Hit a Mental Roadblock?

In 2016, I wrote the below article in LinkedIn about how to work through a mental roadblock in your practice. Enjoy!

May 3, 2016

Practical Tricks from the Artist's Studio: Overcoming Mental Roadblocks

Even if you're not in the business of visual or creative thinking, you find yourself needing to solve a problem that just won't work itself out in your head.

Consider a thought... or better yet, don't consider any relevant thoughts but move on to a different thought entirely. 

You'll find out why this works through a pinball metaphor in Barbara Oakley's TED talk Learning How to Learn, and after reading about a paradoxical ancient Chinese concept known as Wu-Wei. 

Your dreams exist as a way for your brain to make sense of the previous day, and so, we are all capable of finding productivity in inactivity. Can you think of an example in your own life when this happened to you, an epiphany when you least expected it? Was it like the time J.K. Rowling landed on the story of Harry Potter while riding a train and looking at a field of cows?

Artists utilize this technique of mental wonderings often, it's called procrastination. So, go for a walk with a colleague, play a game of chess, sit on the toilet without your phone, or, if you're like me, go find some dishes to wash.

Other relevant resources: