Creatively Blocked?         

what we're going to do today in this free workshop is we shall work on jump starting a new creative project or to get unstuck when you really are working on one buy you feel perhaps a little bit blocked. And this workshop is particularly suited to writers, but not only for writers but it can be used also by creatives in other mediums, painters musicians as a refreshing way to overcome a stalemate, okay. And what you will need for this is paper sheets like so. and also some colored pins.

Now, here are my color pens. I used this exercise before with a creative writer who was quite blocked, he had started his novel, but then he found that he just wasn't writing anymore. He was short of ideas, so to speak, he was creatively blocked. And so he had been writing a short story collection. And when he came to see me, he had decided that he wanted to tackle a novel, right. But he felt overwhelmed by the complexity of the task. And it's almost like he couldn't really come up with a chapter outline.

So we started working on Skype. And I asked him to draw some geometrical shapes, which is what we're going to do today. But first, we're going to relax a little bit because this sort of exercise needs to be coming from the subconscious mind. It's not a conscious thinking kind of exercise. And as you may already know, if you're an artist of any kind, ideas don't really come from your rational mind. Art comes from your unconscious, the best part anyway, comes from your unconscious. And your subconscious.

The difference being when you're unconscious to something you are really not aware of it at all, your subconscious is something that you know that you know, but it's underneath your conscious awareness. For example, a name or a phone number of someone that you know, someone you're not constantly thinking about. But if somebody asks you, what's that person's name or phone number, the knowledge comes up from the subconscious. Unconscious knowledge is when you actually don't know that you know, and you find out through the process.

That's the best, that's what we really want. And then of course, there's the conscious which is what you already know that you know. So, through this exercise, we managed to get him started on his project. And then he went on to write the outline. And then he went on to write what I call the vomit draft, which is writing your first draft. And sure it was messy. Sure there was loads of work to be done, but that's the first draft. The first draft is not perfect ever and if you think it is perfect, there's probably something wrong with your critical judgment.

Because even geniuses need to re-writ. So, without further ado, I think it might be time to start. Yes, if you are connecting from any country that is not the UK or even if it is the UK just let me know. Or if you're watching the replay, you can just comment, hashtag replay. Okay, so first of all, we're going to get into a nice comfortable position. If you want, you can even have music on. I tried to put some music on today. But for some reason, tech wasn't working.

So unfortunately, no music from this side. But you know, if you've got some nice, very relaxing music, you can put it on. And let's put our feet flat on the ground. And let's put our hands on the sides. And let's start by focusing our eyes on a spot. This really helps with attention. So let's just decide which spot to focus on. Let's start with a few deep breaths . So start with a deep breath through the nose. Fill up your lungs , hold and breathe out, let go of today so far.

Again, another deep breath in. really fill up your lungs, fill up your lungs with air and allow your belly to expand. And this time close your mouth. Just breathe out through the nose. Last two, few more of those. Keep your eyes on the spot deep breath in, hold and out. Empty your lungs completely and empty more and then another deep breath. Filling up those lungs hold in and out again. Now we're going to close the eyes. And just breathe in in this way for a few more moments. Really zero in on to the sensation of your body. Sensations you may experience in this moment. perhaps just scan your body from the bottom your feet, from the soles of your feet. All the way up.

Calves knees, thighs, up to the pelvis. Chest, shoulders. Let your shoulders drop down letting go of to do lists of the past and come into the present scanning the neck, the head. just noticing what sensations are there and see if you can let them be where they are without trying to change anything right now. If you catch yourself judging a sensation, that's okay. Just notice I'm judging a sensation. I'm saying to myself, this is good or bad. Can you just acknowledge that and bring your attention back to the sensations themselves. Let them being what they are, not trying to change them not stopping them from changing either.

