The weather has cooled, the air is smog, ozone, and pollution free once again, and I can finally work outside which has revived my creativity streak.
But there was something else that really did it for me. I was talking to my IFS therapist the other day about my writer's block not long after my last post and she had a very unique idea. But in order to explain the idea and why it worked, I first feel I must explain what IFS is:
According to IFS breakthrough systemic family therapist, Richard C. Shwartz, he says on his IFS Institute website and in his book, "Internal Family Systems [IFS] is a powerfully transformative, evidence-based model of psychotherapy that proposes that individuals' subpersonalities interact and change in many of the same ways as do families and other human groups." Therefore nearly every aspect of an individual is treated as a "part" including but not limited to our thoughts and feelings, even certain aspects of our physical selves, and then give these parts a voice allowing them to tell us why they exist, how they were formed, etc.
So when I told my own therapist about my writer's block she suggested we treat it as one of these parts by going into it and writing down everything that comes to mind as I sit with it and focus on it. What came up was a list of worries and judgments sometimes stemming from my own core self, while others came from externalized voices—things that very destructive people were telling me—that I then internalized and that then grew until it became a weight I was carrying around with me.
Therefore I'm now recommending everyone do this*—it might seem strange, but talk to your writer's block without judgment, as if it were a stranger worth getting to know, and ask what it wants, why it's there, and what factors are making it run rampant. Then write down everything that comes to mind that might be contributing to your writer's block existing.
For me, it took a few hours after writing it all out for the block to lift, but once it did, I finally got going! And keep in mind you might have to revisit this practice because the reason it's there might not always be the same as new stuff could easily come up. Still, if it helps it lift, this unique practice could very well be worth it!
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*Disclaimer: Please note that I am not a therapist myself in any form. Though this practice came directly from my own clinically and professionally trained and licensed therapist, proceed with caution when practicing this yourself.
