Creativity block: How I'm dealing with it...

Whoever stole my creativity, can I have it back please?!

Over the last two weeks I have been having the most ridiculous creativity block; I have written and deleted four blog posts this week, I just found them so boring and uninspiring when I read them back.

I decided it was time to get back into a creative flow and allow my imagination to take over; if you are in the same boat then here's my top tips for you to revive your mind:

Tip number one: Read!

For me as a writer, reading is such an important aspect of my life and it's where I take a lot of my inspiration from. Over the past few months, I attempted to read various books about people's lives for example: Stevie Nicks, Morrissey, Ric O'Barry, but I realised that I had been reading these books for months and hadn't finished them. This was when I decided to ditch the biographies and dive head first into some fiction. What I needed was to read something that would take my mind away from the real world and spark up my imagination. I am currently reading Submarine; I love the film so thought that I would enjoy the book and I'm just over half way in a couple of days!

Tip number two: Watch!

Watch films. If it's something that you have already seen, it doesn't matter. I recently started watching the Twilight saga again and I absolutely love it (no shame!). I have noticed new things in the saga and similarly to reading, films take me away into a different world. Watching Twilight again has revived my love for vampires and has inspired me to possibly start writing a vampy novel.



Tip number three: Listen!

The majority of famous writers, artists, film producers or just any creative people will tell you how much they love music and how it can inspire. Listen to music that you haven't heard in a long time, find new music to listen to, dig out that album that you used to listen to on repeat; you never know what might come from it.

Tip number four: Get up!

The first three are probably quite cliché however, this tip sometimes helps me more than anything. Get up early and get on with it. Lazing around only results in putting off work and then you are not in the right mindset. To be creative, your heart has to be in it and if you are constantly saying 'I'll do it in a bit' or 'Just one more episode' then your heart is clearly not in it, meaning you wont enjoy it and there will be no creativity.

Tip number five: Put your phone down!

This again is something that people are constantly saying but it's true. Not only is your phone a huge distraction, it is also feeding your brain ideas that are not your own. Some people might say that they use the internet to gain inspiration however, whilst on social media, you are constantly seeing what others are doing and comparing yourself to them; forget about other people and trust in yourself. Believe that you can produce something equally great, if not even greater.

Tip number six: Ditch technology.

Now I don't mean all technology, obviously if you are a photographer then you will need a camera, but ditch the laptop for a bit, don't edit your photos; look at them as good photographs without editing and attempt to improve your photography without computer software. This can be especially important for writers, ditch the laptop and use a pen and paper. You can doodle or just write little notes down; carry a notebook with you and jot things down to refer to later.

This may have been helpful to you or just a bunch of ramblings, either way, I feel like these things are helping break down the block in my brain.

Remember you can subscribe to my YouTube to also keep up with what I'm doing: BexBoolie Youtube

Or on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bexboolie

BB

For The Oceans

Do what makes you happy//A ramble from Boolie

Hello everyone! So I was going to do a post on National Vegetarian Week however, I've already done a video on it (you can find my YouTube link on my blog), so I decided to ramble for a bit.

When I was 17 I moved to London from Cornwall which was a really big, scary move for me to make; I left my family behind and got a full time job at Boots in Farringdon. When my parents eventually moved to Chelmsford, Essex, I moved back in with them and after deciding that I couldn't see myself at Boots in 10 years, I left and started an apprenticeship at Essex County Council.

Going to apprenticeship after full time work obviously meant I wasn't earning half the amount but I thought it might be a good idea to gain some qualifications whilst working in an office environment. After about 9 months at the council I was so unbelievably bored. I had moved departments to try and inject a bit of excitement into my role but I was at the point where no matter where I was working in the office, I was not cut out for office work. That area of work seemed far too dull for me, I know that plenty of people enjoy that line of work, but I just needed a bit more colour in my career path.

I have always loved and had a passion for writing and after being given the opportunity to go to London Fashion Week (Thanks Ozzy x) I decided to pursue a career in Journalism. Seeing all the bloggers and writers at LFW really opened my eyes to a more exciting lifestyle and I thought 'I want a piece of that!'. I left the council and enrolled on a Journalism Diploma course at uni.

I am very close to completing that course and have also managed to bag myself a part-time job at Lush; over the past few years I have become more and more passionate about animal rights as you all well know and I feel that being a part of Lush is such an excellent way to have an ethical job that involves animal rights as well as amazing, innovative products.

I am now in a strange position where I am so happy where I am at Lush that I have no intention of leaving the company. I know that perhaps people close to me may feel that I need a bit more direction in my career or a more stable job but I have come to a point in my life where I am determined to do what makes me happy. Obviously, I would never make any decisions to purposely hurt or upset anyone but if having a stable, high paid job means that I will be miserable then I will not be doing that!

