I read a brilliant confessional about Creative Paralysis the other day. It’s a compelling personal account of the way a creative photographer, John Hobson, became completely stuck on arriving home after travelling the world for a year.

Loss of direction, self doubt, stress, to-do list overwhelm, self-image confusion - it’s all there, and it’s amazing how quickly we can sink into this quicksand of negative thinking - even when starting from what seems like the most empowered and productive situations.

I guess every one of us has experience of this - I know I certainly have, and so has my artist partner, Lynda. Judging by our experience I think that two of the main factors are these:

  • Any kind of break where the focus of energy has been shifted
  • Changes in life circumstances

    • A Shift in Focus

    I hate to admit this but even an over eventful weekend can be enough for me to suffer a mini-slump sometimes. I may not be on quicksand but there’s certainly some good thick mud to drag myself through before I’m on firm ground again.

    When you take a longer break from your creative focus - say for holidays, other work pressures, or illness, it’s almost always tough getting started again. After all, it’s a lot harder to start the ball rolling than it is to keep it rolling. And like it or not, when we have a break the ball stops rolling.

    I’m not suggesting you don’t have breaks, by the way. But do be kind to yourself afterwards. It’s not easy to hit the ground running if you sink six inches into the mud on first impact.

    A Change in Circumstances

    Started a new relationship or just achieved a long sought-after goal? It’s a change in circumstances. Completed your study and proudly gained your degree, MA etc? It’s a change in circumstances. Got a whizzy new job?

    And these are just the positive changes that can throw us out of kilter. The fact is that any changes in circumstances can bring on the creative paralysis. Put a big change together with a substantial break and it’s no wonder you find yourself up to the eyeballs in quicksand (or other unpleasant squishiness).

    At their worse, changes in circumstances can pose seismic threats to our image of who we are - to our sense of self. So my friend John Hobson probably went from ‘traveller/photographer of the world’ to ‘?????!’ And just to add to it, he arrived home in time for the Christmas festivities - a very positive event, but a definite shift in his energies. It’s not surprising John hit such a tough patch.

    Strategies

    The next time you find yourself in the creative quicksand try working on the points below.

  • Time - give yourself time to regroup.
  • Kindness - be kind to yourself. Encourage yourself positively rather than beating yourself up about it - which only adds to the self-doubt and anxiety.
  • Goals - give yourself time to review your goals. Creative paralysis can often come from a simple loss of your compelling vision of what you are about.
  • Self-belief - invest in work on positive thinking, positive self image and combating the negative voices (I’ll post more on these shortly).
  • Practise - Yes, practise - but practise without pressure. In other words, give yourself permission to mess about and do a few daft things with your creative work. Have a laugh with it.

    • In terms of getting the ball rolling, I like to think of practice as working like a lever - you know, the way that doing an easier action can produce movement in something that’s otherwise stuck - getting the lid of a paint tin by using a screwdriver, for instance.

    Finally, if you’ve had big changes in circumstances but have tried to keep your creative working practices unchanged it’s worth reviewing them. It’s just possible that what worked before might actually be creating more of that mud and quicksand now.

    It’s horrible when this kind of event hits us, but like John, we do come out of it. Keeping that in mind is perhaps the most powerful message of all.

    You can read John Hobson’s personal account of his creative paralysis here: John Hobson Photography.

    Andrew Leigh is a life coach and writer of The Creative Instinct a content rich blog to help you smash through the barriers to artistic creativity. If you would like to comment on this article, please visit the blog.