Last week my motivation for creating and life-ing in general left my soul. I did not want to go into my studio/ sunroom and work on 5 pieces at once like I did the week before. I didn’t want to watch TV either. I wanted to destroy something. I wanted to use my hands to tear something apart. I couldn’t tell you where that venomous anger came from. I just know that it slowed me down.

When dealing with that version of art block, its easy to go blind and give in to the misery of the world. What kept me from going there is my refusal to give in to the despair going around like the plague. I refuse to be angry for no apparent reason. What do I have to be angry about? Really? Plenty. But anger is only useful in art when it drives you to create something.

At least it wasn’t sadness. Anger is easier to quell for me, because I find it to be such a waste of energy. Sadness however, is a bit more challenging. I’m getting better at keeping it at bay still. Exercise is an extremely useful tool to shrink the impact of both of these big emotions. Mostly I stand in one spot and jump for about 1 minute. What a difference something so simple can make.

Whenever I want to sit and wallow or whenever I catch myself in a negative headspace, I get up and dance, yell, blast some music, play some music (piano), or watch comedy. If I have ice cream, I’ll use that to release my happy hormones. Firstly, I had to notice the signs of an onslaught of high emotions though. I spent time observing the why and how in order to realize the when my mood was shifting to one side.

Anger and sadness are energies that have gotten stuck, so moving to release them is the way to go. Even if you have to punch and kick the air, just get that mad energy off you.

-K