What Happens When You Spend a Week Consulting Your Inner Creator?
Why it’s important to take time away from consuming content
Last November, I decided to take a week off of consuming content. It was an exercise found in the book The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. I still haven’t finished that course and have stopped and started it at least three times. Maybe that’s why I’m blocked- I’ll start but I fail to follow through.
Consuming content is easy. We do it while scrolling social media, researching an article we want to write, or when a topic grabs our attention. We can over-consume when we want to learn as much as possible about a topic. We can have all-day binges when we feel stuck creatively and want to topic research. Reading and consuming comes with the turf of being a writer.
The biggest fear I had when starting the challenge was of missing out. It was the equivalent of a coffee addict giving up the morning and noon cups of joe. The first few days were really difficult as I felt the disconnect and my emotions ran. However, as the week went on, I began to realize a few things about purposely skipping out on content. What I learned is the reason why I recommend taking a few days now and then to disengage.
It Helps You Hear Your Inner Creative Better
Instead of consulting everything around you, you tune inwards. You start to listen to the creativity in yourself. You uncover what they know, what they want to express and the raw details they want to leave on the page. You hear their questions, their statements, and their choices of both words and topics better.
You give yourself a chance to create something unique that is not inhibited by someone else’s work. It’s unique because it comes directly from your heart.
Learning to write like this is hard. When we content overload, our ideas usually are gelled with what we’ve been listening to- for better or worse. Stopping the voices from the outside makes the inner voice clear and gives it a microphone where before it had to whisper.
The things that my inner creator wanted to write about surprised me. It let me know that it wanted to write outside the lines I had drawn for it. It wanted to write more love memoir, it wanted to write about my financial journey, and it wanted self-improvement articles based on experience.
It Gives You a Chance to Experiment
What kinds of writing do you usually do or do you want to experiment with? The inner creator might be begging to write about a topic you haven’t broached before or to write personal essays when you’ve been doing listicles. Give that inner voice a chance to shine, to come out and show you what it wants. You might surprise yourself with what comes out.
It Gives You a Sense of Direction
When you take the time to really focus on what the creative inside wants, you learn quickly what direction it wants to take. You know which projects are right for you and which aren’t. It takes time to know what you’re interested in and what new hobbies or genres it can lead to.
It was during the week of no content consumption that I gave up on my regular blog. I wasn’t committed to working on it. I would come up with a content calendar, graphic list, and social media calendar and would then completely ignore it when it came time to work on it. It made me question if what I wanted I could achieve by simpler means. I decided to dedicate my Instagram to a specific category- living on a low buy project. It also reminded me that I wanted to write for websites. A goal that I’m only now coming back to after a few months away.
It Allows You to Discover the “Revolution in Your Heart”
What is really important to you and what do you want to do to get there?
That was a question I really took to heart during my week off of consumption.
It’s easy to follow someone else’s instructions or experience and hope it works for you. It’s also easy to intake someone else’s method and completely rip it to shreds on the internet. However, neither will help you get closer to your goal.
You only know what is right when you stop listening to what is out there, get a better view, and re-evaluate. Take a closer look at what you’ve learned by what you’ve done. It will help you to know if the advice works or won’t help.
Also, we all need time to decompress. To think about what has been presented. You can’t take that time if you’re just cramming more in.
For me, I remembered what brought me joy about the process of creating. It challenged my process and even my “why” of creating. It reminded me that for the time being, I want to write because it is my means of expression. I’ll still dive into content creation from time to time. However, for right now, the right way for me is to write first because I love it. It reminded me of goals that I have, both inside and outside of this world of creativity, and gave me time to challenge my assumptions about the best way to get there.
How Much Time Is Right to Take Away From Consuming
In my experience, the first few days were the hardest but the majority of my insights happened after four days. That weekend was rich for hearing the creator’s voice and charting my own path. That does not mean that I would encourage everyone to start with a solid week.
If I hadn’t been challenged by an author who I respect to take a week, I might have taken a much shorter amount of time. I might have done a weekend to start with. Two solid days where all I had was my own voice. I might have built up to a week eventually, but I would have started smaller.
I can’t predict what the right amount of time is for anyone else either. I think it would depend on how much I wanted the experience.
I think a week is good every few months. However, I also think that periodic days or weekend is a good stretch to get off the phone, disconnect from the books and stop listening to podcasts.
The Biggest Take Away
For me, the biggest takeaway was to spend time outside the realm of content. However long that takes is up to you. Take as long as you need to drown out the other voices around you and really listen to what is inside. Those outside voices can help support you, but you won’t feel free unless you learn your own voice.
Take smaller breaks frequently. Go out and do something that nurtures your creative side. Make lists of any ideas that come to you from your personal experience that would make for good material. Learn from what you engage with. It might be hard to sever that cord, but it’s worth it.
