How to overcome a creative block?
inspiration and creative crisis always there, but still there is a difference between them.
Inspiration, in my opinion, is a mood, an upliftment, this is a special state of "lightness" of creativity, when everything works out - and complex things too. A creative crisis is precisely the loss of insight, conjecture, ideas.
Writer's block is most often associated with a lack of ideas. It seems to me that this is not entirely true. Rather, this is one of the reasons, but there are others. Eg:
- there are ideas, but the ability to implement them - no;
- feelings of dissatisfaction own results;
- emptiness after completion great job;
- the inability to navigate the flow of information can also cause a crisis;
- dissatisfaction from transferring what is in the head to paper (file) - the so-called "dumbness";
- the feeling that everything has already been written, said;
- lack of readers and a feeling of uselessness of creativity, etc.
There are many reasons, and each writer has their own.
I tried to collect ways and techniques to get out of a creative impasse, voiced on the net (as in the case of inspiration). I noticed that, often, both for returning inspiration and for getting out of a creative crisis, the same methods are offered. Therefore, I sorted them and singled out those that are necessary (or are called necessary) to overcome the creative crisis.
Once again, Tin and I experimented on ourselves and came to the conclusion that there are many ways, but the choice of them is more individual than the choice when returning inspiration.
Look at the table, and how to work with it, so that it will benefit you too, you already know.
| Methods and techniques | pros | Minuses | My comments | Tina's comments |
| The return of ideas | ||||
| Meditation | 15 minutes a day of relaxation and supposedly “non-thinking” distract from reflection, lead out of a dead end, return strength, energy, new ideas and inspiration appear | It's not about sleep | I don’t know, I need to try ... If I find these very 15 minutes))) | I don’t know how) I think I’ll fall asleep right away |
| Switch to thinking about the future | The method helps to temporarily forget about the problem, about the task that cannot be solved, and positive pictures of the future give rest and new solutions. | Reflections on the apocalypse do not contribute to inspiration | Hmm ... some fantasies are replaced by others. yes it helps | I often think about him, but I didn’t notice the dependence on inspiration) |
| Switch to memories | Similarly, pleasant memories return strength and energy, they can also find solutions to problems. | It's hard sometimes to separate good and bad memories | It's hard to say, probably this method is not for me. In any case, I do not associate it with overcoming a creative crisis. | In the same way... Feelings can be pulled from the past, but these are only details when inspiration is already there. I did not notice the dependence of inspiration on pleasant or terrible memories |
| Try something new | Any creativity requires novelty, it is worth looking for it, and then you will get new ideas. | The method is difficult when, for example, you have already considered the plot of the story | It's good when you start something, but when the "skeleton" is done, the new can lead to the side. Hence, after all, the desire of the authors to cram into the story everything that he saw and knows from the moment of birth | New ideas and genres - that's how competitive - combined with the installation - inspire. Rather, they serve as guides along which the flower of the story will grow. Why not grow it? |
| Observations | Observation of the world, people, situations and actions gives rise to certain reflexes and new thoughts. | Not everyone knows how to observe | I love this, sometimes I have to write down thoughts on anything))) | Observations provide excellent material for individual scenes. And they can give inspiration, especially when "the thought went" |
| Experiments | If the story is not written, but there is an idea - experiment with the plot, with a set of characters, like with cubes, change, swap places, enter into the story what seemed unthinkable to you before, etc. As a result, in the process of such changes, new ideas will appear. | Or destroy the story | I often do this))) Helps | It's hard, but inspiring |
| Self-development | Learn, learn, develop, learn new things, explore - development is the basis of creativity. No other way | You can get carried away with something else and quit, for example, writing. Goals Matter | I am greedy in this regard, I grab everything and use everything later | Necessarily. When you study the subject that you describe, you get inspired hoo, up to changing the plot |
| Meditate | The creative task requires reflection. They will take you away from patterns and stereotypes | Templates and stereotypes are not always harmful | Well, where without it?))) | So this is a must. Also say "don't forget to breathe" |
| Collect | Collect your ideas, impressions, sensations... Write down, preserve, save drafts - all this may come in handy one day. And in times of crisis, returning to the old thing can be a way to overcome it. | Do not forget about order, the archive is not chaos | Agree 100% | It's more of a habit than an inspiration) |
| Mind games | ||||
| Free associations | Open a dictionary on any word and write down all the related thoughts that pop into your head. Or guess two random numbers, corresponding to the page number and line, then open and find the corresponding place in the book. Or ask someone to give you an association, work with it. The result is a plethora of new ideas. | Remember randomness | Interesting, yes, sometimes a conversation in our chat gives an impetus to write something | Unfortunately, I have too many of them, and therefore I rarely use them statistically. Most ideas die out due to lack of time for implementation. |
