does.
In this is the first step at dealing with and overcoming creative block.. just recognize it and accept it. In other words, be mindful to it.
"Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated that that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it." (Sylvia Boorstein)
More next time....
namaste
नमस्ते
