Trapped in creative block

I haven’t written anything for a long time. I used to write lots of gibberish things once in a while. There were time I used to write short stories, short poems and blogs on different topics. But lately I haven’t done any of these. I planned to write something many times but at the end I couldn’t make it. Most of the time I can’t think of a good topic and sometimes I feel lazy to write. But today I realized I got trapped in creative block.

Creative block is a situation where your creative side of your brain stops working. This a frustrating time when you can’t do anything creative. Creative blocks happen mostly when your are stressed or stuck in personal problem or your didn’t utilized your brain cells lately. For me I think all these were applicable for me.

Lately I was so much stressed with office work that I hardly got time for my own. I used to work till late night and as a result used to start late in the morning. Most of the time of the day, only work was in my mind. When I was a CA student, I used to play different games in Facebook and in my mobile. In past few months, I hardly could get time to play mobile games. I was busy even in the weekends. Therefore, my primary objective during my free time was to sleep as much as possible. I believe “Sleep” is be best medicine in the world.

As I was stressed and got involved with different matters, I didn’t have time for creative works. Even I lost creativity in my office works. After passing CA, CMA and completing MBA, I didn’t have much of the things to study. Even though there was lots of material and journal I wish to study but it doesn’t happen if there is no urge for it. I haven’t studied for a while. So I almost lost connection with my creative side of the brain. I was out of practice and it became difficult for me to write anything. Several times I sat down to write some blogs but I didn’t felt the interest I usually do. Also there was some technical issues with my blog site. Apparently my ISP has blocked access to any WordPress hosted sites. I can’t even access my own blog from my home. This was one big reason for not writing any blog in past few months because it was not possible for me to write anything while I was at work.

All these combined factors kept me away from writing anything. As was stressed with work pressure, I had to use my logical side of brain more often. I stopped using the emotional side. You should know that every person or living thing has two side of brain. One side side is logical side and another is the emotional side. Logical side helps us to function and take decision. On the other hand emotional side helps us to think, feel, have imagination. Creativity comes only when you can use your emotional side. People live and functions by blending both logical and emotional side. If your stop avoiding emotional side, you will become a robot where you will keep working. But if you use only emotional, you will be living out of reality all the time. So ideal scenario is to blend both of the emotional side and the logical side. you can make decision with your feelings not just logic.

Lately, I felt that I have lost touch with my emotional side. So to getting back in touch with the creative side, I started to have a personal time off each day. In my personal time, I walk alone in the street or lie down in my bed while thinking about differ things. Basically I let my mind wonder around. I come up with different absurd theories. Reading books is very much helpful to get in touch with the emotional side. Books help you to feel what the characters in the books are thinking or feeling. You can create your own world for them. So I started reading different books written by different well recognized writers like Sayed Mustaba Ali, Manik Bandhapadhay, Porshuram and Trilokonath Mukhpadday. I’m sure many of you haven’t hard the name of these writers. These writers are from early period of the twentieth century but their writings are totally out of the box for the people of that time.

As I got back to with my emotional side a bit, I now feel the urge to write something. I’m planning to write on a regular basis. I don’t care if there is no one reads my writings. I don’t write for other people. I started this blog to write all my random pointless thoughts. This is exactly what I will do.  I will write all the gibberish thing I want. I will get out of this trap of creative block.

Things to do in semester break!

I’m pretty much sure that throughout the whole semester every students wish for the semester break.  I saw “oh yeah! break at last” ,”Finally it’s over” type status from most of my friends’ in Facebook. First two or three days is enjoyable. But latter most of us start to get bored. We try to pass the boring time somehow. I’ve suggested 15 things to do during semester break. This blog is for those persons who find nothing to do during the semester break.

1. Get Some Sleep:

It’s time to get some sleep. I’m sure that you had some sleepless nights during the semester. I saw some of my friends putting status of how many hours they didn’t sleep.  Even I didn’t sleep consecutive 72 hours last semester. If same thing happened to you then you must get some sleep during this break. Take some rest before you start enjoying the vacation.

