Entry #4 Writer's er.....uh...

At the time I was not sure what was happening…I stared into my computer screen with the intention to write an assignment, but…nothing. No words came to mind even though I knew what I wanted to say. And it seemed that when I did manage to type but a simple sentence every key stroke came with great effort, and every word was the wrong word. No worries, I thought, I will just come back to this later. Time passed, but this “ailment” just seemed to hang around. Everywhere I went all I could think of was this terrible immovable “block” within the creative maze of my mind keeping me from writing. “Come on brain! Work!” I would plead to my creatively incapacitated thought box. It seemed so unfair, and the condition only grew worse as the deadline for my assignment approached.

After some time, perhaps much more time than it should have taken, I realized what was happening; I had a writer’s block.  I had no idea how this terrible cement block had found its way into my life, or just what its motives were anyway. All I knew was that I wanted it gone.

I fired up my old friend Google and began looking into ways to pass this pain in the brain as quickly as possible.

To defeat the enemy, you must know the enemy. As a result, I first had to learn what caused this terrible “block” to come about in the first place. And what I found was that, while there are many causes, the leading cause is stress.

When our brains are faced with stress, they tend to go into fight or flight mode, this leads to the brain shifting from the cerebral cortex (the creative portion of the brain) to the limbic system (the more reactive and instinctive portion of the brain). Of course, we usually don’t even notice this is happening, but soon find ourselves empty of any creative ideas due to the lack of input from the cerebral cortex. Unfortunately, this does not just stop at writing. When the brain switches over to the limbic system it can also make it almost impossible to learn and retain information.

So then, how do we make it stop doing that? Well here is what I found that helped to alleviate my writer’s block.

• Take a walk.
• Eliminate distractions
• Exercise
• Move somewhere else to write—even go outside if you can.
• Listen to music
• Spend time with a loved one
• Brainstorm ideas /Freewrite
• Read inspiring quotes
• Read a book
• Practice deep breathing and meditation

And then I also watched this video-----------^
I know they are kind of annoying, but it's really some very sound advice that they offered.


Well, after doing all of that, and as that video suggested, writing about writer's block, it seems that I have welcomed my cerebral cortex back into play, at least for now that is....