Writer’s Block? This is the formula that works for me
Intuitive Creativity has a formula, and I think I’m cracking the code.
I won’t beat around the bush, so here’s the formula:
Rational Thought × Emotional Feeling = Intuitive Creativity
This formula came to me by means of this same Intuitive Creativity. I was really in the flow after hiking to the peak of one of my favorite trails after climbing 1,988 ft. in 1.5 hrs. I sat under a shrubby tree and began writing about some thoughts that had stood out during the ascent, and ended up typing away for over an hour straight. I was simply recording what I was feeling, much closer to journaling the sensations of awareness and mindfulness that I was experiencing. My intention was only to be present. But being as annoyingly philosophical as I am, I then started asking myself how I was arriving at so much clarity.
Why was I able to write and write in this situation? What was so different about my current state from sitting in a comfortable chair in an air conditioned bedroom? The answer came without effort. It’s cliché, but it came to me right away. I experienced only clarity. All I had to do was write it down so that it would not be lost to my faulty memory.
Wise Mind
Days before this hike, I was studying mindfulness and found the Wise Mind DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) skill. Wise Mind borrows from Eastern meditative traditions to add to the toolbox of Western Talk Therapists trained in psychoanalysis. Here’s a visual that conveys the information exceptionally well:
To summarize, Wise Mind is the result of including the best of both the Rational Mind and Emotional Mind. To understand the best of these contrasting forms of thought, let’s take a minute to better understand what they include and how they function in our daily lives. Then we can understand how to best implement them in our lives.
The Rational Mind Explained:
The Rational Mind is great at objective thinking. It processes based on the reality observed. It also likes to suppress emotions and compare present experiences with past experiences. Often called the Reasoning Mind, it loves to ruminate in this way and likes to think logically by use of facts and statistics. It is enamored with making only the decisions that make “intellectual sense” by suppressing the emotions that threaten to overwhelm its data processing center. Knowledge is the result of only logical reasoning.
The Rational Mind is most comfortable reading a map or calculating a company’s profit margin ratio. It needs concrete facts from which it can gather information to complete a given task. It is adept in intellectual pursuits such as critical problem-solving and arranging for executing on a task that is part of a larger plan. For the Rational Mind, everything needs meaning.
The Emotional Mind Explained:
The Emotional Mind is subjective and is best at reacting. Snap judgements as described in Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink are a great example of the Emotional Mind at it’s best. It can empathize with other perspectives and explore abstract emotions. The prime example is love. Everyone talks about love, but it can only be fully appreciated after experiencing this powerful emotion, first hand. Even then it’s an emotion that is widely different for every individual and could be described in a colorful rainbow of words and phrases.
The Emotional Mind allows us to understand from the memories of the feeling more simply. There’s no processing fuss or logical conjecture; you either know the feeling or you do not. The Emotional Mind is adept at understanding future potential in an instant. It can be idealistic about the potential or be filled with unnecessary dread if the potential presents as harmful. It allows us to immerse ourselves in the lives of our favorite TV characters and relate with them for entertainment. The Emotional Mind powers art and is driven by inspiration.
Why the multiplicative effect?
The Rational and Emotional Minds have something in common: they are both lazy. Just in different ways. The Rational is pragmatic and seeks efficiency by not committing more energy than necessary to any task. The Emotional Mind is more of what you think of when you envision the typical lazy feeling. You feel sluggish and lack motivation because it would feel a lot better to just lay down and binge the 4th season of Parks and Recreation after a long day of work.
While on the hike that I mentioned earlier, I realized that this is just one of several ways that these seemingly conflicting selves overlap. In fact, reigning the laziness of both can result in quality, inspired work with efficient execution. Allow yourself to listen to the Emotional Mind and do something that makes you feel productive, like a short (15 min.) workout. The Rational Mind will want to keep feeling productive if it can sense the benefit of writing a new article or adding a few paragraphs to that novel. Maybe a short nap (less than 45 mins.) is what you need to recharge before tackling a pitch that you’ve been stuck on all morning. The key is to not go overboard. All in moderation. You can nap for a bit, but binging a TV show is letting the Emotional Mind take over and causing the Rational Mind undue anxiety as a result of procrastination.
Rational Thought × Emotional Feeling = Intuitive Creativity
The effect of Intuitive Creativity is multiplicative because this Wise Mind state taps into the most efficient use of energy. It’s not a simple addition of an idea inspired by a powerful feeling and executed on by means of well reasoned procedures. By considering both our logic and our feelings, it is possible to arrive at an entirely new vantage point, a new perspective. In an academic field such as Interdisciplinary Studies, we call these products of gaining deeper clarity on a subject: Interdisciplinary Insights. In a creative endeavor such as Creative Writing, I’m dubbing it: Intuitive Creativity
I must emphasize that this is possible only by creating the right conditions, and then having the patience to be mindfully aware. By really listening to your needs, you can then use this awareness to make decisions that honor what you are feeling while arriving at a satisfactory solution. I caution this patience because these moments of intuition are often described as spontaneous and without any conscious understanding of how the mind created the idea. They arrive when we are ready. Not when we most direly need them. That can be very frustrating, so just be mindful that all we can do is create the space for Intuitive Creativity within ourselves.
It’s been studied that just taking a break really helps! Treat and care for your body, while letting your mind wander during a hot shower, a tanning session by the pool, a walk in the park, a long jog on a treadmill, or an intense hike, my personal favorite. Figure out what works for you and keep trying new things.
How to harness the Wise Mind to fuel your Intuitive Creativity:
Psychotherapists teach the skills “What” and “How” DBT skills. The “What” skills are: Observe, Describe, and Participate. The “How” skills are non-judgmentally, one-mindfully, and effectively. It’s worth noting that these are skills, which mean that they require proper practice until mastered. The process can be arduous and setbacks are to be expected. For more information, seek resources from a licensed therapist on: Core Mindfulness DBT. Not from some ‘rando’ on Medium.
An example that came to mind (and made its way to my Notes during that hiking session) was regarding Einstein’s way of thinking. I highly recommend Walter Isaacson’s biography titled, Einstein: His Life and Universe for a deeper dive on this example.
I believe Einstein was so brilliant because of his insane ability to understand and process things objectively. He was mathematically gifted beyond comprehension and infamously a difficult student because he knew his own abilities. His pursuit of being a rebel, and allowing his ego to win out at times, did land him in the hot-seat on several occasions. I also believe that this same willingness to be a contrarian, his appreciation for subjectivity in the form of liberal arts, and aided by a few illicit substances, he was enabled to approach the objective reasoning dilemmas of Physics from much more creative angles. The man was just having fun in this experience of life!
I could not have had time to reach this state of mind and come up with these ideas if I didn’t take breaks. If you don’t take it from me, look at the creatives that inspire your own craft and research the moments when they arrived at their best ideas. Please feel free to share if you’ve had any similar experiences of inspiration from Intuitive Creativity in a comment below.
Be sure to follow me on Medium and check out Spiritual Philosophy Podcast. Season 1 premieres this Summer 2021.
