« Ask gia—The Energy of Weight Loss | Main | When Bad Things Bring Good »
3 Steps to Get Past Inner Blocks
By gia combs-ramirez | March 21, 2008
Anybody who writes probably knows about writer’s block (which I seem to be experiencing at the moment). Whether you’re a writer, painter or involved in some other type of endeavor, a block is when the creative energy flow stops.
Like a river that suddenly disappears, creative energy seems to have its own agenda. Getting the creative energies to emerge or flow can be disheartening. While you’re waiting for the creative energy to gush forth again, it can feel like all that you’ve been building starts to crumble or fall away. There can be deadlines that have to be met or other external circumstances demanding the flow of your creative energies.
Once mental energy begins demanding some form of creative production, it can compound the block. Creative energies do not like stress. Physical energy can also aid in deterring the elusive creative energies. If you’re chronically tired or are extremely busy with mundane tasks, creative energies are not going to emerge. Creative energies can also get blocked by fear which can make you want to run away or freeze into inaction.
Here are the three steps I use to get past a creative block:
- Just start writing (or whatever your creative expression is). In the wonderful book Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life, by Natalie Goldman, she invites people to start writing and not stop for 10 minutes or so. In the process, something engages and ta da! you’ve found your voice again. The message is: It doesn’t matter what you are writing (or creating), just move into action. Like a reluctant dancer standing on the side-lines but who can’t resist the beat, the creative energies will emerge and begin to dance again. To get started, turn off the inner editor or critic. What’s important is moving into action. You may not keep what you’re working on or you may improve it when it’s done but getting the flow established again is all that’s important.
- Review past creative threads. I have many posts that I’ve started and not finished. By looking at them I remind myself of other creative times. I might pick up one of the threads and finish it, or use it to branch out into a slightly different thread. Those unfinished creative threads are there to help me navigate back into the flow. Visiting past creative threads is like tuning into a certain radio dial, essentially the frequency of your creative energies.
- Drop into the Dream Body. Jungian psychotherapist, Arnold Mindell, coined the phrase, “Dream Body” to talk about that other part of ourselves that we are often unconscious of. The Dream Body holds a great deal of energy and will communicate through our actions (or in the case of a block, a nonaction). Like a “Freudian Slip,” this is an indicator of deeper energies wanting to emerge. The creative energies are very much connected to our core essence, not our personality or ego. They may want to take a direction that the ego mind is not willing to look at or be a part of. By dropping into the Dream Body we connect with these energies and then explore what they want to express.
In writing this post, I had already done steps 1 and 2. By writing about what has been occurring for me (writer’s block) I’m now dropping into the Dream Body. My Dream Body is filled with the energy of spring. It wants to be outside playing, not inside being serious. Although writing usually brings me great joy, my joy right now lies outside, celebrating the return of green grass, of leaves, of birdsong.
In a couple of days, I’ll be heading down to Joshua Tree in California to teach a class. I wanted to write several posts that would be published while I was gone. But the Dream Body doesn’t want to worry about those things. It wants to enjoy the blooming desert and play hooky!
By honoring the voice of the Dream Body, I can become spontaneous again. Perhaps I’ll be writing while I’m there, perhaps it will be after I get back.
In the meantime, come outside with me and enjoy the return of spring…
Topics: Communication, Personal/Spiritual Growth |
April 13th, 2008 at 4:54 am
[...] combs-ramirez presents 3 Steps to Get Past Inner Blocks posted at The Science of Energy Healing, saying, “If you’ve ever hit a block in your [...]