For the last six months I haven’t written anything.

How come?

Well, in beginning of the year, I changed job and separated from a long-term relationship. I moved out of my comfort zone and into unknown territories. I walked where I haven’t walked before. The landscape and environment remained familiar but the roads were new. During this thrilling, terrifying, exciting and nerve-wrecking journey I haven’t read any thought-provoking books nor have l listened to any mind-blowing podcasts or engaged in heated debates about inequality and injustice (as I used to). Up until now have mainly blogged about issues such as technology, equality or feminism, so I simply no longer knew what to write about. I was blocked.

Yet, I love writing and always have. So I figured the best way to get out of my writer’s block was to sit down at the keyboard and type again. While I written since I learned how-to; going from my paperback diary and handwritten letters, to writing online (for anyone and nobody) was a pretty big leap.

My first step I took in 2014, when opening my Twitter account. Anxiously, I asked myself what I had to say in public, on 140 characters, for anyone to read. By now, I have shared almost 3000 tweets and I some people obviously seems to think its worth following me.

In 2015 I took the courage to take another step and start blogging. Three years later, I still hesitate every time I finish a blog post, ending up asking for a second opinion to reassure myself that what I have written is really something anyone would be interested in reading.

A year ago, I took yet another step, but this time to set up my Instagram account. Compared to Twitter and my blog I don’t use it for professional reasons. On the contrary, it serve a similar purpose as my scrap-books I used to keep to collect sentiments such as ripped-out magazine pages featuring images that I found beautiful, quotes I’ve read or tickets from memorable concerts or plays I went to. On Instagram I capture memories and some of those unexpected moments and details that makes me smile, catch me by surprise or simply triggers feelings.

On second thought, my first step I actually took already more than ten years ago when I opened my Facebook account. Although, back then it was a page I shared with a couple of close friends, writing uninteresting updates about my days and sharing photos from my holidays. Today, I have almost 800 so called “FB friends”, which are a undefined mix between former colleagues, childhood mates and acquaintances. What used to be a fairly private forum is now a rather public space where I think twice before posting anything.

Today, mid-2018, I am getting familiar with strolling around unknown territories – offline as well as online – and curiosuly I’m asking myself, what will be my next step? What will I write about?

Before ending, thank you to Manoush – you were right, one need to disconnect from tech, space out and becoming bored to “unlock your most productive and creative self”. Secondly, thank you to the special someone that help(ed) me ‘space out’, by introducing me to music. Instead of (over-) consuming on news and politics, I have last couple of months, for a short while each day, been tuning into different songs, allowing my mind to wander off and come back refreshed and with new ideas. 

Oh, and for more about writer’s block, check out this great post “This Four Letter Word Keeps You from Writing“.

I hope to be back soon.

@aryngbeck