| free letter | Freewriting: you must write whatever comes to your mind for a short period of time, say 10 minutes, without pauses and reflections. Sometimes it turns out very interesting | Then you have to refine "what I see is what I sing" | Rarely do I write like this. More often poetry | I used to write) Now - rarely, I try to "put" free reflections into the framework of "debts", for example, in notes or reports |
| Find your game | There are many intellectual games. Find those that interest you and that personally take you out of the crisis | I never specifically looked for it, but I think it makes sense | I do not represent) | |
| Our habits and requirements | ||||
| Don't Expect Perfection | Bringing everything to perfection is good, but you can’t do it endlessly | Be mindful of perfectionism | Well… I am a very demanding person. Sometimes it gets in the way | I know that perfection is unattainable, and not abstract. But it is the work on imperfection that gives a very strong creative impetus. |
| Don't wait for the Muse (inspiration) | Start creating without waiting for inspiration. Craft and creativity are like brothers. Where there is one, there is another | It is sometimes difficult to understand whether the craft has grown into creativity | It helps me personally | Waiting is not our method, life is short |
| Nowadays | ||||
| creative suggestions | Be active, agree to all creative proposals, competitions, projects - this gives new experience, knowledge and capabilities | It takes time | I want! There would be more time | I love it) But I don’t like to participate in something that depends on someone else’s inspiration, if there are problems with it) |
| Allocate time | Sometimes your many ideas make it difficult to focus on one thing. Set priorities and allocate time | It is sometimes difficult to prioritize, set goals | Good advice, but I don’t always follow it, I can get carried away with something else | Life is unpredictable. I would replace it with "use the time" |
| Do not waste time on social networks, mail, browsing sites, etc. | It's distracting and takes up your time. | The threat of loneliness | Strange advice, the world no longer exists without it | Yes, that's nonsense. Going outside or walking around the sites is good, if in moderation). And it affects inspiration positively if it affects |
| Activating creativity | ||||
| Divide | Take a break from the global creative task, break it into small parts, work with them sequentially, and then put it back together, this helps to overcome the crisis | Avoid chaos | I use it sometimes, especially if it's a novel, say, or an article. | It is more of a method than a reason for the activation. Work by logical blocks organizes |
| Visualization | Visualization of thoughts immediately enlivens them, remember the drafts of the classics, the drawings in the margins | Need to stop in time | Yes, it helps me. I love books that have illustrations. | I love) I love to draw pictures to what I write. There are works that inspire with the very atmosphere - that you want to drop everything and run and write |
| Find the cause of the stupor, impasse | If you are stuck, it means that you cannot clearly identify the problem that prevents you from moving on. Finding her means finding a way out of the impasse | Sometimes it's hard to do it on your own | I agree, everything has a reason, if you understand it, you can eliminate it | Well, I found ... So what?)) Usually it is - external problems. Awareness of them is not a secret and not a solution. |
| Make the decision easy | Sometimes the solution of the problem is clear to the author, but it turns out to be very difficult to implement. Hence the stop. Try to find easy solution creative task or set aside for a while | Ease is not always in favor of the work, its meaning | I don’t know, I love complex tasks, they just help to overcome the creative block | Not interested. Just to go on a sled just like that is not as interesting as on a bobsleigh and does not give such a buzz and an impulse to repeat |
| Remember the reader | The target audience is important. The author must understand for whom he writes. This orientation helps to concentrate on the meaning of the work and on the addressee, creates a motive for creativity. | The eternal question: who is following whom? | Sometimes I think | The reader is an incentive to write “for him” ... In principle, sometimes it helps) |
| creative panic | Creative panic makes you grab onto everything at once, as a result, nothing is brought to the end. Use all of the above methods to prevent it | Emotions sometimes don't work | Again, I don't know, I don't remember | Panic? I don't understand |
| Routine work | Editing, proofreading, reading aloud, revisions of all kinds are all routine work that can be done during a crisis and helps to overcome it. | It still needs to be done | And I love this work and also consider it creative | You can get carried away with routine work and plow mountains. She can captivate a lot, and if this is writing, then probably too |
| Principle of the "first phrase" | Never dwell on the beginning. Otherwise, it's a dead end. Write a draft right away and do not edit anything for the time being | Yet there is a limit | Of course, there is always the option to go back to the beginning. But usually my draft is not very long, because I eventually get annoyed with unedited text. However, the fast writing method is very good. | No, when writing, I leave “markers” where the text does not suit me. And while I am writing, I am thinking up these places with the “second layer” and coming back. Ignoring the second layer is almost violence, why? |
After reflecting and filling out the table, Tin and I came to the conclusion that quite simple things often help to overcome a creative block:
1. Observations
2. Experiments
3. Self-development
4. Visualization
5. Routine daily work
I wonder if your opinion is the same as ours?
