That's about how I'm feeling. Here on the blog and with any other creative pursuits. I want to get things happening but I don't seem to be able to move from intention to action. I want to get my book-making tools out, I want to get back to painting, I want to be blogging more regularly, I want to bring {sunday snippets} back to life, I want to get my knitting project started, I want to work on a couple of other creative projects.
BUT I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CREATIVE MOJO WHAT-SO-EVER!
It's driving me crazy. I don't know whether to push myself or whether to just trust that it will happen when it happens. I'm worried that if I just leave it, it might never happen. Is it possible for creative mojo to disappear and never, ever return again????
I'm trying to be kind to myself. I'm trying to remember that I'm in the process of recovering from a really traumatic year and that some of what's happening now probably has a lot to do with things that happened then. I don't want to push myself only to realise that it actually made things worse. But I don't want to do nothing and one day realise that I could have changed things if I'd just pushed myself a little.
So tell me peeps, do you get like this? How do I work out if this is recovery or a creative block? Do I push or do I wait? What do you recommend?
My dear friend, I think what you are experiencing is not a lack of mojo but TOO MANY IDEAS TO START WITH mojo!! This happens to me on a nearly DAILY BASIS, because I have SO MANY ideas to sew up cute skirts or aprons to work in, make new fun creative books, collage a page in an art journal, make a prayer flag or create some colorful mail art to send to friends...WHEW!! That is just half my list of creative projects and I can't do them all at once so then I get overwhelmed or, worse, discouraged because I CAN'T do them all at once! =\
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I have not ever experienced a 'creative block', only an overflow of so many ideas and projects that I WANT SO DESPERATELY TO CREATE, that it overwhelms me and I get paralyzed, instead of getting motivated to action, especially when I want SO DESPERATELY to create something utterly FABULOUS that will make me absolutely BURST WITH PRIDE to say I MADE THIS!!! And that is where some of our perfectionist tendencies might block us, but I'm not sure it is really ever 'creative block'...and I DON'T think it goes away never to come back, so please put that thought out of your mind! BTW, this is what it means to be a Creative Beast!! =\
All that being said, I will add that you have definitely had a terrible year of trauma and sometimes too much trauma in a short time frame can cause depression; I know because this has happened to me, but I also know that CREATING is a healing act (and you know this too!), so I would gently urge you to simply pick up one of your brushes, even if only to look at it for a little while and see if it speaks to you, or gently cuddle some of your yarns to let them know you have not forgotten them! And of course you know that if you spend just 10 minutes toward ONE project, then it will begin to snowball and you will forget you ever had a block in the first place =-) Just start small, with tiny steps until you feel enough energy to work in bigger blocks of time and we will all be here to cheer you on and applaud the gorgeous piece of art you make, whatever that art is!
Sending you virtual hugs and encouragement!! =-D