Happiness is such an important thing; no one likes to disappoint their family but you have no idea what's around the next corner and where you may end up if you choose the unpopular option.

An example of this would be my brother. I never thought I would say this but I find him such an inspiration. My brother has made some decisions in his life that our parents may not have agreed with however, he is now living his dream, touring the world with his band and making enough money from doing what he loves that he can maintain a stable life in Brighton.

My next steps are a bit hazy at the moment but I hope it involves travelling a bit and eventually ending up in Brighton. I would love to stay with Lush and continue with my blog and YouTube videos alongside it. We shall see!

BB

For The Oceans

VEGAN FOR GOOD

I have been vegan for almost a year now and I feel that it is time to explain my choices and my journey.

Enjoying vegan lemon sorbet at the beach

So my journey started back in 1994, when I was born. My parents were already vegetarians when I came into this world and they decided that, like my brother, they would raise me vegetarian. When I reached an age where I had a vague idea of what meat was and where it came from, my parents gave me the choice as to whether I wanted to try meat and I just couldn't understand why I would want to eat meat. At the time, I wanted to be a vet and save animals, I had no desire to ever eat an animal.

I have always loved animals and being around them, and I don't just mean your typical child who loves puppies and kittens. If you asked me at the age of 10 what my favourite animal was, I would reply with 'sharks' and would then go into detail about different types of sharks and their attributes; I was especially fascinated with hammerheads and tiger sharks.

As I grew up I continued to love animals and tried to support animal rights charities; this became a lot easier when I was in my teens and was able to use social media to raise awareness of animal cruelty.

When I was about 15, I was living in Cornwall and wanted to be the outcast of Bude (this tiny town where I lived), I met Nina, who very quickly became my best friend. We were two angsty, scene girls (and yes we were scene and VERY proud teehee) who stood out like sore thumbs in a town made up of surfers and 'normatrons'. It was amazing to meet someone who had quite radical beliefs and was just as opinionated as myself. Being a little scene kid I was obsessed with Bring Me The Horizon at the time and followed them all on various different social network sights; this was when I discovered that Jona Weinhofen, the band's guitarist, was a vegan. Jona had shared a video on Twitter and the footage showed what happened to chicks that are born to lay eggs and I was especially horrified to see that the male chicks were thrown, still alive, into a grinder. I then investigated into how dairy cows are kept and how they produce milk which again, was horrifying. I felt so naive; I couldn't believe that there were even more dark secrets to be uncovered about the food industry and the way it used animals. I immediately told my parents that I wanted to go vegan and they were surprisingly supportive. My best friend Nina also followed in my footsteps which gave people something else to taunt us about, not that it bothered us! 

I lasted as a vegan in Cornwall for 6 months; Nina had given up veganism and it was so hard to find any good food as we lived in a farming town which often held meat markets. There were no Holland and Barretts' and the local health food shop was so over-priced. I eventually had to give up being vegan but this led to a guilt that I didn't shift for a very long time. 

Sheep are friends not food or clothing

Up until last year I continued being vegetarian until once again, I came to the decision that I was going to attempt being vegan again. There was no specific moment where a lightbulb went off or anything like that, I was just being eaten up with guilt and although I knew that by being vegetarian I was doing something, it wasn't quite enough. 

By this point I was living in Essex and I have found vegan food much more accessible and half the price. I have met like minded people who have helped me along the way and have discovered that there is such a welcoming vegan/animal rights community in the Essex/London area; people have been a lot more supportive this time around. 

I have rambled on for quite a while so I will finish it up but, I feel so lucky now to be surrounded by people who are supportive of my decisions and are open to trying things themselves. Since turning vegan last year, I have known 8 people around me to also turn vegan which I think is so incredible. I don't think I could ever go back to being vegetarian; once you immerse yourself into the vegan world, you learn so much which makes it almost impossible to look at things the way you used to. I no longer look at a block of cheese or a pint of milk as food or drink, I now look at it as animal exploitation. 

I am determined to continue to fight for the rights of these animals and I will strive to be a voice for them.

If you are reading this and are not vegan or vegetarian, I just hope that you can come away from this with understanding; it is not impossible to be vegan. We are so lucky in this modern day to have plant based replacements for almost everything and it does taste good! I discovered the other day that after being vegetarian for 20 years, I have saved 4,040 animals, so who knows how many more I have saved by being vegan! 

I would love to hear your thoughts or journeys in the comments box!

 BB

For The Oceans