Blocked? Try Cleaning!

I can't believe I haven't touched on this yet! Of all the methods I have written about, the one thing I haven't mentioned yet as a potential treatment (or perhaps even a cure-all if you're lucky!) for writer's block is to clean. Cleaning anything, whether it's your closest or your entire house, can be extremely therapeutic. As many studies show, a decluttered and well-organized space reflects a decluttered and well-organized mind, putting you in the path towards clarity lifting your spirits and even awakening that muse who has been kept silence for so long. Why do you think there are so many books about cleaning and organizing your home? Your surroundings [often] have a direct impact on you and your well-being, and often reflect what's happening inside you.

Someone with depression may not have the ability or motivation to clean. Or even put stuff away. Everything they use accumulates around them, piling up and up until it becomes too much. If this same person has a muse, that muse, already squandered and drowning as a result of this depression, is now suffocated through the anxiety the mess outside of her home, that is her "host". But to take one step and start actively tackling the cleaning process can lift the spirits, especially as the end result-a clean space--starts shining through. And when that space finally has been cleared, you've accomplished something. You feel satisfied. Like that you may find your inner muse reawakening, and you might even be able to write out that chapter you've been struggling with. Heck, you might even be able to finish your book! Or maybe not. But it's worth a try, is it not?

Want to listen to some inspirational music to help? Try "Never Give Up on Your Dreams (instrumental)" by Two Steps From Hell, or Hans Zimmer's "Run Free".

Unable To Write

Pumped full of antihistamines I am barely able to write. But at least I can spend time outside. Being trapped in a house in the grass seed capital of the world (thanks, Eugene!) and being severely allergic to grass.... Yeah, it hasn't been a fun month. But it's too beautiful out and I haven't written in so long, I just can't go another day without air, without breathing life into my new book I am so dedicated to writing.  But low and behold I now feel like I've hit a snag. Realizing I was pouring three books into one, I decided to try a writing exercise and break them up, saving the original of course just in case this exercise doesn't work out. Though my brain is half asleep and I don't know how to proceed. Half the time I'm second guessing myself, wondering if I'm using the correct form of "no" or "know" because right now they look the same to me. And the other half of the time I'm trying to reread what I've written desperate to make sense out of it because let's be real, words do not make sense right now.

This is known as the problematic "brain fog". And it's not fun. I feel zombified (I'm making that a word now, just in case it isn't). But I feel physically well other than that. Allergens are gone. I'm breathing air. I'm able to write this Then again, writing on my blog is one of the easiest things for me to do when it's just a recap of why I've been absent, admitting the painful truths behind the writing process, or writing about why I love being a writer. 

With that having been said, I think amidst all this negativity I would like to focus on why I love being a writer. I love creating and crafting new worlds I can essentially teleport myself into, essentially making friends in my mind, in addition to enemies. It's a wild ride, not unlike acting, and I love that. 

But what do I do when I'm unable to write? I let my imagination run, or I angrily slay dragons on my XBOX and say "take that, brain fog!" 

It's the little things, right?

[Oh yes, and happy June!]