Eat good word"plow". Plow - in any case. Work and understand that you yourself need creative work ...
And so I looked at all these collected methods and techniques, thought, and something was missing for me. I would like to say one more thing: in my opinion, there are things that are either not named or explained in numerous articles about inspiration, creative impasse.
The important thing is author's emotional environment .
Imagine a writer is writing a novel. He gets used to the fate of the heroes and over and over again experiences a certain emotional condition. Like an actor on stage, it can be very difficult for him to switch it to another, but the actor learns this!
We often dream of scenes from a future novel or story, we think about it all the time, we get upset or love along with our heroes.
Get out of this state - you need to be able to. And it's not so easy.
Sometimes it helps cinema reception when the author, as it were, mentally mounts the film, mixing different scenes of the future story and not allowing himself to be deeply immersed in the emotions of one scene.
creative entertainment - also a good way out of their crisis. When the author shuffles the actions of his characters this way and that, like cards, it helps him to get new ideas.
However, many do not know how to stop, they write series, not realizing that everything is already over.
And here we need new emotions and a long rest, perhaps with a switch to something else. It is known that L. Tolstoy, "resting" from "War and Peace", taught and learned some languages.
Finding and eliminating the cause.
It is important, in my opinion, to find pinpoint the cause loss of inspiration and creative crisis. And the reasons are different.
External causes it is quite easy to detect: these are troubles at work, at the institute, a rude salesman or bus driver, fatigue, problems in the family, domestic difficulties, absence necessary resources for creativity, etc.
Personally, it is difficult for me to create if, say, I quarreled with someone. And once I discovered the cause of the crisis in - do not believe it - a broken kettle. Realistically: I could not write normally, all the time distracted by boiling water in a saucepan. Both serious and funny can be the cause.
All these reasons are not only negative. Quite positive things can also knock you out of a creative rut. For example, if I have a date tonight, I think about the date, not about the new chapter of the novel.
Internal causes not so easy to discover.
Lack of ideas is not a cause in itself. Why aren't there? That is the question.
And here, if you look for reasons, sometimes very interesting things happen. For example, you sketched out the plot of the story, but it is not being written, you are tormented and do not understand that your inner “I” resists with all its might to the development and actions of the hero that you came up with. Or you simply lack the experience, knowledge to develop ideas. Or maybe the "scatter" of ideas does not give you the opportunity to put an end to it.
But! It is important not only to find the causes, but also to eliminate them.. Otherwise, nothing will work. And if in order to return inspiration you need to make peace with someone, you will have to do it. And if for new ideas you need to master new knowledge, you will have to do it.
I’ll say more - even creativity brought people out of their state of grief. And I know those who wrote one book - a book of memory - but it brought them back to life. What can we say about a broken teapot, the very fact of whose existence directly asks for a pamphlet?
You and I understand that there are always problems in our life: big or small, tragic or not, but, one way or another, we have to solve them.
That's truly “... what do I care about Faust, an extravaganza of rockets gliding with Mephistopheles in a heavenly parquet! I know - the nail in my boot is more nightmarish than Goethe's fantasy!- wrote V. Mayakovsky.
What to do? This is where motivation comes in handy.
Motivation as a way to overcome the creative crisis.
Strictly speaking, motivation in the most primitive sense is an understanding of why (or for whom) you do something at all.
Even if this is so (superficially), the motive of creativity will still be present.