2. Do Party:

If you couldn’t do party during the semester break for the pressure of midterm exam, quiz, assignments, projects and presentations, this is the best time for it. After a successful (or unsuccessful) semester, you must do some party to cheer up yourself. Call your friends and throw a party. Or you can influence other friends to through party (if you want to avoid cleaning up the mess  :P).

3. Go Out Of Town

Best option to enjoy the vacation is going on a trip. Call your friends, make a plan for a trip and then go out of town. Enjoy as much as you can. You can even plan go out of the country too. If friends are not interested or you are not interested to go with them, you can always go on trip with your family members.

4. Hang Around

If you don’t have the option to go on a trip, then try to hang around with friends. I’m sure they won’t disappoint you as they will be bored too :). Hang around with friends, see your surroundings, get familiar with the city you live in.

5. Watch Movie

For me, watching movie is the best way to pass time. Collect, buy or download the latest movies, movies that you didn’t see or the movies that other refereed you to watch. Also you can go to movie with friends.

6. Play Games

If you are a gamer, then it’s a best time for you to play games.  I’m sure you couldn’t do it properly during the semester. Of course, those who are gamers  start playing almost instantly the semester ends. Even if you are not a gamer you can play some games on your computer, PS2/3 or XBox.

7. Read

You can read those books which remained unread. Look for the new books in shop. Also you can read classic novels, poems, dramas etc.  By reading, you can learn your own culture and foreign culture.

8. Write

I think this is the best thing to do in semester break. Have you ever thought of writing stories? what about poems or a novel? This is your time to show your creativity. One of my followers in Twitter writes a lot of poems. She has a blog and publishes all her poems in there. Also she writes stories in her another blog. Click here to have a look. You can give it a try. Also you can create your own blog and write in it. Well, that’s what I’m doing.. 😛

9. Learn

Learning is another way to utilize your semester break. Learn to use new software. Learn how to work on Photoshop and Illustrator, learn how to do programming. You can learn anything you want. It can be photography or even how to play guitar. Your learning will pay-off someday. 🙂

10. Do Research

Well At present I’m a small research on Big Bang theory. You can do it too. If you have interest on something, you can do a research about it. Internet will help you to do the research.

11. Practice Your Religion

Whatever religion you believe, it sure says that there is a GOD. During the semester, may be you were too busy with do religious activity. Well now you are free. Say your prayer to GOD and practice your religious belief. It will bring peace to you and your soul.

12. Clean Up The Mess

It’s time for clean up the mess you made throughout the semester. Clean up your room, table and wardrobe.

13. Attend Outdoor Games

If you have the opportunity, attend some outdoor games. Go for soccer or cricket or whatever outdoor games you prefer. You know the benefits of outdoor games. I don’t want to talk about that here. 😛

14. Do Some Experiment

Do some experiment on whatever you like. I’ll suggest experiment on cooking. One of teacher said that cooking is the best art. Somewhere I read that cooking basically permutation and combination of 3 things; 1) Roasting 2) Boiling and 3) Frying. Don’t know if its true but you can make some permutation and combination of these things to experiment.

15. Analyze and Plan

When the vacation is almost over, sit for analyze and plan. Analyze how your last semester was, what ware your mistakes and what you needed to do. And plan for upcoming semester. Plan to take the new challenge of new semester. If there is no new semester, I men you have completed all the semesters required, than plan for future. Where to go? How to go? etc.

A suggestion:

Make a bucket-list during the semester and point out the things you want to do or need to do but can’t do in the middle of semester. After the semester, start doing those activities one by one. It will help you to utilize and also to enjoy your break.

Those who are bored with semester break and can’t find anything to do, this post is for them. I know that our semester break is almost over ( time to get busy with advising). I should have posted it earlier so it might come handy to you. But still we have some time left. You utilize that time. 🙂