How to Overcome Mental Blocks

Have you ever felt like you couldn’t focus, no matter how hard you tried? Maybe you’re in the middle creating a masterpiece and can’t summon the energy to move forward. The good news is there’s nothing wrong with you. What you’re going through is a mental block, and it happens to all of us from time to time. So let’s learn more about mental blocks, their cases, and how we can overcome them.

What are Mental Blocks?

Mental blocks are a psychological obstacle that prevents you from performing the task necessary to achieve your goals. They can make it hard to concentrate, think clearly, and result in a lack of drive. Which can derail your productivity, and lower your overall satisfaction with life.

Causes of Mental Blocks

They’re different underlying factors that contribute to mental blocks. One of them is how we choose to focus on tasks. For example, if you have a big speech coming up you may choose to focus on your speech right before practicing. And as a result aspects of your speech become overthought, forced, and unnatural. Another cause of mental blocks is self-doubt or a lack of self-confidence. Challenging tasks are often seen as a threat instead of a challenge. They bring to mind your lack of ability and cause a negative perception of yourself, which creates a greater chance of avoiding the challenge altogether.

How to Overcome Them

You don’t have to let mental blocks stand in the way of your goals. Take back the power and diminish mental blocks that slow you down. So let’s take a look at how you can overcome these blocks.

Acknowledge & Identify

Recognizing that you’ve hit a mental block is the first step to overcoming it. In the acknowledgment process, it’s important to recognize the problem as mental and not physical. The truth is you’re are skilled and capable, but your personality and values may be getting in the way. Break down the possible reasons as to what has caused your mental block. Here’s a shortlist of some of the most common types of mental blocks.

• Self-doubt: never feeling qualified
• Indecision: having to use every decision or you’ll feel
• Fixed Mindset: limited by your past self
• Comparison: comparing yourself to others
• Uncertainty: not know what you want
• No Limits: Thinking you can do everything
• Tunnel Vision: you can’t see past the boundaries you’ve set for yourself

Find the Source

Sometimes the blocks you’ve created in your mind have been there for a long time. Often mental blocks can grow from past experiences or comments that were seemingly harmless. We take messages and experiences in, misunderstand them, add other experiences, and mash them into a mental mess. To remove the mental blocks we’ve created record your inner monologues. Look for repetitive phrases and patterns. Ask yourself “where is this coming from?” and “where did I first hear this?’. Think about what they mean and look for evidence to support these claims.

Reduce their Power

Hitting a block can hurt your creativity or get in the way of you achieving your goals. Despite that mental blocks aren’t all bad. Their tendency toward uncertainty may cause you to hesitate, but it can also be useful. Uncertainty causes you to pause, evaluate your options, and improve your strategies. Which can serve the creative process and help you avoid burnout. The key is to use them to your benefit and not let them control you. Here are some ways to reduce the power of mental blocks.

Look at the risk

Fear plays a role in our mental blocks. We’re afraid of failure and the negative results that can with it. Take the time to look at the risks and evaluate how to handle them without letting fear take over.

Press Pause 

When that negative internal monologue pops up, press pause and get back to it later. Write down your hesitation, continue with the task, and return to it later. So that you can learn to trust yourself.

Don’t let mental blocks get you down. Remember to take care of yourself and make your mental health a priority to get through those tough times when you’re feeling blocked. What are some things you do to get over a block?

Related post: How to Combat Burnout

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