The Land of Procrastination

 

(a little corner of my newest painting...which is being created during small chunks of time)

Hello dear souls,

I hope September finds you well.  I am writing this blog post as monsoonal rains lash the window and the trees opposite the house sway dangerously in a tornado style wind; it feels as if Autumn has arrived early in these parts!

So anyway, I wanted to write a wee post to follow on from the one I wrote about the Creativity Hiatus.  I felt it might be useful to those of you who find that your Hiatus has turned into Procrastination and Stuck and if you're wondering how the heck to get past that part.

It's happened to me alot - I'm actually a fantastic procrastinator!  I've been through the Hiatus part where nothing happens and then I start to feel glimmers of inspiration returning.  I've felt the excitement as new ideas manifest and new opportunities present themselves, and I've also felt the hesitation as I do nothing about them and find a million and one different reasons to avoid starting.  Here are a few I use, you may recognise them:

I'm too busy

I have household chores to take care of

I have to go shopping

This cupboard looks interesting, lets empty it!

Ooh, I've been on Facebook for three days!

I'm too tired...

This is the part when the Hiatus has transformed into Procrastination - and you need to watch out for it.  We can get seriously stuck here, because the Land of Procrastination is a nice place to be.  We get to dream our dreams, languish with the nice feelings those ideas bring us, and we get to wander around imagining how it will all turn out...and we don't lift a finger to do anything beyond that, because that's when it becomes real.

And that is what scares us.

When you've had an absence from creating, it can be pretty scary to start again and it can also be tough to rouse yourself out of the feelings of inertia.  I'm going to give you a couple of ideas on how to move through the Stuck and get going again - and these ideas work because I still use them myself.

• Choose to take a Small Step:  For example - get your pens and a sketch book out, and lay them on the table for a day or so.  You don't have to physically start drawing right away if you don't want to (the idea is to keep these Small Steps very minimal).  The energy that will arise from the motion of actually getting your stuff out is momentous and not to be underestimated.
• Take Five Minutes:  Literally, yes. It's enough to begin with although you may find (as I do) that five minutes can elapse into an hour or so without you being aware of it.  Next time you pass your creative pile on the table, and you feel moved to do something, do it.
• Do Something Different:  To get the creative energy moving, you might want to try something a little different.  I sometimes make cakes or do a bit of gardening to get myself into a creative frame of mind.  This is a great energy shifter.  You may notice that it fuels you up to get started on what it is you've been putting off doing.  I recently made bead bracelets with my daughter, and then that same day had a cracking design idea for a Christmas Card which I hurriedly drew in my sketch book (conveniently laying on the table just in case).

I hope these little ideas help - I'll be sharing more ways of dealing with Procrastination and moving through Stuck in my new E-Book which is nearly completed and which I'm really excited about sharing with you!  Meanwhile, you can also check the resources out in the side bar where there is a list of Inspiring Posts that may be useful to you.

Wishing you a bright and delight~filled weekend, thanks as always for dropping in to see me!

Much love, Julia x