How do you turn on the tap?

I feel like I have writer's block. I don't really have it- it's just hard to find the groove again. What I find most interesting about the reading deprivation from this week is it tends to get you off the familiar track. I feel a little derailed though. Not necessarily a bad thing to feel a little lost. Wonderful discoveries are often made in the state of lost.

Personally, I question how this all fits in with my familiar problem of being track-less or stopped because I threw on the brakes in a moment of fear and now I don't know how to get momentum going again. A little note I made for myself at the end of week three said - how do I turn on the tap and off the tap? I had no idea how appropriate this question would be for me this week and especially now as I try to come out of the funk I seem to have fallen into.

I often get myself going creatively and then either something in me throws on the brakes or I allow something outside of me to be my excuse. Then I can go for a long time without much momentum until I find myself suddenly in a creative groove. I don't think I really know what gets me going on the creative track again. What happened was that by the end of week 3 I was in a groove - but I think in the back on my mind I was trying to ask myself - is there a way I can shut this tap off for a little rest and then turn it back on. I was thinking I need to learn how to be able to do this for myself because most of my experience is either on or off and I haven't really figured out how to control the tap.

It's beginning to occur to me that productive creatives have figured out how to work with this on off switch. If you stay on all the time you end up dry, parched, brittle. If you shut off then you never produce. It is finding balance. I think each of us have to find the ways to get to work and to rest our creativity.

Julia Cameron says,"It is normal to yearn for some rest when you are moving so rapidly. What you will learn to do is rest in motion, like lying down in a boat. Your morning pages are your boat. They will both lead you forward and give you a place to recuperate from your forward motion." I get a lot from the morning pages - they give me some focus and help me release some emotional tension. Journal writing especially the kind Cameron has us do has always been a useful tool for me, but I haven't really experienced the morning pages in helping me avoid this on off switch completely.

Well, I'll just say it flat out - I don't completely agree with Cameron - either my morning pages are useful but in a different way than they are for Cameron or I just don't believe that the morning pages will help me keep moving. Although, I love the image of resting while moving, my experience contradicts that completely. I tend to turn on or off . Sometimes I find ways to be slow and steady and rest while in motion, but there are times when the only option is off. I want to know how to turn it off gracefully and be able to turn it back on without having to call in a creative plumber every time.

So, I want to test things out for myself and study what works for others. Showing up is a big one. Reminds me of this quote by O.H. Mowrer "It is easier to act yourself into a better way of feeling than to feel yourself into a better way of action." Most times if I show up and begin working with the creative materials I will at some point without much struggle slip into the creative stream. I know other artists who develop this muscle by making appointments for their work time showing up at the appointed time no matter how they feel.

What seems to work in tandem with showing up is creating a ritual of some sort before working. It might be sharpening the pencils and turning on the music. Or looking at the work that was done the day before. Laying out the brushes and the paint. It seems to become a kind of unconscious behavior that cues the mind and body into a state ready to work.

I am interested in finding what specific things work for me. Testing and experimenting and observing in a very conscious way so that I will be able to answer my question of what turns on the tap and off the tap for me personally? But I am curious reader - do you have something you would care to share that helps you manage the creative flow in your life?