All the things I mentioned help in small ways, Im neuro diverse and I struggle lots with inertia and focus, I tend to get super bogged down in details and lose sight of the bigger picture lots, I used to get really really pissy if I couldn’t spend time with my music and other pass times, properly obsessive about it, but then I had a big life change which helped me re evaluate what’s important to me, sure it’s important to make the effort to be creative if you are a creative person but often times stepping away from that can be beneficial to the process you’re struggling with, my biggest inspirations are my kids right now, and I really like baking, now my daughter and son are old enough to take part it’s a collaborative effort, same with Lego, and painting or drawing, we create something together and thats a great feeling, when I feel good I know I’m more likely to carry that into a couple of hours making some tunes…
Sounds like you’ve got a good trajectory.
Nothing comes close to creative pursuits in collaboration with one’s kids (on their terms)…!
This is a big part of it for me too - the current climate is exhausting, by design. And I’m similarly torn on how to deal with it.
I feel you on this one. I come from a visual art background and music doesn’t come to me naturally; which I think is part of the draw, more often than not my expectations are pretty low and my ignorance helps me continue having fun with it. But at the same time, I’ve also experienced it becoming less squishy by practicing more theory.
Still, I’ve kind of been in a rut for the past two years as well. Like @Octagonist, I started spending more time here again a few months ago and you’ve all definitely inspired me to get moving again.
I think the best methods I’ve found for dealing with creative ruts are to read a lot, do some writing where you try to make connections with what you’re reading and your creative goals or previous output, spend time outside, and find a community. The last point being in my experience the most productive.
Very true, my lads really into bass music right now, I put launchpad on his iPad a couple of months back and he loves it, sits there nodding his head looking back and forth to me pulling the stank face when the bass hits just right 
Yeah, big time but not music. Life’s been fucking brutal. I wish I had some great advice like all the folks above, all I can say is it’s good your open about it. Most people lie to themselves, myself included, doesn’t help anything and makes it worse!
Hope you find some peace and growth out of your current situation and wish you the best of luck!
recommendation that works for me: pick one news source (i follow Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan, ideally not a daily news source) and ignore everything else. the truly important stuff will get to you, the rest of the noise should be ignored imo
Yup, I got in a bad habit of scrolling Reddit for news for a while there, but I’ve been taking a break from it and it’s been a nice mental reprieve. Now I just let my partner watch PBS Newshour and give me the highlights.
Dude, don’t watch any of it! Life’s way better without all that outside noise! Turn it all off! It’s all negative until the last 30 seconds where they show a squirrel water skiing!
I feel like this a lot of the time. There are a few years where I didn’t do any music. Then others where almost every day (usually first thing in the morning).
I feel like I might be in this rut at the moment myself. As strange as it sounds, I’ve realized the only way I can move forward is to force myself to start, even when I don’t feel like it. Once I get into the music making I start to enjoy it and can get into the flow. The starting is often the hard part, and I just have to remind myself that once I do start it will get better. Not sure how helpful this piece of advice really is!
Speaking of flow…
That’s an interesting thought. Something I’ve struggled with as well. I can tell if a picture I’ve drawn is “good” and “finished”. I pretty much never know if a song I’ve made is finished or any good. I just put it out there anyways and hope for the best, haha.
Drawing feels like I’m doing something in a brightly lit room in the daytime. Music feels like I’m shooting in the dark around 3:00 AM. Both have pros and cons.
Hope you find your way back. Don’t stress. Give it time.
I once had a poetry teacher who said “the hardest part of being a writer is getting the seat of your pants into the seat of your chair.”
I think about that a lot.
that has been my approach for most of my life, then a dude from seattle started blowing up and doing human focused, on the ground reporting and i feel like that is enough for me. he keeps it humorous too, gotta laugh through the pain
Let the information/action ratio be your guide.