Michele Martin asks "What Inspires You?" and goes on to describe those all too familiar uninspired periods you face as a blogger. But, she ends with a couple of great questions to get our collective creative juices flowing:
Since I know I'm not alone in this, I'm wondering what you do when you're in those times when inspiration strikes everywhere but in your own mind? Where do you find your inspiration? How do you deal with those times when your creativity seems to have fled? Help me create a guide to dealing with the fallow times and re-discovering inspiration so that we can all benefit and feel less alone when they happen.
I've been through this myself. It usually happens when I've been over doing it -- at the computer, eating, and no exercise. So, the best thing is to walk away from the computer, or rather run away from the computer. I always seem to find a lot of inspiration when I get good cardio exercise. My best creative ideas come to me when I'm spinning, on the treadmill, walking, jogging, swimming, or lifting. Somehow the combination of elevated heart rate and endorphins puts me in "flow" that wonderful state between boredom and anxiety.
My worst dry period was right after my mother in law passed away in spring, 2006. It took me a while to get back to blogging, but I came across some resources about fearless change.
One of the best nuggets of advice that I got was this blog post about being productive. These two tips:
Take advantage of creative highs. This is huge. There are times when I’m literally flooded with ideas, when this happens I drop what I’m doing, if possible, and write, write, write. During these times I can build up a surplus of good content to use when I need some time off. Which brings me to…
Take some time off. There is little better for fueling your creative engine than a few well timed days off. As much as I create, there are many times when I just relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor. I need this time to keep me going.
How To Tivo Your Muse
I have immersed myself in creative thinking methods over the past 15 years. One of my favorites is Michael Gelb. One of the exercises is to brainstorm a list of 100 questions. So, in my handwritten journal - I do this once a month. So, when I'm uninspired I go back to my list and those end up being good ideas for blog posts.
Another one of my favorite creative thinking methods is: A WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD: How You Can Be More Creative
The other thing I do is store up a lot of drafts of post that I can use during a dry period. Or I go back to a theme that I have explored in the past in a lot of different blog posts and try to write a reflective piece tying them together.
I also get inspiration from reading other blogs. So, I might just do some blog reading and comment blogging (leave comments with quick thoughts)
Michele, before you know it, you'll be back in the creative period again. Just look at this as a great opportunity to clear the slates.
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