Maybe you have no sensations, that's okay as well. Keep on breathing, really focusing on your breath. If there's any part of your body that feel tense, experiment with sending the breath to those parts imagine you could do that. And on the exhale that breath could relax that part. Imagine perhaps a cat or dog when they stretch how easy it is for them to let go . If there are sensations, or any feelings or emotions you may experience can you just let them be what they are right now? Let them pass through you did like a river constantly moving downstream. No droplet of water is ever the same.

Can you just be your observer sitting by the river side, watching the water move?. Keep on breathing deeply and completely. Inhaling calm and exceeding any remaining tension in your body in mind. If you have any thoughts coming up? Can you just let them be thoughts like clouds in the sky? Sometimes there's white fluffy clouds in the sky. Sometimes they're stormy dark clouds. Sometimes there's no clouds at all. Can you be like that sky just simply observing, noticing what kind of thoughts you're having. And just let them do their thing appear and disappear out of your awareness.

If at any point you catch yourself, trying to hold on to a thought, that's okay, you've noticed it. congratulate yourself. bring your attention back to now your breath this moment. Before you open your eyes think about a project, either a new project that's been on your mind for some time., or maybe project that you started some time ago but you haven't finished. Maybe got sidetracked halfway. Choose this project to work with today. If you've got many, just trust your intuition and go with the first one that comes to mind. You can always work on other ones later.

Okay. Now when you're ready, what I want you to do is to at open your eyes and get your piece of paper. And first of all, I want you to grow a big geometrical shape. Okay. The first shape is going to be a triangle. Don't worry about whether it's perfect. Nobody's gonna see it. Second draw a square, a big square. Okay. Next, a rectangle. Okay. And when you're done, draw a circle. oops, my circles pretty wonky. Okay, now, when you're done, what I want you to do is just soften your focus and just contemplate these geometrical figures. Just allow yourself to contemplate.

Then when you're ready, pick a color pen. Intuitively. Don't think about it too much. Come on. What I want you to do is to observe what words come to mind. And just jot down the first five words that come to mind in each shape, okay, now don't think about it too much. Think of concrete objects or actions. Okay? So don't use abstract words. No abstract words, no happiness, joy, only concrete words or actions and put five of these in each of the shapes. Okay. So let's start. Let me know when you're done but I give you a quite a lot of time to this. So don't feel any pressure. Keep going, I've just finished a triangle myself.

Okay, I'm going to assume that you are done. I'm actually not done. I'm taking a long time today, but I'm not feeling so good so take your time when you finish these five words. What I want you to do is to think about these words as stepping stones, right stepping stones, or a roadmap to your project. And so what I want you to do is to either now write a short tale or make a sketch of the issues, the themes, solutions that come to mind regarding your project. being inspired, of course by these works, okay, so don't overthink the process. Just write quickly sketch quickly.

This isn't about perfection. It's just about letting your imagination do the work. So I'll give you a few minutes to start this exercise. Let's go. How you doing? Keep going whether it's sketch or you're writing, you can continue this If you don't have enough time now later but I would say try to complete now this exercise. I'll give you couple more minutes. And also know that if you're a musician you can use this to make a song. You could write a song based on these words or allow yourself to be inspired by these words and just conjure up a melody or rhythm that reflects how these words make you feel. One more minute.

Okay, well I hope this was useful for you and inspiring. You can use this exercise again and agai, it can be a way to really just go with something unexpected finding new ideas, so let me know in the comments what you think how it helped you. What you found out what was inspiring, what happened, I got some unexpected words. They were kind of weird, but then I actually decided to write a little poem, rather than a story. And I quite like what happened. I'm gonna reread this again and maybe I can make something with this. Okay, well, that's all for now.

I hope you enjoyed tonight and see you again next week for another dare to create free workshop. Until then, if you need some more inspiration, feel free to reach out you can find me on the dare to be seen community.com on Facebook or you can just check me out on my website my dare coaching and hypnotherapy website which is hypnotichealing.co.uk or you can listen to some music on elyssavulpes.com. Okay, that's all for now. See you next week.