Tags
addiction, blocked, creative block, creative freedom, creative nourishment, habits, inspiration, perfectionism, refocusing, relapse, spontaneity, spontaneous, unblocking, unboxing
I have not been around much blog-wise for the last year or two.
There are a few reasons for that.
I decided to focus more on my therapy work, my daughter and family, and my fiction the last couple of years.
But that’s only part of the story.
Have you ever changed a habit or otherwise tried to act intentionally— but then slipped up once… only to throw up your hands and give in to your old habit or addiction, or mindless behavior? Maybe it’s a diet you’ve been on, or stopping smoking or drinking. Maybe it’s not dating another person like that. Maybe it’s not spending so much time on the Internet or watching junky TV.
Truth be told, once I fell out of the habit of posting on my blog regularly, I fell into a pit of perfectionism and lack of inspiration as far as my blog was concerned. You probably know the story— I thought I had to post something profound and explain my absence with brilliant erudition. And so, my reasons for not posting became self-perpetuating. And got me further from my goals, since I have wanted to post more often.
Yet, part of my lack of inclination to post has also been this (self-inflicted) feeling that my posts need to be of self-help or inspirational value— after all, I am a personal coach. That imperative has also blocked me from writing on Spontaneous Inventions, since it limited where I would let my creative inspiration take me.
Think of whether you might have ever experienced something in your own life like this. Did you ever limit yourself from even exploring a new job, writing in a certain genre, working in a particular artistic idiom, or pursuing a particular business idea of yours— even though it was a good idea— because it did not fit with your career, or artistic, or personal identity? I don’t know about you, but that’s happened to me before, and I’ve seen it happen to many people who were stuck professionally or blocked creatively.
So I’m going to attempt a tried and true creative unblocking technique here.
I am not going to limit what I post anymore to fit in with what I’ve done before. Instead, I am going to follow whatever inspiration I feel passionate writing about at that moment and see where it takes me. And I’m going to do it in a way that fits in with the rest of my life (i.e., not posting every week) and nourishes me as an artist.
Feel free to come along for the ride.
And think about one thing in your life that you could unblock by freeing yourself from the boxes you put around yourself.
