Opening the Creative Channel — Bloom Within
Bloom Within · July
Opening the Creative Channel
For when you feel creativity blocked and the blank page or empty space is starting to feel like a verdict.
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8 min ✦ Energizing ✦ Creativity & Innovation
July has a particular creative energy — long light, slower pace, the year at its most open. Some of the best ideas arrive in summer not because we're trying harder but because we're gripping less. This practice formalizes that loosening, giving the creative mind explicit permission to lead.
Before you begin:
Close whatever you were trying to create. Seriously — close the document, put down the sketchbook, step away from the project. Coming to this practice while still staring at the blank page defeats the purpose. You need to stop trying before the practice can work.
Follow along
The practice
Opening the Creative Channel
Creativity doesn't come from effort — it comes from openness. The blank page feels scary because we're approaching it with our critical mind leading. This practice switches the lead.
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Stop trying to think of something
Seriously. Close the tab, put down the pen. For the next 5 minutes, you are not trying to create anything.
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Alternate nostril breathing
Close your right nostril with your thumb. Inhale left for 4. Close left with ring finger, release right, exhale right for 4. Inhale right for 4. Switch. Repeat 5 times. This balances both hemispheres of the brain.
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Let the mind wander
After the alternate nostril rounds, just breathe normally and let your mind go wherever it wants. Don't follow or direct. Just observe. This is the fertile state.
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Notice what surfaces
Something usually arrives in these unguarded moments — an image, a phrase, a question. Don't grab it. Just let it be there.
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Capture without censoring
Pick up the pen now. Write or sketch whatever arrived without editing it. The first draft of anything is just a conversation with yourself.
When else to use this: Any time you're trying to create something and the critical mind is leading. Before you sit down to write, paint, design, cook something new, or even plan something that requires imagination. Also useful before a brainstorming session at work — the alternate nostril rounds create the conditions for associative thinking that forced ideation rarely does.
You are not blocked. You are full. Let something out without judging it.
Pay attention to what you feel.
Come back to what matters.
Bloom in your own season.
A deep breath in a beautiful life.
Talk soon.
— Britt
