In honour of our bodies and creative listening
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Notes for creating a mind-body approach to creativity 🌿 by The Easeful Place
The first time I discovered that listening to my body was an avenue out of creative blockage was when I was working on a collaborative poetry project in the city of Birmingham. We were writers working on a performance for the national Poetry Slam stage and had individual and group performances to prepare. Our sessions were after work, so I had come straight from the office to sit and create with the collective.
One of my fellow writers, Shaun Hill, a poet, editor, and usually the first to kick shoes off, suggested that we deconstruct the space. As part of the collective, we had a residency at the Birmingham Hippodrome theatre which meant that our creative space often needed to be formed out of board room dynamics and linear table arrangements.
Creating a table-less space, Shaun then invited us to dip into a yoga practice before beginning. I had practiced yoga at home for years at this point, but had never done so in public or as part of my creative routine. Shaun nodded at me to take it off ('it' being my suede Zara blazer) and join the circle. Shaking off the day's energy to meet with my creative self and my community, I realised the power of movement to arrive, to speak through limbs, and to restart the process of creating.
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What to remember about creative blocks
Creative blocks are information. Feeling blocked is mostly seen as an inconvenience to speedily get over. But getting out of a creative block before properly listening to it isn't a useful approach. A lot of the language around writer's/creative blocks is reminiscent of how we think of sickness. We see a sick body as a 'bad' one, or one that needs fixing. In reality, we can think of a sick body as a communicative one.
When functioning healthily, our bodies find channels to speak to us so we know that greater attention is needed. I think a creative block works the same way. Our creativity is interrupted to speak to us in a different voice. In sickness as in being creatively blocked, our bodies trust our minds to receive the information and return that cycle of trust by listening closer.
Listening in the midst of a creative block is a crucial and, at least in my experience, challenging thing to do. To stay present when you feel ready to move forward is the opposite of what we think about exiting creative blocks.
The societal prioritisation of the mind over the body finds its way into our creativity too. If we believe that the source of our creativity lives primarily in the mind, we may find ourselves misunderstanding the message of the block. We begin to see the way that European/western society has forcibly redefined the way we honour our bodies. When we started to believe Descartes and similar philosophies of the mind that 'I think, therefore I am', we disregarded the intelligence of the body. We started to see the body as inferior to the mind. Which sucks. It gave way to us rationalising the creative process rather than experiencing it (and life) in full.
Our entire bodies are sites for deep imagination and creative being, not just thinking. Repositioning ourselves as creators who slow our thoughts until they are supple enough to be in conversation with the rest of the body is one of the best ways to return to our flow.
We started to see the body as inferior to the mind. Which sucks. It gave way to us rationalising the creative process rather than experiencing it (and life) in full.
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Time to reframe
✺ Tap into the language of the body: Reconnecting the mind-body relationship is important, especially in a world which has, for centuries, discouraged it, colonised minds and bodies, and pedestalled hyper-productivity culture. Let the mind and body become equals. Create away from a desk, let the body guide your practice, dance, stretch, become accustomed to pausing when the body asks for it.
✺ Tap into your ability to listen for longer: Sometimes a creative block is a call to rest. If you are able, even in a small capacity, take a break.
✺ Tap into the other ways that you are creative: You create everyday. You create meals, you create homeliness, you create ease in the minds of others, you create yourself in small ways. What does this inspire in you? What does this communicate about you as an inherently creative being? Hold on to that.
My creative block routine
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Here are some steps that I gently move through when I find myself creatively blocked:
- Journal: I always keep a journal near to allow myself an empty page of honesty. Whatever I'm feeling, documenting it is the first step towards awareness. My two favourite questions are: How am I feeling right now? and What can I give to the page right now?
- Connect with the elements: I am an air sign and air is the dominant element in my chart, so I always feel rejuvenated when I go for a long walk and the air clears out stagnant thoughts or when I do breathwork assisted by sea breeze. Knowing which element rejuvenates you is a useful step in regathering yourself creatively.
- Body scan: I like to sit with myself and slowly pay attention to where the block is physically located. Is it in my throat? Maybe audio journalling and physically voicing my ideas will help. Is it an emotional block? Then I roll my mat out and do some hip opening stretches. I also try to keep these practices as a part of my regular routine as a way to constantly provide space for that energy flow, if it wants to.
- Compassion: Self-compassion and awareness of what I am personally and collectively moving through is a big step. If it is a self-imposed deadline, I push it back and create space to slowly come back to the work. If I do have to create for a deadline, I consider if asking for compassion in the form of more time is possible. If that isn't possible, I take myself out of the project momentarily and use physical movement or the creativity of other projects to remind and reinspire me.
And most of the time this eases me back into my creativity. What works for you? Feel free to respond below or respond to this email and I'll share responses with the community in the next letter.
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Sending gratitude to you today. I hope this gives you some courage to approach your creative flow differently. If this has helped or inspired you, please share The Easeful Place resources with a lover of mindfulness, creativity, journalling, and easeful living. It helps this space grow and reach the right community.
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Love,
Amara Amaryah
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