creative -- anxiety?

This morning on the snowy (?) drive down from Nederland, I listened to a great interview that Alison of Craftcast did with Eric Maisel, a creativity coach and author of Mastering Creative Anxiety.




I had many, many takeaways. Here are a few:

• Making a choice induces anxiety. Any choice - even a tiny choice. Creativity is all about making one choice after the next, go figure! This is why there is so much ambient anxiety associated with the creative process.
• Having our ego bruised is the thing we like the least - it brings on dread. This is really hard to talk ourselves down from. The solution is to take away the importance of each individual decision. 
• The truth of the creative process is that some things don't work. We get it intellectually, but we don't want to believe it applies to the thing in front of us. 
• It's helpful to use cognitive behavioral techniques. 

1. Recognize what you say to yourself. 
2. Dispute utterances that don't serve you.
3. Substitute affirmative language. Get better at saying kind things to yourself. (I am safe.)

• Excitement can be mistaken as anxiety. Be mindful!
• In the trance of the creative process, there is no anxiety. If you are having trouble cracking through on a daily basis, try this. Crack an egg into a bowl. It helps you crack through. Often this allows you to start. If you pop out of the creative trance, try stirring the egg in the bowl to calm yourself down so you may return to work. 
• Develop a discipline of showing up and not becoming attached to the outcome.
• Eric encourages a morning practice for creativity because . . .

1. You get stuff done. 
2. You can use your REM sleep thinking.
3. You will have the experience of having made some meaning already. Even if the rest of the day is unproductive, you have already built up some "meaning capital."

• When you set up this habit, it sets up our brains to "want" to be working on our project every day.
• When anxiety strikes: In addition to the cognitive techniques, try deep breathing, preparation, re-orienting, silent screaming, relaxation techniques. (There are a bunch more in the book.)
• As a creative person, make sure you "own" at least three techniques/strategies to deal with anxiety.

I am one who flees when I begin to feel some anxiety. I usually call it "taking a break." Perhaps next time, I will be able to take some deep breaths and keep going. I will let you know.

What do you do when you feel that anxiety building?