Often Motivation appears spontaneously, from the external environment .
For example, there are people who support you. They are waiting for your creativity, they read you, they criticize you - in any case, they are not indifferent to you. There may be many such people, or it may be that these are two close friends or a couple of relatives.
It is very difficult to write something all alone. This is probably why a huge number of graphomaniacs, having found two or three fans of their graphomania, cling to them like a lifeline. And this is good. It's inspiring. Man creates - for them. Of course, it is desirable not to feel like a star and learn. Let's remember famous lines: "... praise and slander were accepted with indifference ..."
I was lucky in this regard: my work is supported by relatives, friends and a loved one. I have a circle of readers whose opinion is valuable to me and whom I respect and love. My loved one freezes and practically does not breathe when I do something there. And this is also one of the reasons now for love, and not just creativity.
First, there is still readers, critics, there are communities (website) .
I think there is no need to be shy about asking for a review, on our website you can order a review, and directly address the inquisitor with a request to read the work. There is no need to be afraid of this, on the contrary, they scold you or praise you - this is a community that will give you experience.
Secondly, no motive - create it yourself!
Let it be anything: from dreams that your story about how a shrew found the meaning of life will receive nobel prize in the field of literature to submissions, as your friend or someone on the site will read it, that you yourself will be happy and satisfied.
The degree of your adequacy and perception is important here: it’s no secret that the authors who have suddenly found a couple of readers are starring as if they had already been published in a million copies on Mars.
underestimation often creates the conditions for a creative crisis. However, revaluation Same.
If you learn to stick to the "golden mean" - you will move oh how far.
I will say about myself - I most often underestimate myself, and this really bothers me.
As a result, I came to the following conclusions:
1. There are no universal ways, everything is individual for everyone. And here, oddly enough, you need to be inspired to find these very own ways and then use them.
2. Elementary laziness and lack of responsibility for one's creativity are often mistaken for a loss of inspiration and a creative crisis.
3. The inability to search, the lack of knowledge lead to eternal rhetorical questions-sobs: how can I regain inspiration or overcome the crisis?
How is clear. But what are you doing - no one sees. Any action is better than inaction.
This is about my personal attitude to this kind of issues.
A creative crisis visits every person, no matter what they do. There is nothing more difficult for the brain than to figure out what to give another person for an anniversary. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by unbearable agony at the thought of what to cook for dinner. Similar problems occur in creative professions and personal life. Let's see what people have prepared for us, whose life is pushing us to give out a mountain of ideas here and now, otherwise the project will fail and our career will be in jeopardy.
It's rare that a book doesn't have an author. The book “Again the creative crisis? 90 ways to get out of it” from this category. To her well-known and not very representatives creative professions share their tips on how to wind up the brain and make it produce a lot of ideas. Tips are different, professions too, so everyone can find a few unusual ways, and then, perhaps, be inspired and come up with your own (even inventing your own way out of a creative crisis destroys the latter). Advice may even contradict each other, but that's what art is for. In addition, some people metaphorically describe their vision of creative block, which is also extremely interesting.
Find yourself a genius
What's great about geniuses is that they tend to be found in groups. If you find one genius, it will lead you to the rest. Collaborate with geniuses, especially with unrecognized ones - they are more accessible and waiting for your suggestions.
Keep trying, drawing and banging your head against the table
Tip from an illustrator. Very often, all ways out of the crisis are just ways. So just draw, draw whatever you want, even if you deviate a lot from the topic. If you want to become an artist, draw and draw again, there is no other way. You are an artist only when you are painting.
Make lots of mistakes
The problem of a creative crisis is the fear of making a mistake. This turns on procrastination, fear-driven shirking. Mistakes are great. Every mistake moves you towards and this new way of thinking will change everything. Treat mistakes as an opportunity to improve.
By the end of the bike ride, everything is somehow getting better.
I take a long bath, water washes away all bad thoughts. Then I do the cleaning, because how can you think while there is a mess around. If that doesn't help, I get on my bike and try not to think about the project. In the end, everything sort of works itself out.
Stay in an expensive hotel
Pay in advance for all three days that you will spend here. Take everything you need with you. Now just write ten thousand words. If you feel like you're having a creative block, think about the crazy money you shelled out for a room.
