In this episode with Geneva and Rita, learn how to get your creative projects going again after a creative block. Rita Reddy has a beautiful way of putting it – a creative slumber!

What if you’re not blocked creatively at all? What if it is just asleep, and you can wake up your creative energies and projects with a few gentle steps? Like a blanket fort!! Listen for all our helpful suggestions to help wake up your creativity and get you moving on that book, art project, or home improvement plans.


 

The Creative Cycle is a Natural Cycle

Thinking of your creativity as a cycle can be liberating. Sometimes, we think of creative projects as a linear process with a strict first-next-then series of steps that must proceed at a set timing in order. But what if it is a cycle instead? What if the pause of a project or a slowdown is just a redirection of the creative energy to other areas.

Slumbering creativity is nothing to fear. The waking is a natural part of the slumbering process.

The Hidden Benefits of a Creative Block

Just like with actual sleep, having space and time to rest and dream are important. Sometimes, the creative work needs to be incubated a bit longer. Tools and resources need to be gathered. Sometimes, the creative energy is being used in other ways, like physical and emotional healing.

Respect this need for rest and consider ways this phase of your creative cycle may actually be enhancing the final product. Many accomplished artists and writers take decades to create some of their work. Leonardo da Vinci took 25 years to finish one painting. Laura Hillenbrand took seven years to write Unbroken. The final piece can sometimes benefit from a long incubation.

While that process is occurring, get yourself to your tools. Handle the physical objects you use to create. Just get yourself there daily and let yourself dabble and play. Even a trip to the dollar store for new materials can open things up and get you in the place where the work can occur.

Helpful tips to clear a Creative Block

Meditation to Wake up

Meditation is a huge help to free up a creative block. Rita spends a few minutes a day meditating before journalling. Even the briefest pause when you catch yourself numbing or delaying can be a beautiful invitation to meditate. Just 30 seconds to close your eyes and mindfully breathe can put you on a new creative track.

Getting out of the intellectual side of the brain and into the interested and creative side can be helped by meditation. Meditating shifts our consciousness, restores energy and naturally boosts creativity. This also happens with Reiki self-healing too. Try the Self-Healing Meditation to get the flow going.

Be Curious Like a Child

Playfulness and curiosity are key to gently reawakening the flow of energy in your creative work. Sure, you could set a loud alarm and push yourself back to the task. But that might cause an inner rebellion that puts you straight back to a grumpy sleep and the creative block. What if you can instead use things that spark joy and playfulness?

Creativity rides on energy. So, if we do things that spark joy and fun, energy gets released that ultimately rekindles the work. Think of it as a gentle invitation back to the creative process. Sometimes, working at a tangent is best. Try new things. Explore new media and let yourself dabble your way back into the stuff you actually love to do.

Connect to Inspiring People

Doing a bit of research can be a gentle way of catching the energy of making. Watch videos of people in other fields of creativity to side-step the inner comparing critic. There’s a really cool documentary called The Colour of Ink; it’s a fascinating watch.

Get out of your house and go to live performances. There are often free or low-cost concerts and recitals happening in the community. Geneva went to one by Mustafa Kamaliddin, a Renaissance ukulele musician. Being near other creative folks can sometimes inspire you to do your own brave and new ideas.

Wandering through a gallery or going to a book reading at your local library can be wonderful ways to spark a return of your creative wakefulness. This can be part of the Artist Dates that Julia Cameron encourages in her book The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity.

Reiki and Energetic Eight Coaching

Reiki can also help creative slumbers. The energy around a creative block can be painful and many-layered. Getting a bit of energetic help can help you balance your sacral chakra, the energy centre that is the birthplace of creativity.

Geneva also supports creative folks through Energetic Eight Coaching to help you connect to your source of inspiration and take those baby steps to make your creative work real.

Blanket Forts! The Best Way to Clear a Creative Block

Of course, this is the best solution of all — Blanket forts! Creative dreams need a safe and protected space to incubate them. We fully support adult-sized forts of all kinds! In fact, we might be in one right now. What way can you bring that energy of that safe container for your creativity forward?

Maybe it’s a weighted blanket on your lap while you do a bit of blogging. Maybe you can put on a cozy hoodie (with the hood pulled up, of course) to have a portable blanket fort. Maybe a special piece of jewelry or crystal on your desk at work. Maybe a sign you put up on your studio door or workspace that gives you permission to just play with the materials and test things out.

Let us know how this resonates with you! Leave a comment below or record a question here: LunaHolistic Podcast