If you’ve ever tried writing an essay for school or an editorial for work, this might have happened to you at some point. You might’ve forgotten a word that’s just at the tip of your tongue. You might’ve even completely run out of new ideas to go on. Today, we will give you some tips on how to get over a mental block that you can try whenever you get stuck in a rut.
Take a Power Nap
In the US, one out of every three people don’t get enough hours of sleep every night. This means that a third of the employed population suffer from lack of focus and sleep deprivation. This can be very detrimental to productivity and most of the time, it is a problem that can’t be solved overnight because good sleeping habits need to be developed over time. If you are one of these people, you should consider making a change in your routine. However, if you need a quick fix for your mental blockage, we recommend catching a few winks to recharge yourself. A power nap, according to the Sleep Foundation, can be as short as 10 to 20 minutes. But it can give your brain the recovery time it needs that it wasn’t able to achieve the previous night.
Give Yourself a Break
Sometimes you find yourself caught in a mental block simply because your brain is exhausted. You might be thinking too much and getting yourself stressed. When this happens, your body will communicate to you that it needs to rest no matter how much you want to deny it yourself. As much as possible, you must try to avoid getting yourself to this point. Every day at work, make sure that you go on enough breaks in between tasks so you don’t end each day feeling overworked. But if you are in dire need to get rid of your mental block, drop everything and step out for some fresh air. Maybe check out the snacks that the cafeteria or your refrigerator has to offer. It’s good to listen to our bodies every once in a while.
Find Inspiration in Others
Mark Twain said “There is no such thing as a new idea.” According to him, “We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them in some sort of mental kaleidoscope.” While the concept of an original idea can still be debated, what concerns us today is how to deal when any sort of idea eludes us entirely. You might be experiencing a mental block because you are forgetting something that you already knew. You might also be uninspired because you are tackling something unfamiliar. When this occurs, it’s never wrong to find out what others have done during a similar situation; depending on the context, you can try analogous tactics while trying to make their solutions your own. Remember, you are not the only person to have had a mental block before and you will not be the last. Sometimes, the answers are already out there and we just need to learn them for ourselves.