Manifester’s Block: 4 Tips for Creative People
Posted: Tuesday, July 27, 2010
by Carolyn Ellis
Thrive After Divorce
Have you ever felt totally inspired to create something, or see a fabulous way to solve a problem, but then you get bogged down when it comes to implementation? The initial burst of creativity gets buried in your mind under an avalanche of thoughts, questions, and fears that can ultimately block your progress, wear you out and zap your confidence. You've heard of writer's block. But I think there's a phenomenon I'm going to call "Manifester's Block," which is what happens in your mind that puts on the brake to your dreams. Let me offer an image for what Manifester's Block looks like. I remember the very first time I drove into Cairo, Egypt many years ago (I was in a cab, not driving myself, thank goodness!). Huge city, tons of traffic, many round-abouts and apparently little regard for the faint traffic lanes that were painted on the roadway. Imagine all sorts of roads coming into one central traffic circle, cars weaving from side-to-side, trying to go around the circle and exit at the appropriate turnoff. There were several near misses as my taxi driver navigated his way through this tangle of cars. Progress was painful, at times requiring us to circle around again because we couldn't get off where we wanted to.
Here are some tips that can act like a traffic cop when you want to breakthrough a case of Manifester's Block!
1. Put Your Traffic Cop on Active Duty
As soon as you notice and feel yourself getting blocked. Stop and take some deep breaths as . you quiet your mind and call upon your internal traffic cop. Affirm to yourself that all thoughts will be heard and respected, but just not all at the same time.
2. Handle Each Roadway One at a Time
Direct your attention to one roadway at a time. A big reason for Manifester's Block to come up in the first place is because we're trying to voice our creative, critical and execution thoughts all at the same time. You need to break them out and tune into those different types of thoughts in sequence, not simultaneously, to avoid confusion. Remember, a confused mind will always say no and this is the origin of Manifester's Block
3. Give Right-of-Way to Your Creativity
Your heart and soul drives your creative process. Give it free rein to speak to you fully by brainstorming out all of your ideas, desires and dreams. Write this all down, draw a picture of it, or do whatever you can to let it pour out in a way you can capture it. If other thoughts like "But HOW are you going to do that?" interrupt you, just tell them "I'll get back to you in a few minutes. Right now I'm just letting my creative juices flow!"
4. Ask Your Critic to Ask Questions
A powerful way to help your critical thoughts actually align with your vision is to ask your internal critic to give you its feedback in the form of questions. Strong declarative statements like "You are never going to succeed!" just don't take you anywhere productive. However, turning that into a question like "How are you going to succeed in this?" can be very helpful. Why? The brain loves to answers questions, so you mind will immediately start working on coming up with all of the things you would need to have in place in order to be successful.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)I enjoyed your analogy with Cairo - I visited it once, and it's exactly like the traffic jam that happens in my head! I like your perspective, especially on the internal critic, which is the big blocker for me. Thanks for your article.
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