Blocked? Sometimes it feels like the frustration wins!

on Monday, September 24, 2012 · Leave a Comment

I have been blocked lately. I hate to admit it but for the last couple of weeks I can’t seem to make any progress on my projects.

When I feel blocked or trapped, I usually am not aware of it until I have already fallen down the rabbit hole. If you are like me, depression can creep in at these times and it takes huge effort to get out of the hole.

Today, I am going to provide you with several exercises that will help you climb up and out of the hole. These exercises can provide you with creative and repetitive action steps to help you stop over thinking and starting living in the moment.

Exercises:

1.) Search for Beauty

2.) Bake

3.) Craft

4.) Draw/Photography/Film

5.) Write a poem. Specifically a bad poem.

6.) Join a group.

7.) Take a class.

8.) Go see a foreign movie.

9.) Go to a concert.

10.) Yoga/Exercise/Dance

Search for Beauty

About 12 years ago, in the middle of a Minnesota winter, I was depressed and blocked. I was about to write my first one person show called “Consulting Mavis”. I had the date set for the premiere and the crew and venue contracted, but I couldn’t write. I couldn’t find any words to express what I wanted to say. I was blocked.

One more I woke up and realized that I had finally had enough of being sad and sitting in my living watching marathons of Sex and the City. I grabbed my camera, my warmest winter gear, and I started walking. I walked around Minneapolis’s famous lakes both Calhoun and Isles searching for anything that would make me happy. I took pictures. Rolls and rolls of pictures. Most of the pictures where terrible. Some of the pictures turned out great. But the exercise taught me how to find beauty in even the darkest of winters.

Exercise:

Grab your camera, your cell phone, your flip camera, or such image capturing technology. Go outside for two hours and look for anything that remotely inspires you. If you can’t find anything that inspires you, take pictures of everything. Garbage, leaves, trees, grass, food, people, clouds, pets, stores, clothes. Whatever you find along the way. Take as many pictures as you possible can. It doesn’t matter what you do with them. You may even get inspired by the process. You may just end up with a bunch of bad pictures that you hate. That is okay too. The end product doesn’t matter the act of treating yourself to two hours in the world is the point. If you try it, let me know how it goes.

Recommended Products:

Instagram (An App for Smart Phones)

Instagram works great for this – especially if you would like to share you images. Plus, the effects make everyone look like a fancy photographer. You can see my examples of the exercise below.