A short diary of a man who depends on creativity.

Day One.

It all starts with boredom, so you think. But it’s really brain overload. I’m trying to cover it up by listening to Janis Joplin singing “Me and Bobby McGee.” I can’t sing but I try singing with her. Good thing the lyrics are easy. I even think of dancing around while they play the bridge to the song. I can hardly wait till the next song comes on Pandora. Next, I’m listening to Buffalo Springfield Radio feeling good. Magically, all the lyrics to every song seem to express how I feel about everything at this very moment. You can hit a wall trying to be creative when you least expect it.

All of a sudden, “Get Together” by The Youngbloods comes on and the hair on my arm reaches for the sky. I go into one of those altered states of feeling light on my feet and trying to reach inside myself to witness what I’m actually feeling. I begin to feel like I am coming back to life. My body begins to move to the beat and I feel my eyes starting to focus. I have this assignment next to me crying to be finished, but it’s no match for the music that surrounds me. I want to eat something, but I don’t want to leave the room. “White Rabbit” by the Jefferson Airplane brings back my twenties. Now I think I’m Mick Jagger. Out of the corner of my eye , I can still see my design job in progress on the computer. No dice, I am not going back to the design project just yet. I turn the volume up to fill the room and feel drug induced.   I turned it off instantly as my left brain said … “let’s do this…! I felt alive again and refreshed. I could feel my mind circling some new ideas.

 

Day Two.

I woke up this morning wondering…what happen yesterday?. It’s been awhile since I’ve been stuck and my mind not responding to my questions. It’s like that beach ball on a Mac just spinning away and it won’t stop until you restart the computer. How did it happen that I reached a mental block? It doesn’t matter, it was short lived and I seem to be back on track, except I don’t remember where I left off.

I have no proof, just a feeling, that creativity is a very delicate experience. I think it needs to be approached slowly and not be in a rush for answers to your endless requests. Now that my brain is back, I can’t figure out where to start. Going in another direction is a good idea. I really need to be working on my client’s design assignment but I decided to do some writing to change it up and reach out to my creativity in a different way. It seems to be working.

 

Day Three.

I started this morning going through images that I found on the internet and it sparked an idea. As I glanced back at what I had written the day before, I decided to trash it and continue on this new direction. What I discovered was that

it wasn’t really my creativity that was stalled, but my curiosity. I just got tired of asking myself to produce. I also haven’t put on any music since day one. Being in a quiet space seems to have helped me refocus and get my “computer restarted.”

 

Try these things if you get creatively stuck:

 Do something physical.

Take your thinking in a different direction.

Give it time and go to a quiet place.

Get some rest and let your curiosity reboot.