How Do You Shift Your Energy When You Don’t Feel Inspired to Create?

If you’ve ever grown apple trees, you know that you can’t just pick an apple any day of the year. Fruit trees do not bear fruit all year long. They blossom in one season, the fruit forms, ripens, and then at harvest time, you can pick it. After the harvest, the tree goes dormant for a period of rest.

Sometimes, we forget that our lives move in cycles and seasons, too. When we try to be creative and productive every day, we’ll soon discover that our spark will flicker and fade from exhaustion.

When our creative spark fades, we can fall into a rut.

Let’s explore how you might break out of one.

Like the apple tree that doesn’t produce apples every day, I don’t know anyone who feels inspired and motivated all the time to be creative. Humans, like other aspects of nature, have natural energy cycles that ebb and flow. Some days you feel pumped and motivated to make things and express your creativity; other days, you’d rather curl up on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn and watch Netflix.

Creative blocks go beyond the lack of inspiration. Several things might contribute to a creative slump, including:

Perfectionism: I hear a lot of people say they don’t want to try something new because they are afraid of doing it poorly. Being overly self-critical can squash your creativity and make you avoid starting a new project.

Fear of failure, which is an aspect of perfectionism, makes you so concerned about what others might think. You fear that they might judge your work as harshly as you do, so you hesitate to take creative risks.

Procrastination from decision fatigue: You might have too many ideas fighting for your attention, and you can’t decide where to begin.

Stress: When you are already feeling overwhelmed by other situations in your life vying for your energy and attention, you may lack the bandwidth for creative projects.

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So, let’s talk about what you might do when you’ve fallen into a creative slump that’s hanging on longer than you’d like it to. The following are a few evidence-based approaches to help you tap back into your creative flow.

You might ask yourself if you’re in a creative slump because you are exhausted or stressed. If so, maybe take a break. Some things that can help relieve stress when you don’t feel like stitching include:

• Open-monitoring meditation, which involves observing your present-moment thoughts and sensations without trying to control or focus on them, can help stimulate creative ideas.

• Yoga, walking, or some other form of movement

• Breathwork can help you shift into the parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system and lower your stress response.

• Spend time with friends who encourage you.

• Reach out and help someone else.

If you’re lacking inspiration, switch mediums. If you typically do embroidery, try knitting or crochet.

• Work with a color palette you typically avoid.

• Recreate the work of a favorite artist.

• Go for a walk and let nature inspire you.

Finally, try to give yourself grace. Notice when your body and mind are asking for rest. Pushing through is not helpful and can lead to even more creative blockages. When we respect the natural cycles of our lives, we can sustain our creative output more easily without burning ourselves out.

If you’ve ever faced a creative block, what did you do to get out of it?

What are you stitching today?