Feeling stuck? Write a poem

Here's a short essay on it I wrote a long time ago.

I would rewrite a lot of this now for general quality, but I think my thesis is sound:

https://albertstimson.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/why-poetry/

Of note: this takes a fairly strict definition of what poetry even is, and I would argue that a lot of things that superficially look like poems don't accomplish any of what makes a poem be worthwhile as something different from prose.

Going for a walk or a bike ride or something that's not so intense you can't let your mind wander is also a great way to get 'unstuck'.

I love poetry, but think this advice is slightly off. A better way to get un-stuck is free-writing. Just write whatever comes to mind without stopping. If you hesitate, just write "I don't know what to write" - anything to keep writing.

If you can sustain this for twenty minutes, you are now immune to writer's block. You know you can always write. This shifts the question to what to write. You find you can sculpt these chains of drivel. Eventually you start to generate real ideas again.

Even if you never use the things you write in this way, it can be hugely freeing to the mind as you set aside the other things that were distracting you by putting them onto the page and are then clear to focus again on the problem at hand.

This comes from the Artist's Way, which advocates doing this daily as the primary activity of the book / workshop.

Agreed. For more modern ones, Dessa and Kate Tempest are also really great.

I would even shorten the imperative and say: “Feeling stuck? Write”

Writing is amazing, and one of the best changes in my life was introduced by systematically writing things down that I did, experienced, felt. This can be a poem, a two page essay, a letter never meant to be sent, a simple protocol of the things I did, a word, a drawing whatever.

Important is that it has to do with the mood and what you did.

This especially helped me when I went through a hard time and started to think more and more negatively about certain things that happened, because I could go back and get an instant reminder about the whole depth and nuance of these situations rather than negatively or positively mutating their memory based on mood alone.

In a way, writing can help you become really really honest with yourself and stops you from buying into your own hype (as long as you write to yourself and not to others).