Readers letters: Cannabis, Caffeine and Creativity

Do you ever struggle with creative block and use drugs, stimulants or food to try and un-block yourself and get something down on the paper, canvas or screen?

We received over a dozen letters from people who told us they were having problems with that very same situation. Here’s an extract from one of the letters and my advice on a few ways you can improve the situation…

So I’ve always been artistic throughout my life. Just recently, I’ve been smoking cannabis.

It’s not like, “Let’s smoke dat chronic & get f****d up”, but because I felt it helped me flow a lot better.

[now I've quit...] 

Without that ’supplement’, it’s like I have artist’s block. I often find myself attempting to surround myself with things that inspire me, & I do – but I just can’t get the inspiration down on my paper.

Has this problem occurred at some point in your life? If so, how do you cope/take care of it? Again, thanks for your time!

Ms. Ima Stoner.

Ok, so I see two different issues here. 

1) She’s having trouble getting her work done

2) She’s using cannabis as a crutch to try and overcome problem number 1.

So let’s look at issue number 1 first. An artist who’s having trouble getting her work done. There’s nothing new there and I’m sure we can all relate to it. 

I could write a book on why artists struggle to get their work done – and plenty of others have – but I’ll try and keep this short and practical. 

It’s not exclusive, but in my experience, if you dig deep enough you often find that creative block comes down to one of two things - 

Either;

a) The artist simply has nothing of any value to say.

or

b) The artist is scared of being ridiculed when they publish their work.

If it’s a) then you really need to to go find a cause. What is it that’s driving you? Why have you chosen to be an artist? 

The life of an artist is one of self expression. What is it that you want to express, what is it you want to “get out”, what is it that you want to share with the world? 

I’ll paraphrase that great Salvador Dali quote again - An artist isn’t one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.

How is your work inspiring others? 

Maybe you don’t know, maybe there just isn’t some inherent message within you, bursting to come out.

If you feel like you really haven’t suffered any great tragedy in your life or you haven’t experienced any overwhelming joys, if you don’t feel like you have anything to share, then go live a little.

Get out into the world and find a cause, a message, an experience. The place is full of them, so you won’t have to travel very far.

There are plenty of people who would love to have someone to talk about their cause, to communicate their story on an artistic level. 

If it’s b) and this is far more common, then you really need to sit down and think seriously about the life you are choosing.

Here’s the thing. To live a life of self expression. To be an artist of any discipline – requires publishing your work.

And the one thing that is inevitable when you publish your work – is that someone will ridicule it.

To be great, you have to separate yourself from the pack.

You can’t be a leader AND a follower. 

What you can do is change, inside your head, what it means to be ridiculed. 

You can’t stop people criticizing your work but you can change what it means to you.

One way to do this, is to start small and condition yourself to it. 

I’ve spoken in the past about “the busker principle”.

I believe that any aspiring artist can learn a great deal from the busker because the busker is out there learning ALL the fundamentals and building a solid foundation for a great career. 

Most importantly the busker is facing the public, facing rejection and ridicule and asking for money at the same time. 

And it’s this fear of rejection and ridicule that is behind most procrastination and artistic block.

It’s also a big factor that prevents creatives sell their work efficiently enough to make a sustainable living. 

So, here’s a quick fix that you can put to work right now to help overcome this fear:

Go find a cause, find a reason WHY you want to produce some work.

It might be a selfish reason. You might choose to create something that will inspire someone else, so they will buy the work from you and you can go buy a new pair of shoes.

Or you might go and align yourself with a more noble cause. You could discover a way to use your art to help communicate someone else’s message, maybe an injustice or just an imbalance in the world. 

Whatever the motivation you come up with, (and there’s no right or wrong) before you sit down and start your work, try and picture the end result in your head.

See the inspiration on the face of the patron buying your work, she the shoes you will buy when your work is sold or see the people who’s lives might be changed by your intervention in their cause.

Turn it over and over in your minds eye and I’ll bet you find that blank page starts to fill itself. 

So, let’s look at issue number 2.

She’s been using cannabis as a crutch to overcome the artistic block. 

Just realizing why cannabis sometimes helps her can be of value. I mean, what is it that the cannabis actually does? 

Does it open up the mind to some mystical, spiritual, creative dimension, where inspiration and artistry suddenly start to flow? 

Of course it doesn’t. It simply changes her state of mind. 

It changes her state of mind from one of Fear to one of Relaxation. 

So, temporarily, she is able to forget that she is afraid of ridicule and her work starts to flow more naturally. 

But there are two things to note about this process.

Firstly, it’s addictive. 

It’s not so much that cannabis itself might be addictive, that’s not the issue.

It’s that anything we do regularly that has a short term positive effect, tends to become addictive. 

If she ate a couple of chocolate doughnuts instead of having a joint, the sugar rush would change her state of mind and her work would start to flow.

If she drank a strong cup of coffee, the caffeine would change her state of mind and her work would start to flow.

If she chugged an ice cold beer, the alcohol would change her state and her work would start to flow. 

I’m sure you’re starting to get the picture. 

And I’m sure you are smart enough to create your own mental picture of how anyone might end up, if their strategy for being creative is linked to any of the above. 

The short term effect for using any of these techniques is a change in your state of mind that get’s you unstuck. 

The long term effect is an overall drop in energy, an increase in sluggishness – even less motivation that you started with and probably a fat ass. 

But you can take advantage of that addictive nature we all possess.

You can turn it to your advantage by associating something positive with kick-starting your creativity. 

When you are facing a blank page, canvas or screen and your mind is dwelling on the fear, then the three most effective things you can do are;

a) Breathe 
b) Drink more water
c) Move your body

It’s as simple as that.

Our mind and body are one system. So when we sit, hunched over for hours consuming caffeinated drinks in an unnatural environment, it effects our body and mind.

Our breathing gets shallow, we get lethargic and that effects our mental performance.  

So, when you start to lag a little bit and you notice that your brain’s not firing on all cylinders;

a) Check your posture. Are you hunched over? Is your breathing shallow? Stand up, take some deep breaths, better still, open a window or go for a short walk. Learn a couple of Yoga or Qi Gong breathing exercises or meditate for 5 minutes (It’s just breathing dude). 

b) Go get some water. With air conditioning and central heating and the crap food most people eat, you’re body and your brain (which are 70-75% water) are likely screaming out for more of the clear stuff.

Remember I said WATER: We aren’t made up of 75% coffee or coke or whatever caffeinated drink you have adopted as part of your creative “work all night” persona.

Being able to think CLEARLY is far more valuable than being able to work all night, so use caffeine only in emergencies and flush that crap out with lots of water.

c) Get up and jack your body. Walk up and down the stairs a few times, do a few press-ups, I have a weights bench and a punch bag in my office, that’s how important we take regular short bursts of exercise.

The human body simply isn’t designed to sit still all day so give it a break :)

Ok, here’s an idea, if you’ve been suffering with the same issues, why not give these ideas a go.

Make it an experiment.

You don’t have to believe in their effectiveness to try them.

And don’t worry about the consequences of giving up your chemicals and your comfortable habits. Just make this a trial, for 30 days and see if it increases your performance and gets you any closer to where you want to be.

If it doesn’t work for you, just revert back to being an over caffeinated stoner :)

And let’s not sugar coat this. You should be aware that quitting any habit, will have consequences in the short term.

Especially food and chemical habits. You may even feel like crap for a week whilst your body tries to detox. Such is the price of growth and taking back control of your life.

Good luck and let us know in the comments how you get on. 

Paul.