Have you ever thought about why there are times when creativity just flows through and then there are other times when no matter how hard you try to be creative, nothing happens? It seems that the river of creativity has suddenly gone dry. There seems to be a huge block. As a writer we call it a writer’s block.
Well, I have. Not only experienced writer’s block but have also struggled to pull myself out of it. Are you interested in knowing how?
Sometime back I was stuck by a bad patch of writer’s block. No matter what I did, failed and this left me more stuck up. Finally I resorted to doing some research about the various reasons for such block in the creativity. I found out that there is dearth of material available on brain, memory, conscious and sub conscious behavior. Intuitively I knew that my answer lies in one of these topics. So I dug further and found something that not only intrigued me but also was the answer to my questions.
In a human body at the base of the brain there is a screening device called RAS-Reticular Activating System. This group of cells filters out information and enables the person to remember only what they need to. They are the decision making body and allow only important and vital sensory input into person’s conscious awareness. For instance, a person is not aware of the color of his shirt until his attention is drawn to it or all the sounds on the road, or the patterns in the sky.
My first reaction to this was, Thank God! Just imagine if this filter was not there we all would be going completely berserk trying to remember every possible color, sound, sensation, every move of our arm, every blink of our eye.
After I got over my initial awe of how intelligent the power which created us was, I wanted to know how this RAS really works. I wanted to understand its mechanism.
RAS filters information, however we can also shift our focus and then it allows us to become conscious of things we have normally blocked from our awareness. Just as a new mother is able to hear their child’s very breath and their tiniest discomfort over other louder sounds, we too can become aware of subtle signs that we may get from our surroundings, of the interesting conversation that we may have overheard in a shopping mall and other such things that may inspire us to write and enhance our creative thought flow. Generally these are those things that we have overtime learnt to block, but if we can train ourselves to unblock them then they can be the very source of our creative creation. How true it is that we are not open to the possibility of receiving inspiration for our articles from such places!!!
I found out that to unlock my writer’s block, I have to open myself up to receiving inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. I have to make writing and being constantly inspired by new ideas important enough to get through, and soon a whole new world of ideas and inspiration will open up.
