My Story

You know those perfect days? The ones where you’re “in the zone,” or “the flow”—where you seem to leave your conscious state and delve into some magical creative realm where inspiration flows right into and through you. Hours sail by as your soul hums along with the trance-like music of your muse?

I’m a writer. I write K9 suspense thrillers for a living. The “for a living” part leads to one of the reasons I’ve developed Élan Vital Create. So many writers I know complain of facing writer’s block. They fear the empty page. I know other artists who claim a similar terror of the blank canvas, or a note-less musical staff, step-less choreography, or a sketch-less pad. Whatever your creative expression, you likely have suffered from the very real pain of an absent or hiding muse.

I’m also a multi-expression artist, and the mystical state of flow is one I crave. I’ve enjoyed many long afternoons living in my imaginary world or splashing inside a painting when my husband pokes his head into my art room to say something to me. His words break the spell. They jar me out of my bliss, and for several seconds I feel like I’m waking from a deep sleep laced with the most beautiful dream, and my re-entry into the real world is somewhat brutal.

I’d spend time in this enchanting realm every day if I could, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot manufacture the mystical creative space at will. Just because I sit down to write, sketch, or paint, there is no promise that I will gain entry to that magical state. In fact, most times I don’t. Honestly, sometimes the magic is more elusive than ever.

I’ve always had a fertile and overactive imagination, but once I turned writing stories into my career and effectively forced my muse to work for a living, I’ve found reaching the otherworldly zone of fluid creativity has become more and more like trying to grab onto water. There is something suffocating that happens to our muses when we take our bliss and turn it into a job.

Does this describe you, too, my creative friend? Do you at times feel dried up and desperate for a deep drink from the cool, sparkling waters of inspiration? Do you long for hours of creative bliss spent with your muse in a distant dimension all your own? Perhaps you’ve felt blocked as a creative unable to grasp new ideas, as though your muse is sitting nearby, but is silently keeping her back to you. Maybe she ducked out with Elvis and has left the building altogether.

If you’ve ever felt blocked, or as though your creative spirit has dried up and blown away, Élan Vital Create is the place for you. When your heart’s breath is infused with creativity, but you can’t find any inside, it’s soul-crushing. Maybe you’re feeling discouraged or even hopeless. Creativity, after all, is not something that can be forced.

What then, can we do?

First, I’m going to go out on a limb and confess that I don’t believe in creative blocks, per se. Now, I know we all say we feel blocked at times… but is it really a true block? Did your muse actually run away or refuse to play?

There is an old saying that states:

Our sense of being blocked stems from the truth of that quote. But I believe this saying also holds the answer to our dilemma.

Being blocked sounds like a form of creative constipation—something that needs unblocked or unplugged—perhaps we’re in need of an artistic laxative. But that doesn’t describe how I feel at these times. I don’t feel backed up; I feel…empty.

I propose that instead of being blocked, we’ve allowed our muse to become depleted and dried out. We’ve let our everyday world, our work, the stresses of life, distractions, the seriousness of adulthood, bills, illness, politics, whatever it is that trips us up—you name it—deplete our reserves of rich and deep creative thinking, joy, and expression. We were designed as a creative being. It’s not what we are, it is WHO we are. And we can’t stop being who we are.

So, if we’re not blocked, then what exactly is happening? Ultimately, we draw and draw from our creative well but forget to replenish the precious resource. We act as though it is a bottomless well that will always pour forth inspiration whenever we ask. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We must learn to nourish our creative spirit. It is crucial to feed and care for our treasured muse! The good news is: we can, and we’ll have fun doing it. We can refill our empty cup by practicing other forms of creativity. Especially those expressions we’re not already adept at by learning and practicing new skills. We can once again discover the simple joy of creating just for the sake of creating—with no expectation of outcome.

I call this Cross Training Your Creativity. Here at Élan Vital, I’ll guide you through many ideas for healing and nurturing your muse and for developing your own creative space. Together, we can gently give our muses much needed CPR and recovery treatment. We’ll have her up singing and dancing in no time and in the process, we’ll learn how to keep her in her bliss. Thank you for joining me on this creative venture, my friend. I look forward to all we will discover together!