In a Creative Rut?

Being in a creative profession is hard. Inspiration may not always be present, but chances are, your boss doesn’t want to hear, “Sorry, just not feeling it today, so I won’t be in.” That includes those of us who are our own bosses, too. It hard to feel behind in work because you are in a creative rut.

I don’t know why I got this idea, but I did, and ran with it. I had the idea to turn off my devices. For about an hour, I unplugged completely: No phone, computer, or television. What did I do with that time? You might be underwhelmed to find that I laid in my floor and stared at the ceiling.

There, I thought long and hard about things that I want to accomplish, and idea’s for personal projects that I have been putting off.

Now, if you know me, you know how hard it was to sit still that long. I fought through my fidgety nature, and my typical attention-deficit randomness to just be still.

When I gave myself that time, it felt like a reward. I felt energized, and excited. As I laid there, looking up at my ceiling, I had a thought that sounded more like a whisper.

“If you are constantly entertaining yourself with others’ creativity, how can you ever have time to really think and to create yourself. That is why you are in a creative rut.”

Okay, okay. I sound crazy, I know. To me, that was profound. I know there are a million articles about why you should unplug. There are a million more about what to do when you find yourself in a creative rut.

But for some reason, that day, I realized how little I have the time to just be quite. It’s so rare that a T.V. isn’t on in the background somewhere, that I’m not playing music, or scrolling through Instagram. Maybe I wasn’t thinking imaginatively, because I was stopping myself from ever being bored.

So next time you see a faint outline of an idea for a project and want to entice to come nearer to you, get yourself out of the dreaded writers block, or just to feel inspired with your creative work, I suggest taking an intentional hour just to unplug and dream. I think you might be surprised at how fast you come out of your creative rut when the thoughts you are giving your attention to are your own.

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