“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach…”
Henry David Thoreau
Dear reader,
My best creative ideas often come while taking a walk or while taking a shower. That cannot be a coincidence.
Lately, I have been thinking, once again, about how to cope with a creative block. In 2023, I was asked to give a webinar on this topic by Santa Fe Workshops (where I regularly teach workshops) titled “The Creative Process: How to Overcome Creative Blocks and The Fear of Uncertainty in Art Making”.
I am by no means an expert, but I had many ideas and based a lot of them on the book “The Creative Act” by Rick Rubin, a must-read for any artist. I agree with so many of his thoughts and continue to gain great inspiration and encouragement from his writings. He emphasizes the idea of welcoming play and surprise into your creative process, and then mixing those with the discipline and structure needed for you to show up every day and do your work. When you show up to work and you are willing to embrace unexpected outcomes and imperfect results through play and experimentation, creative ideas can flourish and grow.
I wholeheartedly believe that, and I emphasized those ideas in my talk. But now, looking back, I seem to have forgotten something very important and necessary for creative ideas to occur, grow, and flourish, and that is what I call a clear mind. A clear mind is a mind that is clutter-free and calm and able to focus on being present without distractions. A clear mind is a mind where your thoughts have space to flow freely, and where unexpected ideas and inspiration can occur.
Why is this so hard to achieve these days?
I think we are all aware that we live in the most distracted society in the world. We are bombarded by news, noise, and notifications nearly 24/7. We use our devices for every single part of our lives: communication, travel, planning, notes, photos, information, updates, and an endless amount of entertainment from music to podcasts to videos, and so on. We get anxious when we can’t find our phones, and we guard them as if they were our most valuable possessions. As much as there is talk about how we clutter our homes with an excess amount of stuff, I think it is our brains that are even more in need of decluttering.
I am trying to remember the time before I got my first phone. I was a “late bloomer” in that regard and didn’t actually get a phone until we moved to Minnesota in 2012. I have been thinking back and remembering moments of the time before I owned a smartphone, when creativity and inspiration struck and it felt like my whole being had the urge to create and was filled with a clear vision and strong ideas. I am going to state here that those moments have become rarer since the phone became part of my daily life, rarer and somehow different, in some ways less pure, if that makes any sense.
They still happen, of course, but when they do it is mostly when I take a walk (without my phone) or when I am taking a shower.
It makes so much sense to me, and it is quite simple. When we take a walk or take a shower, we are engaged in a low-effort activity with very little distraction. Add to this the repetitive, rhythmic movement of walking, or the sensation of warm water running down our body, and our bodies start to relax and our brains can focus on our internal thoughts. With reduced distractions and the lack of having to complete a specific task, the mind can wander, which is so important for inducing creative ideas and new insights.
When was the last time you let your mind wander?
I am going to admit that it hasn’t happened much lately. The temptations are so strong. We are constantly enticed to scroll through images, listen to podcasts, listen to music, or read articles. And while all of those things can bring about inspiration and creative ideas, and are fun activities to engage in, it seems that we have forgotten how to be in this world without those constant added distractions. And we have forgotten that there is much to be found when we give our mind a chance to become still, that not focusing on anything specific can be a place for ideas and inspiration to begin and flourish. I think we have come to underestimate the ability of our own mind to come up with the ideas needed to be creative. We are cluttering our brains with so much information that new ideas don’t have enough space to enter or develop. How could they?
What if the solution to being in a creative rut is not to add more stimulation, but to take stimulation away?
What if being in a creative rut requires us to do less and wait more?
What if we consciously create more space for our minds to wander?
What if most of the insights and inspirations we need come from stillness rather than noise?
What if the most important first step of overcoming a creative block is decluttering our brain to see what is left?
I don’t know about you, but I have been craving more clarity of mind and seeing what happens with less rather than more. I will try my best.
As always, I welcome your thoughts in the comment section.
I am in an intense state of agreement to all of this! :) As a matter of fact, today I forced myself to go for a walk in the middle of the workday because I was having a moment of unusual restlessness that I haven't had in a very long time. I thought about not taking my camera, but I did and I just walked. It felt different from my usual, well-planned out morning walk. This was a deliberate protest to the ridiculous amount of static going on that I could no longer tolerate! I was reminded during the walk that when I talk on the phone at home, I tend to walk around. It seems I stir up movement in order to somatically find peace. I was told by a nurse who cares for the elderly that even in our sleep we stir -- it’s instinct, second nature. It’s how we quietly survive, a slight toss or turn in the night, to keep us free of ache. It’s in our nature to move and make space. I think it's in between the tossing and turning where we find that clarity you talk about. Thank you for a wonderfully inspiring piece, Manuela!
Brushing my teeth is another activity thoughts seem to flow more freely…
But yes, walking is my No. 1 cure. I always feel that if my body is in motion my mind is more in motion, too!