COVID-19, EDITORIAL, VIBE CHECK

A remedy to overcome your Creative Block in the age of ‘New Normal’

Creative Block.Jpeg

We used to be provided with platforms to feed our creative minds and of course, to unwind but now, this repetitive routine of new norm leaves us all nothing but emotionally disturbed.

There might be a lot of free workshops and entertainment popping out across the web but we cannot deny how hard it is to cope up with this new norm. At some point, its not just our physical bodies are stuck in an odd conundrum but also our creative minds. We become restless and uninspired given the lack of social interaction since we’re all have been hunkered down in this isolation .

Additionally, the pandemic catastrophe doesn’t just affect our countries’ dense urban areas but also everyone’s mental health. Simply put, you can see everyone’s madness because all of us don’t know how to benefit from less crowding or work efficiently in this new normal. Perhaps, we will not achieve that upward trajectory in our creativity if we don’t give ourselves moments to reflect and check up on our emotional health and well-being.

So, to give you a little creative refuge within your homes, we have listed some little ways to help your artistic minds to cope during these times of isolation before it will continue to drive your mind elsewhere.

Let yourself react in the age of ‘New Norm’

Of course, before you eventually push yourself to be productive again, you have to first accept the thoughts on how the industry might be different in post-coronavirus stage and let yourself freely react with the changes unsurprisingly thrown over us. Instead of sticking “Wanted: Muse” signs, use this time to reflect and revisit the time of your creative process. There might be some nostalgic interesting piece that you can recreate while we are in this process.

However, accepting this drastic changes may be hard for all of us but know that there are things that totally beyond our control. You can allow yourself to react effectively by embracing new intelligence instead of being stuck in the routine. Try constantly reframing your understanding about certain things but don’t let it control you. Just think about it, deeply and then forget it. Or you can fill your head with as much as you can about the problem, then think about something else.

Know that it’s completely understandable if our creative minds now are pretty much depleted. Allow your creative minds to be mad at first and then, accept how pandemic has recalibrated everything.

The use of Boredom

What if boredom is a meaningful experience—one that pushes to have deeper thoughtfulness or creativity? According to the study of Joey Camire, boredom is a lot more complex than the language we use for it. She stated that boredom has five levels that can be mapped on an axis of how negative we feel. They are indifferent, calibrating, searching, reactant, and apathetic.

“For our purposes, level three (searching) and level four (reactant) are the most relevant. People experiencing calibrating or reactant boredom both feel negatively about their state, and are highly aroused to do something to alleviate that feeling. On the other hand, that searching feeling, that bouncing leg, the desperation to find anything interesting—that is the type of boredom that leads to creativity. ” shared by Camire.

Also, a bored mind moves into a “daydreaming” state, says Sandi Mann, the psychologist at the University of Central Lancashire. However, as per Sandi, we’re all troubling to wrestle with these slow moments and inevitably we eliminate them. Just like how sometimes our creative minds fail even we urge ourselves to do more.

“We try to extinguish every moment of boredom in our lives with mobile devices,” Mann says.

Maybe, instead of hating boredom let’s try to have a different mindset on how to deal with it. You can learn more by watching the video below!

See it as an ‘Interesting Challenge’

Creative people are a little neurotic to begin with but there’s a lot of self-questioning we have to fence with our frustration in adapting the new normal. This odd conundrum may affect our relationship with creativity and global events heightened our stress but we can change our perceptions by dealing it as an Interesting Challenge.

To be fair, being confined in our homes puts extra pressure on and new emotional distractions. But don’t forget that creative process works by starting with our rough draft. Jumping into our first draft may not be exactly a piece of cake but at least , we don’t let our creativity be rusty. Let’s divert our frustration into an interesting challenge and develop new connections even if it means building trust on virtual face-to-face interactions.

Our brainchild will eventually adapt this ‘New Normal’ life little by little and our energy will be fully throw into it. More so, if you think that creativeness needs to have a constant progress, remember that being creative is never straightforward – even when there isn’t a pandemic happening in the world.