Take any book. Whatever - it could be Science fiction, IKEA furniture assembly instructions, religious text. Open a random page and a random offer. I came across a sentence: "There was no pain, but this power was destructive." Wonderful. Think about how this phrase evokes in the context of the text you are or the problem you are solving. Or: "The next morning I went to British museum in London to see the treasure." Perfect. Thoughts come of vampires, cursed jewels, Indiana Jones, the holy grail. Why not? Mix lyrics different authors, try to catch on to any phrase. Didn't like the phrase? It doesn't matter, take another, no one forces you to get hung up on anything.
Speak everything
Panic. You are overwhelmed with a feeling of anxiety, you begin to rush about like a decapitated chicken. I make tea or coffee - I need to freshen up. Go out for a walk, talk to people about your problem, or talk to yourself.
Change chips
This is the Spanish equivalent, meaning a reboot of consciousness, a change in your thinking, a look from the outside. Change anything in your life, anything. Write not at the table, but in a cafe, change food, go to places you would never go to.
Creative crisis is growth
Try to always stay optimistic, go to sleep and wake up with a single thought: "I have not run out of ideas, I'm just trying to come up with something better." Still, it's very simple - if you keep telling yourself that nothing will work, nothing will work.
No two creative crises are the same
You don't need to create rules for wrestling. There are a lot of crises and they are all different, like snowflakes. Generate bad and mediocre ideas, so you will be able to stumble upon something worthwhile. Use all the ways you know. One and the same method can also become boring and temporarily stop working.
Why not drink coffee right before bed?
The best ideas come when trying to sleep. Put a notepad and pen next to you, and create the opportunity to turn on the light without even getting out of bed.
Do something
Cook pastries, clean up the apartment, wash the dishes, draw a face on a sticker and stick it on your computer, chop wood.
Creativity crisis is normal
Great idea. Whenever there is a crisis, we begin to sprinkle ashes on our heads and the thought slips through: “Well, it happened. I'm dull and old." Get it out of your head and start replacing it with another one. The creative block will pass, it always passes, especially when you relax and do not put pressure on him.
Just. Explain. problem.
Creative block very often occurs when we are trying to solve a problem that we ourselves have not formulated for ourselves. Isn't it stupidity? Start looking at the problem. An amazing thought that everyone should understand - in any problem there is an answer. Not in any, but in any. The answer is in the problem itself, that's what you need to understand. He has nowhere else to be. By understanding this, you will show your brain that the solution is in the problem, which means that your problem is solvable.
Books!
Why try to fish out some glimpse of an answer when you can rummage through books - thoughtlessly, haphazardly and start a circuit in the brain.
Sit down, shut up and turn off the internet
How long have you been just meditating in silence? Isn't it strange how we replace thinking with browsing in ? Sit back in your chair and just meditate. All geniuses have done this.
Eat cheese before bed
And see what comes of it. You never know.
Creativity is a muscle
She also needs to rest and recover. Just like training. Alternate work with watching movies, games and books.
Deadline is the best remedy
For many projects, you simply cannot take on until the survival mechanisms turn on. Promise others that you will complete the project in a couple of days. Or promise it to yourself. Make a project in 10 minutes. Let the project take, according to your estimates, a month, sit down and decide that you will do it in 10 minutes. And see what happens.
Imagine you are a possum
These are all great tips that are served under an ironic sauce, and it is precisely irony that allows us to release tons of our creative energy and allow us to relax. Experiment with these tips, print each one on A4 paper and hang it on the wall.
And what methods of overcoming a creative crisis do you personally know? Share it in the comments.
Date: 2013-10-22
Hello site readers.
Today on this wonderful day, I decided to write a lyrical article that is written for everyone creative people including myself. Creative Crisis! What is this? What to do when it occurs? How to overcome a creative crisis? All in this article. Read slowly, otherwise you may miss a lot.
Creative crisis. What it is?
What is a creative crisis? To be clear, I will say this: a creative crisis is a constipation in the head when fresh and brilliant thoughts do not go there. That is, a person thinks and thinks, and cannot in any way come up with something valuable and suitable. For example, I write articles for the site and sometimes I don’t know what topic I should write about so that people want to read this new article. That is, it happens to me that I sit stupidly and look at the wall. Constipation in the head. That is, you also sit and strain, only your head, and not ....
