Recently, my love and I took a random mini-vacation brought on by my need to get away. Meaning to be a trip for the evening, we drove 3 hours away from home and stayed the night. Before this spontaneous idea, I had been mulling over something that hadn’t turned out as planned. My solution: put the work down and get away for a while. It wasn’t until the next day once we were home that I realized how free I had felt. For the last 24 hours I didn’t think once about my issue but had cool-headedly found a solution. I concluded this was a key to avoiding and overcoming a creative block.
Change your scenery
Changing the environment that you’re in can get stagnant energy moving quickly. When you’re trying to find a solution to a problem, you may start to get tunnel vision while staring at it for so long. Your mind narrows and restricts you from seeing a bigger picture, closing you off to other possibilities. Go outside, take a trip, or rearrange your surroundings. You can switch up the room you’ve been in or even redecorate. Create an environment for yourself that doesn’t feel like your usual one. This allows the energy of you and/or the space to flow in a new direction, invoking inspiration.
Take a break
Give your mind and body a rest by taking a break, even if it’s for 10 mins. Walking away from your current project for a little bit allows your mind to wander elsewhere and relax. Try taking a walk outside, grabbing something to eat, or reading a book. These are simple things that your mind doesn’t have to exert too much focus towards. By allowing your mind to rest, it stops trying to solve the issue with the same solution. Instead it forgets its current method and begins to contemplate new ones. My personal advice is to not watch TV or scroll through social media during this time. This could either just distract you or fill your mind with others content instead of thinking of your own.
Move your body
When creative energy is stuck, chances are so is your own life force energy, or prana. There are many techniques on how to get your energy flowing smoothly again but to sum them up, you need to move your body. Practices like yoga, dancing, and even just exercise are all great ways to increase energy flow. You can also just get up and shake things out! Shaking your arms, hands, legs, and feet for at least five minutes will have you vibrating and glowing all over. This will also increase your blood flow to the brain, reawakening parts that may have fell asleep while you were working.
Go high up
Drive or climb somewhere elevated from everything; your town or city. Go somewhere you can see the vastness of space around you, shrinking you down compared to the rest of everything else. The feeling of being so small compared to the world around you can take your mind out of the minor issues it’s been struggling with and help you view things from a wider perspective. Feeling like your issues are smaller than what they are can help you see from a different viewpoint. That way you can also come up with a solution in a way you haven’t thought of before.
Review your work when you’re ready
Once you’ve stepped away for a while or like me, took a mini-vacation, review any insights you may have received while clearing your head. For me, my insight was that I needed to approach my issue from a different angle and try something new. For you, it may be to even scrap your current project and start a new one! Whatever it is, make sure you comeback to your workspace with a clear head. Nothing ever gets done well while under stress. The best art comes from a clear and inspired mind.