Ideation Overstimulation, The Opposite of Writer's Block
I feel ideas follow me around and pop both in and out of my skin at alarming rates.
To be creative is fun yet can also be difficult. The generation of ideas like a firehose streaming indefinitely can feel suffocating. I hear about writer's block and I think I might have the opposite - ideation overstimulation. (I made that up by the way, it's not an official thing).
When artists and writers, speak about fear of their wells running dry I gaze at them in interest as I cannot relate or comprehend a time when my ideas did not feel overwhelmingly abundant.
It can feel like the bottom of the ball pit at a birthday party. Or like a walk through an episode of hoarders.
Sometimes it feels like a tidy historic library, but that's rare.
If I am a sliver of a tiny cooked carrot, the ideas are the chicken noodle soup and all of the companion ingredients in the largest of crockpots surrounding me in a warm, watery way.
With so many sparks and loose ends, it's dizzying to see straight. It's hard to think.
If you relate, perhaps you've wondered if this was anxiety coming to visit. Or another guest arriving just in time to sever your concentration.
Pema Chodron reminds us that our crazy and awesome are all mixed into the same bowl. Remove what you think does not belong and there goes the richness and uniqueness, the youness that could not be replicated.
As much as I despair all these ideas in my hair, we find a way to coexist. Sometimes if I repeat the word focus to myself as a mantra, they take a small vacation.
Ideation overstimulation is a paradoxical trait as it seems helpful in this modern world of content creation but too much of a good thing can also show up in damaging ways.
Daily, I try to find ways to move these ideas towards constructive avenues, training them, grooming them, inviting them, tricking them to go THIS WAY or THAT WAY! Maybe I'll hold up my arm and say, "NO," or, "NOT TODAY you sticky spark of an idea," and then I look in my armpit and it GOT ME AGAIN!
Like all things, work with what you got. I've got ideation overstimulation so I'll continue to sprinkle my ideas here and there.