How to Move Past a Creative Block

There is nothing worse that staring at a black piece of paper and not having any idea what to write.

If you read my last article and learned about the difference between Important and Urgent, you might be thinking, “Okay, great, Tara, I’ve blocked out 20% of my time to write, but when it comes time to sit down and do it, I have total writer’s block!”

We’ve all been there! Feeling a creative block is very common. (Yes, even for yours truly!)

Instead of trying to push through the block, or worse, abandoning the creative work you want to birth, you can learn how to shift into your creative zone.

Let’s talk about how our brain works and the neuroscience behind it. For much of our day to day activities, we hang out in the left hemisphere of our brain, which is logical, linear part of our brain. When we sit down to write, we need to access our right-brain, which is the creative, whimsical, and inspirational part of our brain.

To shift into your creative zone, you need to connect to your right-brain.

For most of us, we experience that it’s difficult to switch from one mode to another on a dime. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s as simple as going for a walk.

This was first recognized by Leonardo da Vinci and has been supported by scientific evidence in the many years since. Anytime da Vinci wanted to tap into his creative mind, he’d go for a walk and actually became well known in his time for wandering the streets lost in his thoughts.

When you walk, you use both sides of your body, which helps activate and integrate both the right and left sides of your brain. So it not only helps you activate that creative side, but also helps you think through how to implement it. Walking, too, activates your breathing, which helps ground and center us and get us connected to our truth. So, knowing this, whenever you are about to work on a creative activity, go for a walk! Or do something that activates both sides of your body and gets you breathing, like doing a few yoga poses or even just walking around the room.

Give it a whirl and let me know how it goes! I would love to hear if this helps you break out of your creative blocks.

With appreciation,