A dry spell due to illness can be as difficult to overcome as a dry spell due to a block. When days go by and you are not in the studio doing productive creative work, it is difficult to break the invisible barrier from the hall to the room where you work. As one is getting well and starting to feel a little better, he may pass the studio door and think about going in but he may not. He has gotten out of the habit.
Habits - difficult to make, easy to break. Once, it seems, that momentum is lost it is hard to get back. We think “maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow I will go in and work on that painting or send a package to that gallery or work on that novel. I am still not feeling all that well yet.” Does this sound familiar? It is just another stalling tactic to keep from getting back to work.
Sometimes we hate to do the things we love. Creating is time consuming, draining, and sometimes stressful. The only way I know of to overcome a block is to force myself to go into the studio and “live there.” Anything I can do I do in there. I eat there, read there, pay bills there, write my blogs there, and relax there. It helps me to surround myself with my working supplies and the paintings I am currently working on. As I do other activities, I keep looking at the paintings on the easels. Before long I am deciding what to do next. The feelings I had when I started the pieces start to return. A few moments later I have a brush in my hand and all is right with the world.