Musicians, poets, writers, bloggers, screenwriters - sometimes face a creative crisis. I know JK Rowling has experienced this. I once read about this in a newspaper that once she was very worried about this, she called her husband, and he advised her to just calm down. Musicians also collide, and sometimes at the wrong time. At the peak of popularity, you need to compose new music to stay afloat. And then an unexpected constipation ... that is, a creative crisis has come, which can destroy everything.
What to do and how to overcome the creative crisis?
Good question, isn't it? A creative crisis occurs when the state of flow ends. It's like someone is blocking it. If you don’t know what a state of flow is, I’ll explain: this is when such a huge number of thoughts come into your head that a person does not have time to fix them. I am sure that you are familiar with such a situation when at school you were asked to write an essay, but you did not know where to start. We sat and sat, and then just wrote the first line. Well, it is clear that she is not the best ... Then the second, third, and it poured and away we go. So many thoughts suddenly began to climb into your head that you did not have time to write them down. This is the flow state. A creative crisis is a lack of flow.
So what to do with him, with this creative crisis. It's easier to say where it comes from. And it occurs when tension appears in the head. Well, maybe not in the head, but inside the person. To make it clear to you, let's look at an example. I noticed that I possess, which sometimes knows no bounds. I can blurt out, make jokes, say something funny, portray someone and so on. I don't know how but "funny thoughts" they come from somewhere. But if you put me on stage and say "Make the audience laugh", when I see a crowd of people who are watching and expecting something from me, I will fall into a stupor. The tension will block my flow, and besides "boo-boo" I can't say anything else.
Another example. Let's say you're the one writing articles for a blog or magazine. While you are alone in the room, it is easy for you to do this, but it is worth putting a person next to you who will criticize your every line - EVERYTHING! There will be internal tension, and constipation is right there.
A person simply needs tension to enter the state of flow. I recommend you as always. Read the article -. In addition to meditation, I offer you a healthy and full sleep, and finally go to the sauna or bath. Maximum relaxation in such places is guaranteed.
When it comes creative crisis and good thoughts do not enter the head, the time comes when you need to temporarily retire, except when some deadlines are set (write a book, compose music). If you do not have a time frame, then feel free to do so. Retirement means not thinking about your own creative work. Sometimes you need to unwind! What do you have? Are there no other worries? Leave your business for two or three days. After rest, fresh thoughts can come.
To make it easier to forget about your business, I suggest you make an appointment with your friends. They just have completely different interests that will help you switch your attention. This method really helps to overcome the creative block. The main thing is to switch attention. Alone with yourself, you will not be able to do this, even if you watch a movie, your thoughts will hover around your project or business. This cannot be allowed.
Another cause of a creative crisis is the fading of happiness and joy. You know it's hard to work when you're in. And when a person is in a state and
Oh, this is the state of the flow, when you soar like a bird over the endless ocean of creativity! When everything planned turns out, when something really creative comes out of the pen, when brilliant project. What to do if you fall out of this state? Is there a recipe that will help you survive the creative crisis and give impetus to new discoveries?
Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of the best-selling book "Creativity", explored the fate of ninety the greatest people XX century. For several years, the professor, together with his team, studied the life scientists, artists and others creative people. Research has been carried out to identify common features habits, lifestyle creative people. main goal was to identify ways to increase personal creativity.
So, all creative and non-creative people have the same brain. The ability and limit to process information is practically the same. The difference lies only in what exactly we think about, how we know how to relax, whether we can concentrate on the task.
You will beat the creative block and become more creative if you follow these seven tips:
Research has shown that absent-mindedness is a poor facilitator of creativity. Insufficient concentration of attention is usually a consequence of multitasking. Paying attention to several things at the same time, it is difficult to create something of value:
1. Set a limit on your daily internet and social media usage. Frequent jumping from link to link dulls attention and impairs memory.
2. Get good habits. Albert Einstein didn't waste time choosing clothes every day. He wore the same sweater and baggy trousers, thereby concentrating on more important things. You don't have to minimize your wardrobe like this, but get rid of extra clothes, which you have not worn for a long time, will be useful. Put the rest of the things into ready-made kits and hang them in the closet. This will help you save time and focus on what's important.
3. Meditate. It helps you focus and let go. Start every day with a five-minute meditation, and the result will not be long in coming.
