Stuck in a Creative Rut? Here’s How to Overcome Blocks and Reignite Your Inspiration

Understanding Creativity: Why Your Brain Resists Innovation

If you’re a creative of any kind—an artist, a writer, a YouTuber—you’ve probably experienced creative blocks at least a few times on your journey. It can feel frustrating and debilitating, preventing you from doing what you love and, for some, limiting career growth. However, there are ways to break through creative blocks and get your creativity flowing again.

What is Creativity and How Does It Work in the Brain?

Creativity is an innate human ability. It is problem-solving, making connections, seeing possibilities, thinking fluidly, and approaching ideas with an open mind. It functions like a muscle—one that either gets stronger with use or weakens from lack of exercise. Even people who believe they “aren’t creative” are simply stuck in a creative block.

According to The Agile Mind: How Your Brain Makes Creativity Happen, creativity is primarily associated with the right hemisphere of the brain, which processes information visually and holistically, as opposed to the left hemisphere, which processes information linearly and logically.

Being creative takes significant brain power. Thinking new thoughts requires the most energy from the brain, which is why the brain often defaults to automatic thinking patterns based on past knowledge. While this is an efficient way for the brain to process millions of bits of information per second, it also means that the brain actively resists creative thought. It prefers to stick with what is known rather than explore new and unfamiliar ideas.

What Makes Creativity Flow?

There are two key factors that encourage creativity to flow: rest and inspiration.

1. Creativity Flows When We Are Relaxed and Rested

You may have noticed that some of your best ideas come while driving, showering, or falling asleep. This is because relaxation allows the brain to shift into a state of open awareness, making space for creative insights.

2. Creativity Flows When We Are Inspired

Creativity is an infinite resource, but it requires practice. The more ideas you generate, the more creative energy flows. Creativity thrives on curiosity, play, and fear resilience. The key is to nurture it like a garden—through time, patience, and care.

What to Do When You Feel Creatively Blocked

Most creative blocks stem from emotions. Creativity thrives in a state of abundance and openness, whereas stress, fear, and scarcity cause it to shut down. If you’re feeling blocked, the first step is to acknowledge where you are emotionally.

1. Check in with yourself. Close your eyes and ask: What’s my headspace like? What emotions am I feeling in my body? Instead of pushing past these feelings, sit with them. Fear—whether fear of failure, not being good enough, or perfectionism—is often the root cause of creative resistance.

2. Give yourself compassion. Creativity is vulnerable work, and fear is built into the creative process. Instead of fighting it, build a relationship with it. Understand that every time you create, fear may show up, but it doesn’t have to control you.

3. Recognize the energy drain of emotional suppression. Society conditions us to repress emotions and push forward, but suppressing emotions takes significantly more energy than allowing yourself to process them. Creativity requires mental energy, so clearing emotional blocks frees up more space for creative thought.

4. Use journaling as a tool. Journaling can help you identify and process emotions that may be contributing to your block. Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages practice is a great example of how writing can clear mental clutter and create space for creativity.

5. Move your body or change your environment. Taking a walk, dancing, or even switching rooms can provide a fresh outlook and disrupt stagnant energy. Sometimes, a simple change in scenery can reset your creative flow.

Infuse Your Creative Process with Play

Play is a powerful tool for overcoming creative blocks. It lowers fear, increases freedom, and brings joy back into the creative process. Here’s how to integrate play into your creativity:

1. Lower the Stakes

Many creative blocks arise from pressure—pressure to be great, to succeed, or to make something impressive. When you focus too much on the outcome, it can trigger fear and scarcity. Instead, shift your attention to the process rather than the final product.

2. Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

Try something completely outside of your normal creative medium. If you’re a musician, experiment with drawing. If you’re a writer, try collage art. Engaging in a medium where you have no expectations to be “good” creates space for play.

For example, when I was struggling with creative anxiety post-college, I found that traditional art forms brought up fear and perfectionism. Instead, I turned to cooking as a creative outlet. Because there was no pressure to create a masterpiece, it allowed me to reconnect with the joy of creating.

3. Meditate to Quiet the Thinking Mind

Meditation quiets the left brain (the center of analytical thinking) and increases activity in the right brain (which processes creativity holistically). This creates an ideal state for creative insight while also reducing stress.

4. Use Procrastination to Your Advantage

It may sound counterintuitive, but as Adam Grant explains in his TED Talk, some of the best ideas arise through procrastination. When you step away from a creative challenge and focus on something unrelated, your unconscious mind continues working on the problem in the background, often leading to unexpected breakthroughs.

5. Change Your Scenery to Stimulate Inspiration

New environments bring fresh perspectives. If you’re feeling stuck, go visit a museum or spend time in nature. Absorbing new sights, sounds, and experiences can provide creative fuel.

6. Rest and Recharge

Creativity is cyclical. Just like nature has seasons, your creative energy fluctuates. You can’t be in a constant state of output—rest is essential to allow ideas to incubate. Unfortunately, most creative industries don’t accommodate natural creative cycles, leading to burnout. But even within demanding schedules, prioritizing moments of rest can make a huge difference.

Embrace Creative Blocks as Part of the Process

Creative blocks can be incredibly frustrating, but fighting against them often makes them worse. If you allow yourself to sit with the discomfort instead of forcing creativity, you may discover something deeper beneath the block. It might be an opportunity to process emotions, gain clarity, or even pivot to something unexpected.

Rather than seeing creative blocks as the enemy, view them as part of the creative journey. When you stop resisting and start exploring, you’ll find that these blocks become less frequent—and when they do arise, you’ll have the tools to move through them with greater ease.

Get the Support You Need to Overcome Creative Blocks

One of the most effective ways to reignite your creativity is to be held in a supportive, compassionate container by someone who understands the creative process inside and out.

My Creative Compass container is designed for visionaries who are getting stuck in the creative process. It’s nothing to be ashamed of — in fact! — its one of the most common human experiences. Blocks don’t have anything to do with your talent, skill or ability to turn your ideas into reality. Sometimes what you really need is someone who knows how to traverse the unknown and help dissolve the obstacles that are sure to come up along the way. That’s where I come in.

Everything you need is already within you—there may just be layers of self-protection and fear conditioning keeping you from fully accessing your genius. Through deep subconscious exploration and purposeful play, I guide you toward unlocking your creativity with confidence.

If this resonates with you, let’s connect and explore how I can support your creative journey.