Creative block? This is how you solve it!
Today we have a wonderful post from the blog author and Happy Painting! Club lecturer Linda Kollarz. It shows you a way to get out of a creative block – with joy and above all: ease!
Courage for the gap!
By Linda Kollarz
There you sit at your picture and want to paint and then that: Suddenly it doesn’t go any further! Do you also know thoughts like:
- “Somehow I can’t think of anything (anymore). How should I continue painting?
- That looks stupid!
- This is boring!
- Something is still missing here, but I just don’t know how to design it. “
Then suddenly the thoughts come in and tell you a little story characterized by “negative” emotions.
There are different ways to deal with a creative block and in this post I want to address one of them.
Just let thoughts be thoughts
There can be a wide variety of reasons for suddenly having a creative block while painting. Sometimes you may have already had a hard day and you are not in the flow.
Sometimes we may have had an emotional day behind us (we women know that 😉) and now “absolutely” want to create something beautiful as a contrast program.
Sometimes we are very caught up in our thoughts and also in the feeling that we want to achieve a certain goal at precisely this moment.
But there is also the possibility that we will get to this point “just like that”, because it is human and we cannot always know exactly what our next step will look like.
In these moments we can become aware of what is happening here:
They are just thoughts!
We don’t necessarily have to believe them, we don’t have to acknowledge them as necessarily true! But we are allowed to look at them like little clouds that appear and come into our perception, but we can also let them move on again.
Just lean back for a moment and Breathe deeply! Mindfulness is the keyword here.
When I finally got to this point and sat in front of my little picture, I took a deep breath, because I really couldn’t think of anything more, even though I really wanted to paint on this picture. And then a sentence entered my mind that I last heard in school and that reappeared right now:
“ Courage to take a gap! “
What does that mean?
How about if we take the pressure off ourselves by deciding that this picture doesn’t have to be finished at this moment?
The creative blockade break by simply allow us just to make the picture even BE, as it is now?
To let it develop exactly at your own pace without forcing anything?
To let it BE like that at this moment does not mean that we give up or let something remain, but rather to let go of the “absolutely want”.
Doesn’t it feel liberating to know that we can take the time for our creativity that we need? Even if that means that we don’t paint in one go?
That we are exactly right while we follow our very personal flow, which also needs its own personal time?
DOING THEM GOOD breaks the creative block
Sometimes it is helpful to have the courage to leave something as it is. Whether for a moment or longer. We can opt for helpful thoughts like
- What could be good for me right now?
- What could I enjoy now instead?
Maybe you just need a new piece of paper to play with?
Is it maybe a question of scribbling wildly now or just seeing colors merging?
Find out: How am I right now? How do i feel What is my body saying
Then the possibilities are still different!
Maybe you just need a little tea break or a walk or a nap?
Whatever is good for you right now and what you need now – do exactly THAT and have the courage to just leave this “gap” in your picture. Allow yourself to continue your image at another point in time.
Sometimes we don’t have to know exactly what the next step will be – on paper, as in our everyday life! It is enough to sit back, do something good for yourself, and remain confident that whatever is happening is just right.
Then the creative block dissolves as if by itself.
Have the courage to leave a gap! You are great just like you are there right now!