4. Be interested in what is happening in the world communicate more with people. Focusing on your needs and ambitions hinders the development and assimilation of new information.
Remember how the child admires simple things. An adult loses this quality over the years. Here are some ways to awaken the inquisitive child in you:
1. Be surprised by what you read, hear, see. look New film. Read Shakespeare's sonnet in the original, no matter if your English is far from perfect. Listen symphony concert, try unusual dish. Do not try to evaluate all this from the position of an expert. Just enjoy new experiences.
2. Surprise at least one person every day. Invite a friend or spouse to the theater, not to a cafe. Buy clothes in a new style and go “outfit walking” in a crowded place.
3. Write down insights every day.Keep a diary and record in it everything that seemed interesting or unusual. Reread the notes after a week and reflect on them. Perhaps you will notice some pattern and want to study it in more detail.
4. If you are interested in something, do not leave it unattended.Usually the interest does not last long. We are too busy to study the song, flower or idea we like. If we do not explore the world, we will miss a lot, we will miss and we will not have time to try.
It doesn't matter what you do: wash the floor, peel potatoes or plant cucumbers in the country. It is important to enjoy any activity - to work, dancing in the shower. Routine tasks done with joy help to distract and release creative energy.
In the book Creativity, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi quotes the words of the sculptor Nina Holton about creativity:
“I like the expression “the soul sings”, and I say it quite often. Keipe and I have a house, such tall grass grows around it, and I look at it and say: “This is singing grass, it sings.” You see, I have such a need, I need joy. I can feel it. I think I'm glad that I live, I'm glad that there is a man I love, I'm glad that I have such wonderful Life, and when I work on some thing, my soul sometimes sings. I hope everyone has this feeling. I'm glad I got such a singing soul."
— Nina Holton
Think about what your soul sings about? What helps you get into a state of flow and just enjoy what you have in your life?
It is important to understand what time of day is effective for work, and what isi rest. Experiment, do not get hung up on generally accepted standards. Perhaps the most good time for work it will not be morning, as you thought all your life, but evening or afternoon.
Write down in your notebook the best hours for work and leisure. Also note which days of the week you are most productive, and which days you want to be lazy or daydream.
Tip 5: Take time to relax and reflect
Many simply cannot sit still: they wash the floors twice a day, shift things in the closet, polish the chandelier or windows to a shine. Did you recognize yourself? Such a “monkey in the head” has a bad effect on creativity. Try to set aside some time in your schedule for doing nothing. Just sit in silence, look into the distance and let your thoughts flow as they please.
Reflect on your life, reflect on past accomplishments and challenges ahead. The less effort you make, the more interesting solutions will be born. Combine periods of reflection with physical activity, such as walking, swimming or running. Alternate stress with relaxation. If you have a sedentary monotonous job, then choose extreme sports for relaxation, such as skiing and mountaineering.
Tip 6. Tidy up the space around you
This will make it easier for you to focus on your creativity. Get rid of everything superfluous: from things that distract, strain, depress. Free space helps the flow of creative energy. Think about whether you are satisfied with the view from the window, the air, the floor of your house and workplace?
Want to start your work day early in the morning? Organize a workplace in a room with windows facing east. In the summer at 5 am in your room it will already be light, and you will not think about how to sleep for another hour ... Choose one day a week when you free your home or workplace from excess - this practice contributes to the flow of creative energy.
For several days, keep track of how you feel about this or that activity. Set an alarm on your phone and let it remind you of this experiment every 15 minutes. After a while, it will become clear which things bring pleasure, and which ones are boring.
After you understand what you like and what you don't, delegate some routine tasks to your loved ones, such as packing your suitcase or washing dishes. Organize other things so that they become interesting and useful. For example, combine walking with a dog with listening to a podcast. And from unnecessary things, like checking your mail every hour, give up altogether. Do more of what brings you pleasure and joy. A dissatisfied person cannot be creative.
Summing up
A creative crisis should not be considered an unambiguously negative phenomenon. Everything depends on our attitude. For some, a crisis is an opportunity to develop further and become better, but for some it is a path to degradation. Perseverance, the ability to cope with difficulties and dedication work wonders. Mendeleev spent years working on his table chemical elements, before he dreamed about it .. JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series of novels, met many obstacles on the way to her dream, and her hands fell more than once. But in just five years, she has gone from being a humble secretary to a world-famous writer.
