More often than not do we use our creativity to block out the real world, refusing to deal with the daily issues and finding our release in art. Then there are those times where the creative block keeps us unable to release, sending us into a spiral of frustration and irritability. During my last creative block, I laid on the floor trying to figure out why. Why did I have this back up lasting anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before inspiration would spark. Then it hit me, do I ever truly release? Do I ever face the issues or just take a hit of creativity and tell myself I feel better. Could the natural dopamine high of passion halt me from truly dealing with whatever life has thrown?

As a creative how else do you release? Mental health is a rare topic and even more rare within the creative community. We “should” be mentally stable, after all our art is our escape. When we are stressed we hold the tension in our shoulders, creating knots throughout our body, because we feel the pain we are aware something is wrong. Those balls of stress, are our minds creative block.

Weekly challenge: I challenge you to sit and mediate for an hour prior to running to your “high”. I challenge to sit and unpack the things that make you emotionally unstable, discover why certain things frustrate you, or even fill you with joy. After that awareness go and create from a place of understanding. Art is different when clarity of emotion is the driving force.