Creative Rituals: How to Create Through the Tough Times
Like many people, 2020 was a year in which creativity took a massive nosedive. Most of my projects were worked on very sporadically, and what I did create generally ended up trashed. It felt as if I would never write again, and if I did, it would always be pure garbage. It felt as if my brain had lost the ability to create.
This is a normal phenomenon to occur during stressful times. Our brains are designed to slip into survival mode during a crisis and things like writing tend to slip to the back burner. Trauma can blunt our ability to create, making us feel empty and idealess. Just keeping up basic functioning can be difficult.
In general, there is little we can do during these times. There is no magic formula for getting back into high gear. You can try to force yourself into doing something but generally, the efforts end up thrown in the trash or deleted. (I cringe at the number of horrific attempts I made and how awful they were.)This doesn’t mean you are lazy. Quite the opposite, I often find people are capable of mindless and routine work even when they are struggling with creative work.
In stressful times, it is important to remember that the intensity of your emotions will not last forever. In psychology and addiction recovery, there is a concept called urge surfing. It means that urges and emotions don’t last very long. If you can ride the wave of energy and strong emotions, you can manage to get through them. Of course, some things are permanent, but even the harshest of grief and loss won’t last forever. Eventually, you will be able to climb your way out.
This is important because even if you can’t do creative work, you can continue to keep creative rituals and imagery around you. I am a believer in ritual and the power of archetypes to guide your creative process. When you are in a creative slump this may be the perfect time to incorporate some powerful rituals. Maybe it is time to do a big declutter of your space, both digital and physical? Maybe it is time to find some inspiring symbols and archetypes for your work?
Rituals remain even when our ability to create is diminished. Rituals are powerful magical spells that connect the past, present, and future. (And by magical spells I am not talking about Hollywood-style magic but the power of our intention to create change.) They are energy manipulators, a recipe for creativity we can return to every day.
Rituals don’t need to be complicated or expensive to be effective. My rituals are all very simple. A bit of meditation daily. Reading books that help expand my perspective and teach me valuable lessons. Journaling three pages a day. (The concept is from The Artist’s Way but generally, I don’t do it first thing in the morning so I don’t call them morning pages.) Studying myths and archetypes. Lighting a candle or holding a tactile object. Ditching my computer to draft on a legal pad.
Creativity isn’t always something we can force, sometimes the words and images won’t come no matter how hard we try. Some days it feels like it will never flow. These days we are faced with brutal honesty all that is going on in our heads. We are forced to face our actual problems, and not run away from them.
This is where ritual comes in. Rain or shine, ritual is always there, something we can do and not something that grows on its own. It isn’t something we have to do every single day, but consistent practice makes it a no-nonsense place to rest when everything else is falling apart. No matter where the muse has gone, your rituals remain, forcing you to be a truth-teller in a world of lies.
My rituals are simple. I open my meditation app (Insight Timer is my favorite)and do a meditation. I rant for three pages in my journal with my favorite pen. Sometimes I go outside and stare at the sky above me, looking beyond the urban landscape to the natural world. Sometimes I study an archetypal story, weaving the ancient into a new creation. Sometimes I just scribble stuff on paper, generally promptly thrown out.
Regardless, the rituals are always there, prepared to support me even when the words won’t come and I want to slam my head into the nearest hard surface. They are something I can return to, over and over.
