Writers block is exactly that. An internal block. In this article I discuss how I had writers block and what I did to overcome it.

Stuck and in a slump. That’s how I found myself for the few months before I was able to overcome writers block. What is writers block? Its usually only ever seen as a period where you have run out of ideas or when writers are empty. Often times writers take forever to return or worse, spend their time writing things which aren’t authentic.

I had writers block after I completed my internship. At the time I was figuiring out how I would market my brand but my actual writing slowed down. It wasn’t that I wasn’t publishing poems (I was) it was just that it wasn’t at the speed and rate that I was doing it previously.

My life as a poet slowed down. I was writing less and I wasn’t living as a poet. I was troubled by what was going on in the world and my mind began to process what happened to me in the past. For some reason I spent a lot of time listening to my ego.

I was more interested in external events in the world rather than on how I felt inside. That stopped me from writing. These processes were happening within me too quickly and I stayed like this for many many months. Perhaps 5 months. Or more.

Eventually I missed my old life as a poet. My life from last year. I realised that a writers block was precisely that, a block but an internal block. I realised that the reason why it happened was because I finally hit a crossroad. An internal crossroad. Was I willing to change based on all the lessons I learnt, the experiences I had (as an international student studying abroad) the poetry I read or was I going to try and remain nostalgic by clinging onto who I was in the past.

I decided to change. I looked within and realised that I felt peace and calm.I was no longer broken, angry, confused or sad. I was wiser. I had just turned 24 and I felt like a man. I understood the world around me – at least a heck of a lot better than I did at 18.

I looked within and I saw that I most wanted was to love myself now. You can’t love others if you can’t love yourself and you certainly can’t love and change the world. I was confused with my own thought patterns. I wanted love and yet I wasn’t giving myself permission to love myself. Strange.

After I did that I purchased things I’ve liked since I was a kid like new hats, bottles and beach sandles. Somehow, I understood the mystical poetry of the poets I read a year prior. I understood that poetry is when the soul is dancing. Poets were dancers in their own way. Soul dancers.

This time when I read them, I understood each line. I was no longer rushing through lines I slowed down and nejoyed each word. I was moving camly and slowy. At night, my own soul began dancing and I began outpouring my words.

I had gotten over my writers block. I was a poet once again. This time, changed forever.