Rebooting Your Brain

Everybody needs a good rest periodically and for the Inspired Creative, we often find the rest phase of the creative cycle annoying. We want to be in a constant state of flow with ideas and excitement about our projects, but it’s impossible to sustain that long term. Even nature has to rest — which is why we have winter.

When your “winter” moments of life come along, sink into them and embrace them. Take a break, a vacation even. In July I was in a major rest phase of my creative cycle. I couldn’t come up with an idea if my life depended upon it. The thought of having to brainstorm or do anything business-related made me want to run screaming in the opposite direction. So I knew I was in the rest phase and decided to just embrace it. I did the bare minimum in my business and took time to read, watch movies, play the piano and veg around the house.

But it didn’t really help because in the back of my mind I resented that my brain wasn’t working. At a gut level I felt unproductive and lazy. Then, the 3rd week of August, my family and I went to Seacrest Beach, Florida and spent a week building sand castles and playing lots of Go Fish. I got up early and took solitary walks along the beach and often took a walk in the evening alone as well. It was wonderful! The subconsious guilt program shut down. I felt no need to accomplish anything. I didn’t feel like I “should be working” or “should be coming up with ideas.”

I relaxed into the ocean scenery and enjoyed my family and the gorgeous nature setting. I took lots of pictures and just had fun. The interesting thing was, the morning we were to leave to come home, I woke up from a business-related dream with several ideas popping to mind. It was as if my brain got a system reboot. Since I’ve been back, the ideas have begun to flow again. I’ve been working on a new project for Inspired Creatives at an easy, natural pace.

So, when you’re feeling that boredom and apathy with your projects and the idea channel has shut down for you, take a break! A real break! Step away from your environment so you can come back with clarity. I put together a video of one of my favorite piano pieces along with my photos of the beach. It’ll give you a feel for the kind of break I’m talking about.

If you’d like to harness the phases of the Creative Cycle so they work for you, join me Wednesday, August 31st for “Conquering the Squirrel Syndrome: A Breakthrough Guide for Inspired Creative Entrepreneurs.”