Why Am I Avoiding What I Love Doing?
Because your nervous system thinks what you're doing is harmful
This kind of procrastination may be one of the most frustrating parts of the change and personal growth process. There are things we love to do, but then we stop doing them. We feel the desire but don’t take the action.
Exercise makes us happy, so rather than do more, we do less. Writing fills us with inspiration, but we choose closet organization instead. We love to paint but then get stuck on dragging out the supplies.
We feel like losers who can’t get our shit together, but deep down, this is a physical thing.
I’ll use writing as an example because I have heard this plenty. There are also about a billion books on writer’s block or avoiding writing out there but those books won’t help much because this isn’t mental.
When you write every day, you may notice a sense of expansion and freedom coming over you here and there. It may feel like you drank a pot of coffee, like you need to jump up and run around the block as inspiration pours through you. When that happens, what’s happening?
Steven Pressfield calls it the Muse. Druids call it the Awen—inspiration, a flow of creative energy. Some may call it the Quantum Field or simply entering a flow state. I call it creative lifeforce energy. So, how do we access it on purpose?
By showing up every single day.
By setting the intention to connect and enter the stream.
By writing something - anything.
You can even write or say out loud, “It’s my intention to tap into creative lifeforce energy today.” Plunk yourself down and start writing.
It matters a lot less what you write and that you DO write daily. When you show up consistently, the doorways between states of consciousness start to swing open faster and more easily. What’s after that?
After that is firmly established, you can directly shift your consciousness into connection with creative lifeforce energy. At the airport. At your desk. Sitting in traffic. You can do it anytime because, by now, you’ve earned the key.
But here’s where it all falls apart…
In the beginning, your nervous system is not AT ALL down with the physical sensations this energy brings with it. In your body’s view - you just stuck a fork in a wall socket, which could kill you. To keep you safe, you may find yourself avoiding writing.
If writing floods you with creative life-force energy and stimulates your nervous system in ways you’re not used to, you’re going to stop writing or whatever activity is connecting you to the flow. Not because you’re some kind of idiot but because your nervous system is smart af and will not allow you to keep sticking a fork in a wall socket.
When you understand how normal this is, you can gently guide yourself to take action, knowing it will be uncomfortable, stretch your Happiness Threshold, and make you want to quit. Yet when you keep showing up, it becomes your new normal.
There will come a time when you can’t imagine not doing the thing that connects you instantly to flow states. Try it and see!
XO,
LMW
P.S. This process is what I teach in Train Your Body to Write, and it’s open for enrollment until Aug 15, 2024