Today let’s talk about blocked creativity.
I wrote a poem once: “The desire to express, I was taught to repress, has caused me a block,
I wish to unlock. I pick up the pen, I start writing again, I feel the flow, and then I stop.”
That poem led me down a road of discovering the origin of my writer’s block. My creativity had been shut down by a bizarre comment made by my grandmother when I was 8 years old. She told me if I was a writer they would call me crazy and lock me up. I was too young to understand that what she said was false, and that statement became my truth. Publishing my first book was a tremendous thrill, since it signaled I had exposed the lie, and conquered that old writer’s block. What a freedom!
Have you ever struggled with blocked creativity?
Photo Credit
“Writer’s Block I” by Drew Coffman @ flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some rights reserved.
Dan L. Hays offers encouragement for adult children of alcoholics.
The podcasts of these episodes can be found at: Minute to Freedom
Recent Dan L. Hays Articles:
- Healing The Writer - A Personal Account of Overcoming PTSD - A Book By Dan Hays
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- We Just Don’t Talk About It - (Sponsored Video)
- Faith Comes Through Doubting
- Exploring The Artist's Way
Isn’t it refreshing to teach ourselves that what we thought was truth as children was false. I found, as an adult, to be free to learn anything I wanted, to explore any worlds and open any doors. I found I can be successful and not a ‘good-for-nothing’ as I was taught as a child. Like what your grandmother burned into you, I too had ‘stuff’ burned into me that I assumed to be truth. That is all laid to rest now. Thanks, Dan
Hey David! Thanks for stopping by! Yes, it is amazing the lies we were told as children – that became our truth. It’s wonderful and powerful when we re-program those old tapes and let go of the false messages. I had the “good for nothing” message just like you, David. It was a buried memory, and I first had to get it to the surface where I could see the reality of it, to begin to let it go. And how freeing that has been – like you say, it opens up a LOT of doors!
Dan
I was told by several Adult Children of Alcoholics that even though alcohol wasn’t prevalent in my house growing up, I experienced a very similar repression. Interesting, because I definitely have always wanted to write, and get blocked every time. So I always read these with interest. Thanks, Dan.
Thanks so much for sharing, Lynn. They’re now talking in ACOA meetings about “alcohol or other dysfunction” because so many people in there have all the symptoms, just not the direct alcoholism to connect it to. And writing is such an inner child, vulnerable exercise, no wonder many of us have that creativity get bottled up!