Permission To Create and Finding Flow

Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS)

3 years ago

Paul told us to write about it, and I can only tell you what works for me. I am going through a podcasting and video block since forever. I still enjoy doing it when I do, but with everything in life, this is going through changes since 2020.

But without boring you with all the details, I will answer questions that people ask me. How do You? Manage to do it all. I don’t. Yes, I said it. I don’t do it all. At least not at the same time. It doesn’t happen in continuity.

It doesn’t happen consistently, even though I keep on trying to be consistent. But I persist.
It’s my own Creative Life Everest. Before 2020 I thought being a doctor is my left-brained work and writing was so right-brained. But during the lockdown, I realized our brain doesn’t like to work with partitions. It likes to do stuff together. It’s an artificial divide that we suffer from. A perception of what’s right and what’s left. No one would be a complete human without a whole brain. So unless you are having a functional MRI done to assess what’s being used for which work or play, for you, we simply don’t know. But we can can some idea from scientifc research .But not the exact pathway which is helping you do ,what you do .

I digress. Sorry for the medical jargon. But what you learn and what you do happen to intermingle. Improve your brain. It’s not just IQ but Brain health. The more inter-neuronal connections you have, the better it is.

It’s your way of surviving the chaos of living. Life rarely goes according to the entire plan. So keeping a swerving margin is crucial. How well you pivot is behind how well you live. I sometimes don’t manage at all. I just read a book and think in the background. What is making me happy now? Will that work 10 years down the line. Why should we try to live and work better?

I am a big supporter of Digital health and Digital Education. It can help us make massive strides. But behind everything, we need a human touch. That’s why when you have writers block go back to nature.

Think about the last time you forget what you were doing while doing it? That’s your clue to finding flow. If you are to enjoy doing something, it needs to have flow. Otherwise, it doesn’t work. You just need to keep writing to get over a writing block. If you don’t feel inspired, you need to do some other creative thing that is effortless.

Write for the fun of it. Paint for the fun of it. When I read Living colors I understood this.

Ignore editing and publishing for now. Just write. Go out for a walk. Ask yourself, “what’s the most difficult part of writing?” It could be too much research into how to write. It could be too much obsession about the correct grammar. It could be fear of ridicule about how to do things right. It could be fear of SEO and lack of the proper keyword. Whatever it is, writing needs a story and an inner urge. You need to write because you want to.

Publishing, on the other hand, is a whole different thing! Don’t let the fear of judgments stop you from charting your own path. If the Pandemic has taught us one thing, that’s the flexibility of the human spirit. You can do this. Just start with the first 100 words. Do it in your diary, phone, laptop. Just keep practicing, and once you start writing in free flow, the publishing part will get easier. We are all born with permission to create.

It’s only when we start thinking we overthink and upset the proverbial creative apple cart. All of us are part of nature. Nature creates every day. You have permission to create. Don’t let your fears hold you back. Also, don’t leave your day job. It’s better to have a hobby outside work than a hobby to make ends meet. Because “Real Artists Don’t Starve“.

So create one day at a time. You can do it.

Writing this for Ultimate Blog Challenge and Blogchatter Half Marathon.

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