You Don't Have Writer's Block... You're Just Tuned to the Wrong Channel
Opening the Receiver | Creative Expansion Challenge Day 4
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Do you ever feel like a stream of wild chatter, endless to do lists, and unfounded anxieties kicks into full gear and takes over your experience immediately upon waking? Like the moment you open your eyes, you’re thrust into a chaos that hasn’t even begun? Or like before you’ve even had your first sip of coffee (or tea, or warm lemon water, or… idk, pick your potion), you’re already exhausted by the day?
Not the most wonderful way to begin, is it?
Or maybe you feel fine… until you open a fresh new page to start working on your latest writing project, and then it hits. “Oh no, I don’t know what to write. Maybe I have nothing to write! Fuck! I have writer’s block! I’m doomed. This is absolutely positively terrible. Just the WORST! It’s all over now. I’m a failure. A no-good-worth-nothing sham of an artist.”
Oh, the calamity!
Listen, you’re a wise and powerful artist, and I know you know it doesn’t have to be that way. But in the midst of the chaos, it’s often hard to see anything else. And here’s why (which you might remember from day 1):
Our thoughts, stories, and perceptions all begin with the state of our nervous system. In the above scenarios, overwhelming chaos, despair, and exhaustion are created by the stories we tell ourselves - the stories that perpetuate states of fight or flight or collapse and which can lead to chronic dysregulation.
But shifting this is actually quite simple. And it begins with noticing the state we’re in. Without this awareness, we’re lost in the abyss, essentially with no tether to reality.
So, here’s my proposal: instead of indulging those thoughts and submitting yourself to imaginary chaos or drudgery, thereby creating real chaos or drudgery, take 10-20 minutes to tune into your body and feel what’s actually here, now. I guarantee if you trust the process, you’ll notice a difference.
You may remember from day 1 that the autonomic nervous system runs from your brainstem, down your spine, intertwining with your heart and lungs, and through your back body and digestive system. I like to call this space the central channel, and it’s what we’re going to focus on in today’s practice, Opening the Receiver.
I call it opening the receiver because that’s what your body is, a receiver (and transmitter) of information.
In our quest to become more skilled receiver/transmitters — to make the channel clearer and give it greater range, i.e. expand our creative capacity and root into muse energy — we are going to practice bringing awareness and sensation to this central channel. Because, and this cannot be said too many times, sensation is where our experience begins. And our capacity to experience sensation has everything to do with how we experience ourselves and our lives.
It’s kinda a big deal…
It’s also simple, and again consists of breath, movement, and sound, if you’re really letting yourself drop into it. Sound can be the most challenging part for some, especially those of us who have a habit of staying small and silent and “polite.” So if that’s you, aim to let your inner animal out, baby.
This practice is in two parts. Like yesterday, they work great together, but also separately. Part one is a simple breath practice (about 8 minutes), part two involves bringing some sensation to the body then moving with that heightened sensational awareness. It only takes about 10 minutes.
I do this every morning either on its own or woven into whatever else I’m doing, depending on how I feel and how much movement my body wants that day. I invite you to feel into it yourself. This can be great paired with yesterday’s Yawning the Body Open practice, or perhaps as a way to reawaken movement after a seated meditation. Any way you wanna play with it is great.
