If you’re ready to release creative blocks and just focus on the writing, mindful writing is one of the easiest and most effective ways I’ve found to connect with creative freedom. When I first started writing for publication, I struggled with so much creative anxiety that some days I was either unable to successfully make it to my desk, or if I did, I was often unable to get anything down on paper. Mindful writing was a game changer for me, and now on most days I simply sit down at my desk and write without all of the struggle. This practice can help you to stay steady and be a productive writer.
Connect with an infinite inner resource of creative flow
If you’re new to mindfulness meditation practice, you can learn more about it in my posts, “What is Mindfulness?” and “How to Meditate.”
Release Creative Blocks
What are creative blocks? They are inner experiences and habitual patterns of thinking or relating to your creative work that can keep you stuck and feeling like you can’t create. They may include:
- creative anxiety
- self-doubt
- a ruthless inner critic
- a distractible mind
- mood swings,
- or other creative blocks (feel free to add to my list in the comments below!)
Unless you know how to overcome them, creative blocks that can keep you from ever arriving at your desk to write or create or keep you sitting stuck in your chair feeling unable to create anything. You can overcome creative blocks by waking up with a clear intention to write or otherwise create and using meditation to get you to the desk and writing meditation to keep you in the chair writing.
If you’d like to try it, put writing on your schedule for today or tomorrow at a specific time. Set a clear intention to get to your desk (or any other spot) and write. When it’s time to go to your desk, try taking a step back and observing the sensations, feelings, and thoughts that arise. Step back and observe what’s happening, rather than getting entangled in it. It’s the entanglement in our experience that keeps us stuck, but when we observe it, we can see our habitual patterns clearly and choose something different.
Notice the things that your mind tells you to try to keep you from getting to your desk—you’re too tired, you’re hungry, the bathroom needs cleaning, you’re not really a writer, there’s too much serious work of other sorts that needs to be done, you don’t have anything to say, etc (no I can’t read your mind, but I do understand a lot about this human experience of encountering creative blocks). Try observing those thoughts without reacting to them. See if you can observe them with kindness and curiosity rather than judgment, view them as the distractions that they are, and keep walking to your desk.
Now you’re at your desk, now what? Check out my next post, “Let Go and Just Write!” to see how writing meditation can help you to stay focused on writing once you’ve made it to your desk!
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