The 5 Hindrances

to creativity & wholeness

Giving myself permission to be creative allowed me to heal and become whole. I struggled with a series of autoimmune diseases and the intrusion of traumatic memories until I re-embraced my creativity. So I know it works, and yet (even now) there are so many ways I resist or talk myself out of being creative. 

Photo by tabitha turner on Unsplash

Brave Space Schedule 12/15-20/23

12/15 Friday Brave Sharing Salon at 12pm ET
12/18 Monday Brave Space at 12pm ET
12/19 Tuesday Brave Space at 10am and 7pm ET
12/20 Wednesday Brave Space at 12pm ET
Then I am away on vacation, back Tuesday 1/2/24 at 12pm ET

The 5 Hindrances

come from Buddhism and include attachment (desire), aversion (dislike or ill will), sleepiness, restlessness (including worry, fear and anxiety), and doubt. These are the 5 states that get in our way when we’re trying to be mindful, but they also interrupt and disturb our ability to step into the waters of creativity and find our flow. You can think of them as different forms of resistance. They distract us.

One of the gifts of being in Brave Space is that we notice what tends to distract us, and this allows us to become more aware. Awareness is the key to breaking the spell of any hindrance you’re struggling with. Being able to name it: distraction. Or being pulled toward an online catalogue (desire). Or ruminating on something upsetting you from the past (aversion) or from the potential future (restlessness/worry). Or suddenly becoming drowsy. Or suddenly having the urge to question why you even wanted to do this crazy idea in the first place (doubt).

The hindrances are the most powerful when we think they matter. Or when we’re sure they are real. “But I have to pick out a gift for my sister,” we tell ourself as we fall back into that catalogue that glazes our eyes and suddenly twenty minutes have been plucked from our life! Twenty minutes when we were supposed to be focused on our creative project.

It’s easy to think our hindrances are real. Because they know exactly what strategies will work on us! But when we’re in Brave Space, there’s so much peer pressure. We can see other creatives in their little zoom boxes… We’re sure they are focused, so we gain strength from them. We can ask our resistance to step back. We only have the hour, and we showed up to create. Clearly this sudden sleepiness is resistance. We can call it out. “Hello Sleepy Resistance!” We can interrogate it from a place of curiosity and compassion, “Do you need some help, Sleepy?”

“I’m trying to get you out of this. I don’t want you writing about your parents! You’ll just upset them, and then what?”

“Oh, is that what you’re afraid of?”

“If they read that, they’ll stop paying your rent!”

“I appreciate you looking out for me, Sleepy! But I grew up and pay my own rent!”

“But won’t you hurt their feelings if they see that?”

“I hear how concerned you are, and I appreciate how hard you work keeping me safe. So how about we make a deal? If I decide I want to share this, you and I will have a long talk about it first.”

Recognizing these hindrances as states of resistance is the most powerful part of working with them, and sometimes as soon as we recognize them for what they are, they disappear. Other times as soon as I recognize and soothe one, another shows up. But usually through noticing and getting to know them, listening to their fears and updating them (most of them still think I’m 6 years old) and appreciating them, they will back off. This leaves me free to do the work I want to do. I’d love to hear if this method works for you!

Writing Prompt:

This is a big one to last you through the holidays! Ocean Vuong said, "Every time we remember, we create new neurons, which is why memory is so unreliable. I thought, 'Well if the Greek root for poet is creator, then to remember is to create, and, therefore, to remember is to be a poet.' I thought it was so neat. Everyone’s a poet, as long as they remember."

You can substitute creator or playwright or novelist or whatever you want for poet here. Consider a LIST of memories you want to include in your work. Make a big list. Let it include childhood incidents, favorite events, holidays, your people who you want to honor, your people who you want to control, ways you or your family survived or thrived, systems that affected you or your family in specific ways, important objects, ideas, rules, whatever you want to put on the list, put it on the list. Then choose 2-3 things that vibrate strongly for you and give them to your characters as backstory, as reasons for whatever they are about to do, as inspiration, etc. Let yourself enter your work so that it can only be yours. Let your memories affect the present of your work.

Consider the impossible: like a person dying more than once for example. Turn an impossible story into a fairy tale so that it can exist in your work. 

If something can catch some attention: For example, I used to be the oldest child in my family, til my big sister showed up, create a mythology to allow your work to live on more than one plane. 

Work with characters. Imagine a grandmother who becomes a mythic figure. Imbue your characters with a larger than life trait, play with scale. 

A triangle is a strong form with great tension. Create a triangle with your characters. Who gets caught in the middle, and how does that shift? Allow for things to be the opposite of what we expect. 

Let me know how these prompts are going! And what challenges you are facing with your creativity and/or your healing. And if you know someone who would like a prompt or some inspiration, please share.

Offerings:

2024 Winter Playwrights Workshop openings! I only have a few spots left for the Thursday section from 6-9pm ET, on Zoom. Begins January 4th for 10 weeks. If you have a full-length play or you're writing one and want to hear it with feedback in a supportive group that focuses on craft, my workshops are limited to 6 participants. $500. MORE INFO HERE

Brave Group Coaching for Everyone! If you've been interested in discovering more about your nervous system and how to better regulate it, if you want to get to know and work with your parts, (inner critics, perfectionists...) then this is perfect for you! I have a few spots left Tuesdays starting January 9th from 7-830pm for 6 weeks. $120 discounted rate paid in full in advance (partially refundable). Or you can reserve your spot for $50 (nonrefundable) and then pay either $100 to start or $25/weekly. MORE INFO HERE

Opportunities & Other Classes:

(for NYC peeps) Terrence McNally Incubator

ZOOM OFFERINGS! all from people I highly recommend!

Suzanne Willett’s Experimental Theatre Writing

This Workshop a series of 10 Zoom classes/workshops held every Tuesday evening from 01/09/24 - 03/12/24. Classes will consist of discussions of homework material; prompt assignments; and readings of work generated in class. The last class will consist of final presentations.

The goals of this course are: 1) to gain additional theater writing techniques which expand the writer’s current theatrical repertoire; 2) to investigate writing techniques as a representation of a writer’s response to the world; and 3) to strengthen a connection between theatre and various other theories and movements. MORE INFO HERE

Gina Femia’s Novel Writing!

Gina Femia (Alondra) is teaching a Novel Writing Course! She writes, “The first novel I wrote was published this year (and was named a Best Book for Teens by the New York Public Library - what!).  But what you may not know is that it took me 3 years to write (and then another 2 years in the publication process).”

“Writing a novel was the hardest form of writing I've ever tackled - and the most rewarding.  Which is why I've put together a class to help those interested not only get started on the path of writing their novel, but giving you the tools to keep going once the class is done.”  

“Do you want to stretch your creative muscles?  Learn how to write in a new medium?  Or have you always had the dream to write a novel?  Then this class is for you.” 

“Over the course of 7 weeks, you'll put together a toolkit with tools for writing your novel and create a synopsis, a polished outline (including character descriptions) and the first chapter of your novel - as well as a strategy for hitting your goals way past our time together.”

If you'd like to register, please REACH OUT HERE

Class Details: Jan: 9, 16, 23, 30 Feb: 6, 13, 20 6-8:30pm ET $300 (reach out to create a payment plan!) On Zoom.  Classes will be recorded - in case you need to miss one, you'll be given the recording to watch before next class.

Rhonda Musak’s Leap with Passion into 2024

For Rhonda’s Workshop MORE INFO HERE

Inwood Hill Park spring flowers but your pet’s pic could be here! Send me your fave! Cause Broccoli won’t always pose for me!

Onward,

Emma