Breathing, sweating, floating

Whenever I hit a roadblock in writing, it’s usually because I’m over-intellectualising the whole thing. My remedy? Stripping it all away, until just five elements remain: touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell.

Because at the core of every human experience are the five senses: the five tools through which we interact with life.

Let’s use a trip to the beach as practice, and let everything go, leaving only simple words and feelings:

Then, I build upon these sensory feelings into emotional ones:

From this exercise, I’ve uncovered a strong desire to escape stress, to return to nature. To be reduced to a sensory being, floating in water, the world’s most vital and most powerful force.

And how true is this feeling, for so many people? People book flights just to chase this sensation.

So I bottle that and use it as my fuel to write. 

I hope you enjoyed this sensory exercise and that you try it for yourself the next time you feel stuck. Let me know how it goes!