How to Refresh Your Creative Juices During A Creative Block

Whenever I struggle with creating, it is usually caused by stress, boredom, a busy schedule or plain laziness. More often than not, it’s avoidable and reversible; I can restrict myself from putting too many things on my plate; however, this is not always in my control. It is reversible because I can rectify it, but the exhaustion from having too much on my plate tends to hold me back from making any moves. Essentially, my response time is what differs.

Over the past year, I realised that the more I create, the more ideas I get. I will agree that creative block is a barrier; however, you have the choice to change your perception of it by forcing yourself to create something because the more your brain stays at rest, the more hesitant it will be to get fired up. This applies to not-so-critical cases of having a creative block.

Let’s explore how to refresh your creative juices.

1. Pull yourself out of the creative block by going out of your creative comfort zone. Simply said, create something outside of your niche, outside your skill set. 

If you're a painter, write, and vice versa. If you're an artist, try to build something. If you're into pottery, knit something. 

Force yourself to explore; sometimes creative block is pure boredom from doing the same thing over and over again, so your brain shuts down.

It's just like how you feel when you get to the end of exam season; you drag yourself through it because you're exhausted from the repetitiveness of the past few weeks and you just want to get it over with. 

Art is beautiful because it allows you to explore, try various expression methods and still express yourself. Why not try different art forms instead of confining yourself to one art form?

2. Create more than you consume: You have been reading so many books, looking at so many graphics, visiting numerous art galleries, watching many videos. While the earlier advice still stands to create something new, you have to create more than you consume; by all means keep your brain in motion for the creation possibilities to always ensure you're trying something new. Banish the idea of storing ideas till you find the right channel for expression, because you will never see it till the day you breathe your last, and it will plague you even in the afterlife. The world needs more of your art; give it more. Yes, you have to consume because you need to replenish your mind; just resist the temptation to keep your versions of consumed content in your head; it’s as good as silencing your inner child when you’re meant to encourage it to be more expressive.

3. Go back to the basics: Go back to the beginner stage of your craft. Get back to writing on paper, get back to moulding with bare hands, painting without a canvas, using basic knitting pins and wool once again or whatever the novice stage of your craft was.

It's a challenge for your brain; it's an unfamiliar familiarity that will force your brain to open up in the moment, to readjust, look for loopholes, try to scale through the difficulty and win.

Again, create, always create, and if your juices don't flow, try something new. If they still don't flow, revert to basics and if all else fails…

4. Disconnect: this is the easiest step of all. Your brain needs to be in a state of no rush and absolute calm. Do yourself a favour by disconnecting from your craft and technology.

Disconnecting is easy, because you can take a walk without music or your phone, do a deep clean, wash your clothes, do the dishes, take a nap. If you think about it, most times, your brain forces you into a creative block for you to slow down. So slow down and try again. 

Pity your brain; it needs a break; in no time, it will kick back to its usual state with more energy than you left it.

5. Create for yourself: while the world needs to see more of your craft, please, by all means, create something for your eyes only, something that will remain private. Remove the pressure of performing for an audience to live up to your name because that will cause you to burn out and take away the fun from your art, which leads to your craft beginning to look like an underpaying, unmotivating and underappreciating job. 

So, create for yourself, write a thoughtful piece that comes from the depths of your soul to remain in the pages of your book, make a video that speaks to you, draw the picture that is solely for your appreciation, make that plate that will remain in your house. Just do things so you can say “yes, this…this one is mine” and feel at ease.

Doing this also removes the tension of hearing the opinions of others; from being expectant of their thoughts on your work, because in that moment, for that creation, it matters to you, and just you.

Creativity is deep; it is hard on some days. Sometimes, you are the cause of the difficulty; other times, you need to adjust according to the problem at hand. I hope you found these tips helpful, just as I have. If you have other ideas and your go-to solutions, PLEASE let me know in the comments; I’d love to try them out. And if not, what tip would you be implementing?