Shut off your internal dialogue forgetting about all your heroes.
Get up early enough in the morning so that your dreams still simmer somewhere in your consciousness.
Spend some time listening to the sounds around you (except radio or music), noting all the colors the day offers you in gratitude.
Eat only brown rice with seaweed, mangoes, and almonds (some poets prefer sardines).
Buy a 1/5 of Courvoisier to break any glass wall forming around yr mind.
Stay away from banks, credit cards, and your wallet.
Purchase a train ticket to Mexico, minimum 500 miles south of the border. Or Canada, north 100 miles.
Disconnect your phone.
Turn off the circuit breaker and work by a blue candlelight.
Begin by writing whatever images, smells, sounds, etc. that come to mind in a black and white notebook; scribble as fast as you can, imagining yourself on that train to Mexico, digging the scenes presented as you inevitably fly by.
Never go back anywhere anytime (traintracks go one way) as you write.
No crossing out (you may run out of ink and definitely impedes right brain function).
No thinking (here’s where the Courvoisier will help).
Loosen any belts or headbands you’re wearing.
And if none of this works, turn on a baseball game.
2008