There are no accidents. And everything you are working on now will surely give juicy fruits in the future! Believe in yourself, and then you will be able to overcome any crisis.
Creative crisis can sometimes become a real scourge for copywriters, bloggers and, in general, all creative people, regardless of nationality, age, gender and political views. Where does it come from? How to overcome it? And how to make it occur as little as possible? Today's article will answer all these questions.
Where does creative crisis come from?
Creative crisis is a temporary state in which creative process a stupor falls, ideas run from his head like rats from a sinking ship, and he begins to officially be listed as missing.
This may be due to fatigue, stress, feeling unwell or banal. In the previous article, we considered such a negative concept as excessive motivation. It can also provoke a creative crisis.
Creative crisis: ways to overcome
Whatever reasons lead to the fiends of mental deadlocks, there are always several ways to put everything in its place, we will consider them further.
1. Good rest
One of the most innocuous ways to overcome creative block is to take a good rest, fill your life with entertainment and do what gives you pleasure. If conscience wakes up, then let him rest with you. Iron "excuse": rest is necessary for any person, no matter how hard he may be.
2. Physical activity
Physical activity is another way to overcome a creative block. Unlike rest, in this case, pleasure and entertainment are not expected, instead of them - severe trials. exercise, horizontal bars, dumbbells and other equipment.
Physical activity is useful not only because it will save you from a creative crisis, but also because an additional physical activity will keep you constantly in shape and will serve as a prevention of troubles that annoy people with a constant sedentary lifestyle.
3. Task switching
If a creative block is preventing you from moving forward in some endeavor, put it aside for a while and do something else. For example, if you are a freelancer and work from home, do the cleaning, cook dinner, hang a picture, or wash all your dirty laundry. If you work in an office, switch to other tasks, do a couple of organizational things, learn something new, etc.
Thus, you will kill two birds with one stone:
- Get over your creative block
- Do the things that you would have to do, sooner or later
4. Brainstorm
If a creative crisis leads to the fact that thoughts stubbornly refuse to come to your head or drag on one after another, getting lost on the way to your consciousness, you can speed them up. This is done with the help of the so-called brainstorming.
The essence of the method is that you switch to the idea generation mode (and only generation). At this stage, you don't think good idea or bad. You can generate complete nonsense, the main thing is to fix all thoughts.
Then see what you got. The result will lead you to new thoughts and ideas, and the work will begin to boil. In any case, analyzing the fruits of your mind generation, you will be a little distracted, and if you are lucky, you will have fun, so it certainly will not be in vain.
5. Tips
If a creative crisis torments you and haunts you, then you can always ask friends and acquaintances for advice. All people are social beings, everyone has connections, no matter what. real life or on the web.
In addition, you can always use tools such as ICQ, Twitter , social media and other mediums for getting a whole bunch of advice and food for thought from people you may not even know.
6. Problems
A radical way to deal with the creative crisis. Artificial creation of problems for a sense of contrast. It is possible that by resorting to this method, you will get a sky in diamonds, headache, spoiled relationships with people, unnecessary financial expenses and total demoralization, but there will be no trace of a creative crisis. You can be sure that you will have something to say, something to describe, and you will be pierced by streams of violent feelings that you can throw out in your work.
This is the first phase. The second phase comes when you deal with your problems and experience relief. After this, any creative crisis will not be worth a damn, and, therefore, as a problem, it will cease to exist for you.
Main question: where to find problems? This goodness in Slavic countries head is enough. Flush the condom down the toilet from the upper floors, shout "Spartacus champion!" in the locker room of Dynamo Kyiv, stick your head out the window with a mop during events under the windows with the participation of senior officials - and problems will be provided.
7. Refinement and rework
If the creative crisis stubbornly does not let new ideas and thoughts come to you, you can use alternative options approach to work. One of these options is to refine or rework existing ideas.
It is physically impossible to always create something new. Whatever you do, there will always be people who have either already done something in this area, or are doing something in this moment. And if so, there are no reasons preventing you from taking someone else's idea and implementing it in your own way, making it better and finalizing it.
In this case, you:
- First, get rid of the creative block
- Secondly, develop the direction
- Thirdly, save a lot of time
Of course, the conceptual novelty cannot be compared with any refinement, but, in many cases, this is relevant and justified. Take some ideas
