Pbenjay's Blog

MENTAL HEALTH MONDAY

This week’s topic, Writer’s Block, couldn’t be more timely for me personally.  For the past several months I’ve been struggling with my blog.  I do like to write and I have a fairly good regimen (okay sometimes not so regular) and perhaps if I apply the principles outlined in Dr. Barry Lubetkin‘s mental health tip this week, I’ll find that it isn’t so important as to how many people read this every day and remember that I write because I like to and a little discipline  would be a good thing!

“We are all writers……students……bloggers……executives…….moms………novelists….. We can usually write the simple stuff without procrastinating or being perfectionistic;  Birthday cards, shopping lists,brief memos,etc etc, all get done with relative ease. BUT when it comes to the words that convey the really important stuff about ourselves and our theories and ideas, we often get stuck.

#ds139 “Writer’s Block” (Photo credit: Sharon Drummond)

I have treated dozens of writers who struggle every day to overcome their writing paralysis. Usually, but not always, the culprit is obsessive perfectionism. “Will anyone really like this”, “I am out of ideas”, “This seems really dumb”, “I will get to it tomorrow”, “I have to make this perfect”.

Here is a quick solution to this form of writers block;  First, set a sacred unchangeable time EVERY DAY to write.  An hour, twenty minutes, it doesn’t matter. Go to a comfortable private place, set a timer, and start writing. Even if all you produce is gibberish and nonsense words, you must still WRITE! Do nothing else during this period. Once you have established a regular routine of writing at the same time every day, then you may extend the writing period as needed. At the end of your sacred writing time, reward yourself with something meaningful…a special treat…call a friend…tune on a mindless TV show…write yourself a complimentary note. You deserve it!”

As always feel free to email me at IBT104@AOL.com

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